Pooh Bear on Inner Nature

Posted by Nick Grimshawe in Wednesday, August 20th 2008 under: quote of the day

Photo courtesy of http://flickr.com/photos/charlestilford/ AE739 Purple Day Lily

When we learn to work with our own Inner Nature, and with the natural laws operating around us, we reach the level of Wu Wei. The we work with the natural order of things and operate on the principle of minimal effort.

Source: The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff

When we are in touch with our Inner Nature we operate on a “common sense” effortlessness that causes our lives to flow in a smooth and natural way.

We can find your way to the ocean the same way as a river. We move along finding the easiest places to flow into on the way. A river doesn’t try to flow up a mountain, that would take way too much energy and require all sorts of complicated things, like electricity and pumps and heavy equipment to make it all work. A river just rolls on; going around obstructions and obstacles without effort and eventually gets to where it is going.

We are trained to push hard for what we want, to reach for our goals, to strive for excellence in all things. In return, we get stressed, become frenetic, develop ulcers, curse our lack of time and then sit and wonder sadly why life seems so short, hard and unrewarding.

I am as guilty as anyone in forgetting this most important lesson.

Just this afternoon, for a little while, I found myself rushing about trying to do far more that time allowed, while telling myself I just have to get a little more efficient, manage my time just a little bit better and all would be well.

And you know…he’s right.

Fortunately I picked up The Tao of Pooh and found Pooh Bear reminding me that he doesn’t do much of anything that things just sort of happen.

When I picked up the book I was looking for a quote, not a reminder to slow down and just let things happen. I found the message I needed, right when I needed it most.

This morning I created four webpages, got them linked and published, without doing much of anything. It all just happened.

Stop. Take a breath, and ask yourself, are you fighting up hill or flowing to fill all the low places?

Be a river, not a bulldozer.

Walk in Quiet Places

Nick

Today’s Links

Here is the website I created this morning. Have a look and let me know what you think.

Beautiful Summer Morning Inspirational Books

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