“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.”
– Lao Tzu
This is true. A good traveler also knows the direction they wish to go, and they continue to seek ways to keep themselves moving in that direction, each day.
On the one hand, our Good Traveler knows that the journey is the destination, and so they strive to remain present and grateful, each step of the way. On the other hand, they are also mindful and conscious in their choice of the direction they wish to go, and they continue to pursue this good and worthy aim with enthusiasm, clarity, and drive.
“I am not going to heaven because I have preached to great crowds or because I’ve read the Bible many times. I’m going to heaven just like the thief on the cross who said in that last moment, ‘Lord, remember me.’”
“Black and Yellow Butterfly on Blue Flowers” | Anthony Satori
“Meditation is to be aware of every thought and of every feeling, never to say it is right or wrong, but just to watch it and move with it. In that watching, you begin to understand the whole movement of thought and feeling. And out of this awareness comes silence.”
“Chocolate Covered Ice Cream Bar” | Anthony Satori
“Together with a culture of work, there must also be a culture of leisure as gratification. To put it another way: people who work must also take the time to relax, to be with their families, to enjoy themselves, to read, to listen to music, to play a sport.”
“The child learns to speak, not because it has learned teachers, but because it lives with those who know how to speak.”
– Lao Tzu
The great Taoist Master Lao Tzu was telling us not only how a child learns to speak, but he was also giving us a powerful metaphor for so many other things. The human being learns the Tao in this same way: not from great teachers, but from living among those who already know the Tao. This is also how each one of us learns how to truly live well: how to think, act, and speak with compassion and common sense, how to create things of value, how to find inner calm and peace, how to cultivate healthy relationships with others, how to live with enthusiasm and authenticity, and how to give and receive help and knowledge with an open heart. We learn these things from living among those who already know how to do them. And, perhaps most importantly of all, the human heart learns how to love and to be loved, in this manner, as well. We learn this by living in a family, in a community, and in a society that already understands how to do this. Once we realize this fact, it becomes incredibly clear why it is of such vital importance for each one of us to strive to preserve and cultivate these values in our own lives, in our own families, and in our own communities. We each form a vital link in the chain toward a better and more beautiful world.
“The wisdom of nature speaks out of the peaceful glance of animals. In them the whole phenomenon is still firmly attached to the stem of nature from which it has sprung, and partakes of the unconscious omniscience of the great mother.”
“There are only three things that a man really wants to do, all his life; and these are 1) to find his way to his God, his Morning Star, 2) to salute his fellow man, and 3) to enjoy the love of the woman who has come the long way with him.”
Satori Circle | Art & Culture 