Today’s Taoist Question with a Zen Twist
Is it ok to just go with the flow?
Am I giving myself more work or a hard time by picking a concrete direction in order to make life a little more digestible?
All Questions
- A Taoist View of Afterlife.
- An Overview of Enlightenment.
- Dealing with crisis
- How can I find inner peace?
- How do you balance non action and action?
- How does one keep up an energetic practice in Taoism?
- How should I resolve anger
- How To Resolve Fear?
- Taoism FAQ - Help Me Write About Taoism
- Taoist perspective on failure
- What is Taoism’s view on homosexuality?
- What is the Third Eye?
- What is Yin Yang?
- What to look for in a Spiritual Guide?
- Working with Flow
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Go With the Flow
To go with the flow can make things easier, especially in the short term. However, for the long-term sometimes “go with the flow” choices may not get a person to higher points of their life, which require extra work/awareness to achieve. Yes, at times a person might want to climb a mountain or have to swim upstream against some flows. Of course, there are also times we have to move crosswise to rip tides to survive and thrive in your nature.
In other words: there isn’t a single flow around us, but many different currents and possibilities to follow.
Which one is best? No one is best, they are all different and offer various options in life. Understand certain paths are more “Graceful“.
At times we do make hard choices to go counter to the flow of life around us.
In this, it’s important to trust your inner instincts to differentiate between following your flow compared to the flows around your life. In Taoism, we teach a person how to refine the ability called the “third eye“. The third eye represents the ability to sense and feel potential around you. Awareness of potentials allows a person to more clearly sort out which flows can assist your life to become more graceful and which currents sweep you away from your essence.
Choosing direction in life is more of an art than a science. When people make choosing life paths a science, they make life predictable and repeatable. Flow often means following examples of others as guides. Yet following others is disadvantageous as it promotes living the same old life, without freshness. However, society pushes people down predictable paths, as a predictable way reinforces the repeatable patterns that support society itself.
The real choice becomes: Are you making life… your own?
Many people just stay down a comfortable course to reduce conflict. If you go with the social flow, you also reduce the social conflict you will encounter. However, this often increases the inner conflict a person feels by going further away from their center. Likewise, to become your own person entirely increases the chances of facing social conflict against others who want to shape your life to make their life more comfortable.
Going with the flow is a deep part of Taoism. A Taoist moves with the flow using a deep awareness of all the flows around us.
You have many choices on which flow to work with in life.
A Taoist won’t hesitate to follow a graceful path even if it’s harder or longer path. Our choices are those that fully expand a life, as our own story. Understand there isn’t a single path that defines us perfectly, more to say, we always go with the flow that allows us to live completely.
Now the Zen Twist
In Zen, the twist is this: you always flow to release.
In Zen practice this means, you work with the flows which are a step under the flows around you.
Ultimately, flowing in a manner that releases all flows.
All Questions Answered
- A Taoist View of Afterlife.
- An Overview of Enlightenment.
- Dealing with crisis
- How can I find inner peace?
- How do you balance non action and action?
- How does one keep up an energetic practice in Taoism?
- How should I resolve anger
- How To Resolve Fear?
- Taoism FAQ - Help Me Write About Taoism
- Taoist perspective on failure
- What is Taoism’s view on homosexuality?
- What is the Third Eye?
- What is Yin Yang?
- What to look for in a Spiritual Guide?
- Working with Flow
Taoism Articles
- A Taoist View of Afterlife.
- All About Daoism - Part 2
- All About Taoism - Part 1
- Ask Questions
- Becoming a Taoist
- Being Human
- Daoism vs Taoism
- De & Virtue: Strength of Character
- Detachment
- Discovering Acceptance
- Finding Answers in Life.
- Finding Freedom
- How to live in chaotic times.
- Illuminating the Empty Space.
- Kindness and Morality - Part 2
- Kindness Part 1
- Materialism and Taoism
- Path of Enlightenment
- Patience
- Purpose of Life
- Releasing Judgement
- Secrets of Taoism Longevity
- Social Change Through Lifestyle.
- Soul and Consciousness
- Spirtual Paths – Finding Your Spiritual Path.
- Stories – Our Human Essence
- Tao Talk
- Taoism and Modern Politics.
- Taoist Morning Meditation
- Taoist Resources
- Taoist Retreat
- The Nature of Truth.
- Truth
- What is Fair?
- What is Grace
- What is Yin Yang?
- Ziran – A review of being just so…
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13 Comments on "Going with the Flow – Taoist and Zen Approaches"
Surrender is the easiest way to achieve Tao. When the ego drops another dimension rises that offers a deeper sense of peace and connection: to die and be reborn opens the self to an expansive sense of love and unity. Our bodies house a soul or life force that remains or returns to source when we die to generate life for someone or something else. An individual is a blink in eternity and yet part of the whole process of life.
@Chris: Different people have different easiest paths. Some people need to work at release, other like yourself may surrender, others yet may dive into the process with intentions, some may simply walk away. Don’t judge length of time, effort or other milestones, best nor worse. For each person, they have their path and the style of approach is likewise theirs to hold true to.
Likewise destination is very personal. Tao is neither proscribed nor fixed. Even the part where one attains the expansive sense of love and unity is a stepping stone in the path of Tao.
@Christina: Yes that is true. Many people do not question the stories they have been given as they grow up. Yet once a person does begin to examine the layers of stories in their life, it becomes clear many of the burdens of life they carry are not stories that started off as their own.
There’s so much social engineering in the mass media that is fed to kids at such an early age, that a lot of time is spent trying to figure out the “I” underneath the social engineered “I”.
Fantastic blog, thank you.
Isnt the flow sometimes confused by comformity, egoism? Where is hidden behind the excuse for not “doing” things? If it doesnt “feel”, or it doesnt “flow” then i dont do it, i dont fight, i dont work at it? I think that following the flow can be misunderstood as avoiding conflict, and go where it flows without purpose or effort to achieve a higher purpose or doing any effort? Isnt it subject to be interpreted as a very selfish and lack of effort, lack of drive and purpose?
John: It is all a question of perspective. At times you look ahead to a longer term flow and you push a bit or work a bit harder in order to make it happen.
There isn’t a single master flow to relax into! Our nature means we swim in out of countless currents and options of flow also.
So when having a question about which flow out of several is best: Well that means to work with your essence and learning how to relax into the flow which in your opinion is the most graceful.
🙂
Casey,
How do you get people to open there third eyes? I see words created as tools to use like weapons. I see this whole division between political parties being pit against one another and see it as ridiculous. They don’t often realize how the elites create words to socially engineer society. The words are like a distraction to pit one group against another and not focus on the real problem.
Take Care,
This fundamental tenet of Taoism can be challenging to explain and yet you’ve done it so easily. Thanks.:)