Laotze's Dialogues

Tag: English

  • Soundness of mind inspired by shoes

    We overlook shoes, but they keep us from the unknown hardships of our surroundings, from the unexpected.

    When we stop to consider their function, we can’t help but wonder, where are the shoes for our minds?

    The menace such a garment will shield us from doesn’t scratch at our skin nor cause blisters. The threats are more subtle, which makes them all the more perilous.

    Seemingly mundane object

    We put them on daily without much thinking, and we take them for granted. However, shoes are a way to explore the world without worrying about all the difficulties that lie ahead.

    The antagonist does not matter; spikes, rocks, animals, mud, sand, or water. We are going to be well-protected.

    What madness would be pretending to break every stone, flattening every hill, drying every puddle, to take a stroll.

    What if we apply the concept of a shoe to more abstract foes?

    Mental shoes

    The mind has its perils.

    Fear, anxiety, anger, resentment, rumination, desires, traps naturally created by the world, and the ones we are the very authors of.

    If flattening every hill sounded mad, what could we make of extinguishing every desire? Isn’t it foolish to never feel fright?

    Our answer lies in shoes. Instead of protection from physical harm, mental shoes would make sure that whatever we happen to come across, we surmount it.

    An admirable mind

    The practical equivalent of mental shoes would be a sound mind.

    By no means will such a mind be exempt from defeat, but it is resilient.

    It is prone to sickness, but it is always on the lookout for a cure.

    When drowning, it learns to swim by necessity.

    It will burn alive, but it comes back from the ashes.

    When lost, it knows how to find itself.

    Despite any puddle, hill, rock, or spike, it adapts. We must develop this soundness. Our predictions are as concise as our claims as to where lightning will strike next. We can’t be certain, nor do we have to. The only way is to equip ourselves and learn as we go.

    Being our designers and tailors

    Each of us has a different nature, blessings, and curses.

    To live, we will need different traits. Some of us will have to toughen up, others to become soft. As we lack the option to buy a brand new mind, we will have to be designers of our own, the ones who make the stitches, the ones who say if it’s a right or wrong fit.

    We will draw inspiration from authors, films, people, experiences, stories, and anything else we find meaningful. We have our lifetime to pull ideas from and grow.

    Ultimately, the responsibility of being well-equipped and up to the challenge lies with us.

  • The subtle restrictions we seldom think of

    We seldom think about all the restrictions we live with.

    “How does one obtain such freedom?” was the inquiry that has persisted since I happened to come across Aurora’s video “Cure for Me“.

    What stands out is the remarkable display of unrestricted personality; the dance, masks, use of color, especially the eccentric mannerisms.

    There is certain lightness in her being, therefore the eagerness to comprehend thoroughly the source.

    How much would we benefit from more expression, from the abolition of constraints we are unaware of, our crafts by fresh and bold perspectives? However, would we be better without any weight?

    Answering the question

    The lightness we seek to grasp is not concerned with the imitation of a flashy and extravagant personality, but with finding our unique self.

    Contrary to coating ourselves with more, such expressiveness will come from stripping ourselves from the restrictions built by time, the world, memories, choices, experiences, and ourselves.

    Our role should be that of a stone sculptor rather than a painter. Instead of taking a blank canvas and applying color after color, we must chisel and shape the rock according to the vision we have.

    Letting go, rather than holding on.

    Where do we end, and the rest begin?

    In this act of unloading, we encounter a peculiar question.

    How do we know the part of the stone that we should carve?

    What part of ourselves is ‘authentic’?

    What must we remove?

    What must remain?

    Restrictions

    Consider restrictions as the glass that provides shape and structure to water. They incline us toward a particular behavior and way of being.

    Some are given, others self-imposed.

    Some conventions are favorable, others detrimental.

    The latter may make us withered and negate the space for ideas to thrive. Constraints affect our results, in the same way a tree would bend its form if encountered with an obstacle while growing.

    Here is when boldness is necessary because restrictions are not set in stone. We need to defy established ideas and concepts. The amount of audacity is something we must learn to adjust.

    However, being chained up would prove as impractical as being so light that we can’t walk on the floor.

    Pick wisely your restrictions

    We are sculptors, by no means do we want to be left with a bunch of debris, nor with a solid and unrefined block of stone.

    We, as much as our crafts, can relish the fresh perspectives and unheard-of ideas, likewise, we can find useful the order, procedures, structures, and conventions.

    We all need to agree on some things;

    letters to convey words,

    words for paragraphs,

    paragraphs for essays,

    and essays to convey ideas,

    even if such a task may prove harder than it seems despite agreeing on meaning.

    Some restrictions will enhance, rather than diminish, as long as we know what we desire. Therefore, renewing our goals and clear judgment play a crucial aspect in the matter.

