Interfere The Least, Achieve The Most: Ancient Taoist Wisdom For Modern Life (Personal Development Wisdom Snippets) | #629

[Agi Keramidas]
Welcome to Personal Development Mastery Podcast and this is another snippet of Wisdom, where I select my favorite, most insightful moments from previous episodes. Let's dive right in.

[Bob Martin]
When I studied with Master Ni, and yeah, just think about that, 72 generations, that's about 1400 years of father passing down wisdom to son over generations. And of course, the Shaolin Temple is where the TV show Kung Fu was centered. And so, Kung Fu, Tai Chi, the I Ching, all of these are Taoist practices.

It's kind of like a sister to Buddhism. And yeah, I studied under Master Ni for six years, not that I went, I did not go to the Shaolin Temple. He came to Miami and came and he had a group there, a Taoist group that he sponsored and taught at.

And he was the transformational mentor that brought me from that world of money and legal to a much happier life, let's put it that way. But I remember one time we said to him, and he, I will tell you this, he always chuckled and giggled a lot. He was 72 years old when I met him and he looked no more than 45.

His face was wrinkle-free. He was as supple as a baby. He could sit on his heels and just amazing.

And he was one of those folks who, the moment you met him, you said, this guy's got it. He knows, he understands, and I want to know what he knows. So just feed me, just feed me, please.

So one day we asked Master Ni, why do they call you Master? And he said, well, because I have mastered life. And he chuckled and walked away.

He was always chuckling. So we got him a little bit later and we said, well, come on now, tell us, what does it mean to master life? And his face became serious and he looked at us and he said, when you can interfere the least and have the desired impact, and when you know what the desired impact is, you have begun to master life.

And it just even sends chills down me today. But it's that interfering the least. And so many of us live feeling that we're responsible for everything.

We carry the weight of the world on our shoulders. We exhaust ourselves with work that perhaps is not efficient or effective. And what Taoism really studies is going with the flow.

It is not a God-based religion, although it did come out of the shamanistic traditions of ancient China. But still it has developed into something which is much more psychological than it is anything else. And what it teaches is it teaches that going with the flow has a certain trap to it.

Most people think when they hear going with the flow, oh, I'll just take my hands off the wheel and la-di-da-di-da, life is but a dream, merrily, merrily, merrily, I'm floating down the stream. And it's not like that. Life's not like that, unfortunately.

The stream, if you go with the flow and you use the metaphor of a river, most of us think of floating down a very calm, tranquil river going with the flow. But there are rapids. There is whitewater.

There are waterfalls. There are hurricanes. There are floods.

There are gentle April rains. There's dew. There's so many different aspects of what the flow is that we have to be sensitive to it because if I'm in my canoe and the water is calm, that's true.

I don't have to pay too much attention to it. But when the water becomes rapid and there's whitewater, I have to attend to it very carefully. Otherwise, I'll tip over.

So there's two different ways of going with the flow depending on what the flow is. And what Taoism teaches is it teaches not only how to identify the flow in human transactions, but also how to align yourself appropriately with it. If I can use one of my favorite metaphors, imagine that you're out in the ocean and you want to swim into shore.

So there's three ways to do it. One, you could panic and probably drown. Not the best way.

Two, you could just say, I need to get to shore and I'm going to swim there and just swim there. Or three, you can take a look and notice that the tide moves towards shore and it moves away from shore and it alternates. It goes forward and it comes back.

So if I'm going to align myself with that, when it's going towards the shore, I'm going to take advantage of it and I'm going to swim with all my might. But when it goes against the shore, I'm not going to fight it, but I'm not going to let it sweep me out to sea either. I want to conserve my energy and use only what's necessary to hold my position and wait and be patient until the tide changes and is going with me again and then swim like heck and then pause and swim like heck.

This way I'll get to shore and I'll be energized. I will have gotten, I will have been effective in that I achieved my goal and I will have been efficient in that I interfered the least and used the most efficient capacities that I personally had to apply. So I was efficient and effective.

I get to shore. I am energized and have more energy to move forward with other things. So this is what Taoism teaches.

In human transactions, what we're talking about is sometimes the situation is very propitious and it seems like everything that you do works. So these are the times of great advance. Other times in life, it seems like you're walking in mud and everything is hard and nothing's working.

So these are the times where you kind of back away a little bit and contemplate and think and wait for the situation to change and while you're waiting, use the time to refine your presentation. So now you're being effective and efficient and you're going with the flow and you're using it your best advantage and developing that skill and it is a skill. The good news is that it can be learned.

It doesn't come to us naturally, but it can be learned and living that life is a life that is just a lot easier.

[Agi Keramidas]
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