The Tao of Ordinary Being. Delivered August 24, 1986

The Taoist approach to existence is much different from our usual rigid, goal-oriented conditioning. Lin-Li, a man nearly a hundred years old, lives in profound simplicity. To many, his life seems marked by poverty, loneliness, and the absence of family, a life of failure.

Yet to others’ surprise, Lin-Li maintains an inexplicable happiness. He sings while laboring for meager grains in the fields.

Lin-Li highlights a critical divide between the Confucian quest for status, behavioral perfection, and learning, and the Taoist path, which champions unlearning.

Human misery is largely rooted in our desperate, ego-driven attempt to make sense of the world through our intellects rather than direct experience. We believe that life is a series of problems to be solved or a set of goals to be attained, but in doing so, we bypass the very essence of being.

We have a tendency to picture the unknown and then mistake these mental constructs for reality. These inferences are barriers of our own making. By clinging to these concepts, we deceive ourselves into believing we possess knowledge that we do not actually have.

Lola emphasizes the necessity of radical honesty in our self-inquiry. The most liberating step one can take is to sincerely admit, "I don't know." When we stop trying to maintain a facade of understanding, we move closer to the immeasurable reality of existence. Only then can we begin to see what is already present, what was there before our birth, and what will remain after our departure.

Lola makes a distinction between loneliness and aloneness. Loneliness is framed as a symptom of a mind that is constantly reaching outward to fill a perceived void with external validation, circumstances, or relationships. In contrast, aloneness is a beautiful, luminous state of solitude where one is entirely self-contained.

The metaphor of an individual’s internal wedding: the individual (the bride) waiting for the true self (the bridegroom). This is not an external event to be awaited, but a profound internal transformation.

By setting aside the ego and embracing the pathless path, one moves into harmony with existence itself.

We must step out of the, "as if we know" mentality and into a more direct, unconditioned, and deeply peaceful experience of living. Delivered August 24, 1986