Is there a reason for everything?
Throughout human history some of the most respected and wise teachers seem to be telling us everything in life happens for a reason. Tao Te Ching verse 29 clearly says the natural order allows a time for all things. It tells us that fighting against the natural way by trying to control it leads to ruin.
When I read the first sentence of this verse I was reminded of the enormous vastness of our entire universe. It is so massive that comparing the size of our little planet to it might be similar to comparing the size of an atom with our sun. It may even be a larger difference than that.
It’s really absurd to think anyone of us could possibly have any control over it. As Lao Tzu says “I do not believe it can be done”
A reason for everything: The Ego Illusion
Our ego is what causes us to think we have control over everything when in reality we do not. Wayne tells us to recognize your belief that you can control life is an illusion.
Ever see the children’s movie Horton hears a Who? All those little Whos thought they had some measure of control over their world but in reality Horton was the one that held the fate of their entire universe on the tip of a tiny flower.
The ego is stuck in the perspective of only being able to see things from our personal point of view. This is a very, very tiny glimpse of all that exists. It is this illusion that keeps us from knowing a reason for everything that happens in our lives.
A reason for everything: Why does bad stuff happen?
Tao Te Ching verse 29 tells us the down sides of life are just as important as the upsides. All of life is made up of opposites. If we didn’t have opposites, we wouldn’t be able to truly experience all that life has to offer and appreciate the different aspects of those experiences.
Imagine going through your entire life just floating in a empty grey windowless bubble of nothingness. In this bubble there is no up, or down, no light or dark, no smells or sounds or anything to see in anyway. You have no body to feel anything. You’ve never experienced anything. You have no thoughts or feelings. You don’t know anything and you don’t know that you don’t even know anything. You just are.
Would you even really exist? How would you know? What frame of reference would you use? If you never experienced anything how would even know you were there? You wouldn’t.
Opposites are necessary in order to experience this physical life. In order to know you are you, you must know there is someone else. In order to know there is an up, there has to be a down.
“All of those times that you felt betrayed, abandoned, abused, frightened, anxious, or incomplete- They all came about according to a natural law that also led you to feel cared for, protected, loved, comforted, and whole.”
Wayne Dyer
All life really is is a continuous series of experiences. We as humans label those experiences as good or bad. And we make ourselves happy or miserable based on those labels. The reality is we can choose to feel what ever we want about any experience. We know this is true because no one experiences the same things exactly the same way. There is no “right way” to feel. So why not choose to enjoy every life experience for exactly what it is? It’s simply a way to feel something different than what we’ve felt before.
Let’s talk about it…
Join us this Saturday July 16th at 10am EST, 7am PT for week 31 of our Saturday Morning Mastermind study of “Change your thoughts, change your life. Living the wisdom of the Tao” by Wayne Dyer
We’ll be discussing Chapter 29: Living by Natural Law and Tao Te Ching verse 29
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