    Our intuition, taste, standards, experiences, and choices are examples of elements that give shape to what we do, and make it unique.

    However, their application, or absence, should be a deliberate decision.

    Consider the shape you want to create

    You have in front of you a stone block.

    Would you leave it intact, raw, and natural?

    Would it serve better as debris for construction material?

    Should we leap and decide to unveil a shape out of it?

    As happens with ourselves, our craft, and such block, our intent is what represents a compass in a sea of endless options.

    We must ponder on the existence of our restrictions, choices, memories, experiences, and environment. Once we are conscious of their presence, of their weight, it falls into our reach

    to defy them,

    to allow them,

    to play with them to obtain a shape and charm we envisioned in our mind,

    and then obtain lightness.

  • The need of renewing our goals

    Imagine being in a room blindfolded and asked to hit a target with darts.

    However, we don’t know where the target is.

    We try different approaches; throwing them all in the same direction hoping for them to reach their destiny, or changing the direction with each throw, wishing it would increase our chances.

    Despite our great effort and multiple strategies, we failed.

    It had nothing to do with skill. There was no target set.

    That is the very scenario we wish to avoid.

    There exist goals and motives within us. Why we do something determines everything; how we do it, the quality of our experience. However, it doesn’t suffice to know them at some point. Such knowledge needs renewal and to be questioned.

    Our reasons change; in quality, in quantity, in how we interact with them, thus the relevance of exploring ourselves and using doubt wisely as a tool.

    Our what and why

    Even if these go unnoticed, the object of our lust and the reasons behind it are present.

    What we want amounts to a particular something, while the why corresponds to the worth we see in it, both physical, as wealth or objects, and abstract, like security.

    More often than not, objects of desire are not straightforward; we would lust after a house, power, or a particular lifestyle because they symbolize something to us.

    There would be times when the path is a joy, and we are delighted to transit through. However, there would be times when our what and why are the only things preventing us from falling.

    Have we thought about such a delicate matter before?

    Where do our goals come from?

    Momentum

    At some point in our life, something was set in motion.

    From inside or outside, it does not matter, it came to settle; we made a routine, and objectives, molded ourselves to it, we had to.

    We were given a what and why.

    An identity emerged.

    For good or bad, there is an inherent force that keeps us in our habits, even if slow changes are building on in the background. Such changes could become so significant, and the strength of the momentum is so great, that dissonance appears; a feeling of internal conflict, the ideal in contrast to what is, a war within ourselves, you against you.

    As with any conflict, we can be caught off guard, but it is seldom created out of nowhere.

    Some people can simply ignore it, for others, the noise is not so easily muffled. For the latter, something must be done. Thus the need to rediscover ourselves.

    And that is where we begin to be.

    An exploration of the self

    The wrong assumption that we know ourselves can be present since sticking to what we know is easier than rediscovering ourselves every day.

    The small and unnoticed growth is what may surprise us one day.

    How fortunate the person who recognizes how fluid the self can be, who pays attention to each moment, doesn’t lock herself in a box, and devotes some time to let herself be.

    Such consideration doesn’t have to be burdensome nor time-consuming, where we scrutinize the very fabric of ourselves.

    We could dare to try that fruit we did not like, surprise ourselves with something we couldn’t conceive before, or discover new hobbies, passions, music, books, ideas, and whatnot.

    But, we must be brave enough to doubt.

    Doubt as a tool

    Many of the most powerful tools can be as good as bad, the same can be said about doubt. To explore our what and why we need to question ourselves and what we know.

    Perhaps we have the supposition that the first time we do something should feel smooth or natural, or else we “don’t have it”, or presume the rain to be bad because it prevents us from going outside.

    Certain ideas are limiting or destructive.

    To doubt is equivalent, in a sense, to recognize alternatives, and question the validity of the one we currently use. We must hone the criteria for choosing the right option.

    There are better ways to act, traits to pursue, and things we ignore.There must exist the willingness to be wrong if we want to be better.

    There are other ways in which doubt is ruinous, when we need as much strength as we can gather or an idea or belief is being tested.

    We must doubt only when is appropriate.

    Reflect on where you are going

    Getting to a place may be difficult, especially when we don’t know where it is. We may be in the very place and not be able to recognize it.

    How far can we go without knowing where we want to be?

    Goals and the underlying motives, whether we lost sight of them, there was never one to begin with, or they are given rather than created, mold the way we interact with the world.

    Wherever our momentum may have taken us may or may not be right. However, when we embark on the exploration of our being, it falls upon us to question our reasoning and take action accordingly.

    So doubt; the goals, the reasons, verify that the foundation is solid.

    But be careful of your doubt.