“I have just three things to teach:
~ Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
You return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
You accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
You reconcile all beings in the world.”
Beyond the Quote (147/365)
Your first greatest treasure: Simplicity. Simplicity in thought is a sign of mental clarity. Complicated in thought is a sign of confusion. Simplicity in action is a result of simplicity in thought. Complicated actions are a result of confused or unclear thoughts. Albert Einstein was famous for saying, “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.” This is true for all knowledge and insight in life. If you can’t break it down and explain it simply, you don’t fully understand it.
Steve Jobs was notorious for relentlessly pushing simplicity into the designs for Apple products. He commented that, “Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.” And so it is with life too. You have to work hard to keep your thoughts and actions simple. But, simple is the way back to the source of your being. Simple is a sign of clarity. Simple is a sign of understanding. Simple is a sign of profound.
Your second greatest treasure: Patience. Patience isn’t simply your ability to wait—it’s your ability to maintain emotional balance, calm, and contentment while you wait. Waiting is easy when you’re distracted or amongst friends. Waiting is hard when you’re bored and amongst strangers/ enemies. Patience is the realization that each moment we’re given in life is worth being present and grateful for. It’s the realization that, as is evidenced by the way things are in nature, all great things take time. The journey from seed to tree; the journey from baby to adult; the journey from stardust to human—all take their due time.
And so it is with life too. If everything happened instantaneously, there would be no journey. If everything was always superficial and happy, there would be no depth or emotional roots. If we fight against the way things are: sometimes fast and sometimes slow, sometimes high and sometimes low, sometimes great and sometimes poor—with impatience and irritability, we will be up against nature and all that is. Better to slow our role and soak it all in as we go.
Your third greatest treasure: Compassion. And isn’t it interesting that Lao Tzu points out that compassion towards ourselves will allow us to reconcile with all beings in the world. How incredibly profound. For, how can we express love if we don’t have love? How can we live in peace, if we aren’t at peace with ourselves? How can we find harmony, if we aren’t harmonious first? When we can nurture the compassion we have inside, we will be nurturing our compassion for all that is outside.
When we learn how to accept our flaws, embrace our imperfections, and live through our pain—we can learn how to do the same with all others in the world. When we learn that others feel the same depth of emotions that we feel, we can deploy compassion. When we learn that others feel pain, insecurity, and confusion just as we do, we can relate and offer a helping hand. When we learn that others are just as deeply affected by their upbringings and childhoods as we were, we can learn to look at people’s actions through a different, more compassionate lens.
What we experience throughout the world is but a symptom of what we all are experiencing in our inside worlds. When we can improve/fix the root cause, we can improve and maybe even fix the symptoms that are ever present all around us. This is all to say, it all starts within, with you.
Read Next: 14 Quotes on Grit and Patience For Anyone Pursuing Their Life’s Task.
Don't Let the Motivation Stop There...!
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