getting rid of the noise

Following this path returns us to our root. (40, WM)

One of Lao Tzu's most central messages is that the lives we are living right now, and the things we value in life, are in large measure dictated by the society around us. To live as we were meant to live, and to live in a way that brings peace and joy, we have to shed this social conditioning and come to view life as a newborn child with fresh, undisturbed vision. We do this by reading the words of Taoism and then sitting in meditation and allowing our misconceptions about priorities to become evident to us. Lao Tzu said we are not sick until we know we are sick. It's by opening ourselves up to the Tao and sitting in empty contemplation that we learn what sicknesses of perception and priority we have and how to let go of those and begin to see life more clearly. Lao Tzu believed that we don't learn and connect with ourselves by reading a book or going to school. Instead, it is only by sitting quietly and emptying our minds of the ways of thinking that have been handed to us by the culture around us that we become open to real learning and understanding.

One of the best ways to empty our minds is through meditation, where we let our mind become empty so that the truths of the Tao may distill upon it. Lao Tzu doesn't believe anything can be forced, so we learn by allowing it to happen rather than "trying to learn." Quiet meditation, perhaps in nature, opens our heart and mind to the Tao and allows its beauty and truth to enter our mind and heart. Meditation helps us become open to all the Tao has to give us. It also forces us to be in the present moment, the only place where we truly live. 

It's amazing how you can feel so overwhelmed with negative noise in one moment, but how by closing that door and instead focusing on the quiet of nature and the Tao you can immediately invite calm and emptiness back into your mind and heart. The noise is the lie. The quiet stillness is the true reality if we can only see and hear it.