And Walk in the Ways of Your Heart

Whether you have a profession you feel whole in or are still wondering what your purpose is in this world — in the end
everyone chooses a path to walk. But the question is: what is it? Is this my path, and when will I finally arrive, and where? Or like
I used to whine on every family trip: “Mom, are we there yet?”

It reminds me of a Taoist story:

A student came to his teacher and asked him how long it takes to reach enlightenment. The teacher answered: two months.

The student asked: and if I study a great deal and am truly diligent? The teacher answered: half a year.

The student continued: and if I study day and night without stopping? The teacher answered: two years! The student grew frustrated and asked how it could be that the more he studies, the further he gets from his goal.

The teacher answered him: when the eyes look only at the goal, you don’t see the path. And walking the path — that is the way to enlightenment.

A little about “Taoism” or “action through non-action,” or in a free translation: flow!

The Tao that can be told

is not the eternal Tao.

The name that can be named

is not the eternal name.

The nameless is the origin of heaven and earth.

The named is the mother of the ten thousand things…

These two share one source but different names

together they are called mystery…

This is the gateway to all wonders.

(from the “Tao Te Ching,” the work of Lao Tzu)

Lao Tzu, the father of Taoism, was born in the fifth or sixth century BCE in China.
Out of the political conditions of that era and out of observing the world, one of the most important and central streams of Chinese philosophy was born — Taoism.

The Chinese character for dao is made up of the words “way” and “person.” A way to be walked, though it is also interpreted as a method, a teaching, or God.

Lao Tzu’s ideal is non-action — meaning, non-interference in the natural course of things.

This doesn’t mean sitting in an armchair all day expecting a paycheck to arrive or knowledge to fall from the sky, but rather finding your own “nature,” discovering it, and then… then everything runs and looks so natural, as if things happen by themselves.

“The Tao is forever without action,

and yet nothing is left undone.” (ibid.)

Our sages said of this in Tractate Avot (2:1): “What is the straight path that a person should choose for himself?” and it seems to me that when a person chooses their own path, there are no twists, tangles or zigzags — just a straight, clear and safe path.

Lao Tzu wrote his teaching in a work called the “Tao Te Ching” (translation: the book of the Way and its Virtue).

As I understand the poems, in reading them, the poet meant and arrived at true divinity, where the Tao corresponds to God, the supernatural, and the “Te” corresponds to the natural, the ten thousand things.

“The nameless simplicity

is free of all desire.

In the absence of desire comes stillness,

and the whole world settles of itself into order”

(Tao Te Ching)

When we do the things that are good for us, that truly feel right to us and not out of cravings, desires and chasing after things of no real substance — then we feel a kind of grace resting upon us, and there is blessing in what we do.
All of this leads to fulfillment and self-actualization.

I — chose to be a healer.