The difference between coming to rest in life and stagnation. Very different dynamics. We often feel that anything in life must be our decision. That we have to be in control. So we often set rhythms in our life that actually raise our general stress level. We think we either have to be driven, or control change, or any of a myriad of preconceptions about how the proper life should be led, and to some degree this can’t be totally avoided. Our society is based on some concepts and to work with others we must give these ideas some place. But there is another way.

The Chinese speak of both a Tao or way of the world and a personal Tao. A natural way of ourselves. Now some people consider that getting your own way is about ego, is selfish. But they are speaking of the way they have built up in their own minds. The set of ideas that they think is the way they are, and the way they should live. They are often their own worst enemy in that regard. They set ideas for themselves that don’t serve themselves even, let alone allow them to move well with the world.

The true personal way we didn’t create. It’s human nature, hunger, emotion. We didn’t choose these and we often criticise them. They clash with our ideas, make us remember that we aren’t “in control.” But it’s the ideas themselves that make us loose control, not our nature. We can make informed choices if we embrace our nature and don’t revile it as selfish or sinful.

In our effort to control life’s progress, we often create a stagnant state. It’s ultimately toxic and we can’t maintain it. We hurt ourselves with it. If the blood itself were to stagnate, what would be the consequence? Life is an energy that doesn’t originate with us, it flows through us. Trying to impose our ideas on the flow in my experience is ultimately harmful.

Now it seems that part of why we create stagnation is that we fear life will run away with us. That we won’t get any say in how it, or we ourselves, change. I think this fear originates largely with a lack of experience. Nothing has taught us how to engage life’s natural flow. We only really know the machine of society that if not checked can grind us into dust. But in fact life does have its own periods of rest and we do sometimes, without meaning to, experience them. Like when time seems to slow when we first fall in love with someone. When we are at peace, perhaps just resting in our garden, or a public park, and for a little while we aren’t worried about anything. Just feeling life. Not trying to impose our will on it. Are these not good moments? They have been some of my best life experiences.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~