A Personal Tao

What is inner peace?

The Taoist answer is: Self Acceptance.

Inner Peace can be as simple as letting go, and resting under the shade of an old tree.

In the end: the path taken to find inner peace is as hard or simple as a person makes the journey of self acceptance to be.

A Taoist will always choose the path of sitting under the tree.

I received this question the other day: The full text of the question goes as:

I have no idea how to go about resolving the constant questions that go through my head! Asking these questions just makes my life miserable as it always leads to no answers over and over again.
I can't see any light at the end of the tunnel all I see is more questions! Is it possible for people like me to find inner peace?

Everyone can find inner peace. The path is through acceptance. However, countless paths for finding acceptance exist. It's just that some seekers take a longer path than others. So the answer required here will have two parts. The first part will examine the nature of questions. Then we will teach how Taoism helps a person find acceptance.

The Nature of Questions

Countless practices and systems of belief exist to help people find answers. The biggest problem is finding a practice or system that matches to your nature.

For example: In Zen practice you just keep asking questions and then more questions until the mind says enough is enough and you discover how to let go. Of course Zen then takes this a step further and you ask even more questions just to be sure you mind has learned to be empty of questions.

In Taoism you learn everything is relative which means most answers are not worth chasing. So you let go of the questions and skip straight into acceptance.

In fact, Taoism takes this a step further to teach many questions don't have a larger answer at all, that in fact the only answer possible is that you yourself are the answer. In other words, a Taoist reaches the point of acceptance where you yourself are the answer for a majority of the questions you face...

So for a Taoist, questions fall into two categories: Outer Truth and Inner Truth. Questions that fall in the zone of Outer truth are questions that could be consider universal in nature. For example : What is Red? Red is a color... pretty clear cut right? Nope.

Since most questions end up being relative:

For instance What is Red? Well depending on how you perceive the world, Red means something different. So to someone who is color blind their RED may not be the same as your RED.

So questions which are dependent on your nature fall into the category of Inner Truth.

Even more confusing: some questions might have different answers depending if you are trying to answer relative to an Outer Truth or Inner Truth such as the "What is Red?" question illustrates. So when considering this: of course a person can get stuck in endless loops chasing questions. A Taoist knows that answers are infinite. A person can spend an entire lifetime chasing answers only to left still chasing after more.

The real problem is many people try to force questions which are strictly Inner Truth in nature as if they were Outer Truth issues.

This is the root reason religions can cause so many problems: trying to force personal answers as an universal truth upon others. A perfect example was the question I answered the other day about Taoism's View on Homosexuality.

So back to the question about finding inner peace.

Taoism teaches this:

Inner Peace can be discovered when accepting most questions are actually asking about Inner Truths. Discover Inner Peace is simply a matter of accepting yourself as an answer to most of the seemingly endless questions of life .

How Taoism helps a person discover acceptance.

Taoism teaches:

1. The past is just... the past.. long gone and passed on by.
   
   
2. The future is not here yet...
   
   
3. Taoism teaches you are here now, firmly in the moment: dancing from moment to moment. By embracing the ride of now, a person quickly learns: to let go of false attachments to past pains, learns building a future is just a way of deceiving oneself away from now... In this process of embracing life now... a person can let go enough to actually have a chance to see themselves truly in the now...
   

A strange thing happens at this point... A person discovers all the internal fractures once considered to be flaws and weaknesses... are actually beautiful... That in the light of living now... all aspects of our life makes us what we are... and that is wonderful. In living now... all futures are possible: opening up new "Possibilties" of 10,000 dreams where each one is valid... and it's fun to play about, to flow as life weaves together into something unexpected.... Because it's always possible to accept who you are now. Inner Peace opens up as a person becomes sure in their own nature.  

1. Is it an easy path to let go of the past?
   
   No... since being able to remember the past always gives strength to avoid issues.
   
   
2. Is it an easy path to stop holding onto the future 
   
   No... since it's by planning and slowly building with a good plan that humans have built so many marvelous wonders.
   
   
3. Is it easy to accept oneself?
   
   No ... not when so much strength can be gained through community: and in turn we are taught to base personal acceptance upon other viewpoints over our own personal values.
   
   Initially as a Taoist you learn to let go of everything in order to see oneself clearly and to embrace oneself as is. In time acceptance comes at the point of relaxing into oneself.
   
   Later in this process a Taoist Master mixes together all aspects of themselves... to truly live as oneself... this means being fully human. In harmony with the past and future to now.
   
   

Living with a Taoist outlook doesn't mean to stop being yourself...

It simply means to stop defining yourself to what you were.

It simply means to stop defining yourself to what you might be.

It simply means to accept yourself now... within your own terms.

To take all the whimsy, experiences and your nature to where ever it might lead. So for myself the goal is just to enjoy, discover and swirl in wonder. Along the way to move gracefully while giving a helping hand as we can.

So who knows? I don't and its nicer that way. This keeps everything simple and honest. The most beautiful part is here now, where I do have acceptance, in each moment as it happens...

One step at a time.

Having no illusions: since the dance of life comes both with hard days and easier times. The Taoist path just takes it as it comes... One moment, one step, one breath at a time.

This is the Taoist's path for inner peace.