The Barefoot Doctor - modern Taoist guru

It gets clearer and clearer, the further along the path you go, that the journey itself is the destination, or that there is no real destination, for whatever goals you manage to manifest, as if your life had depended on it, you fairly soon, if not instantly, start chasing a new set of goals.

There is, however, incontrovertible benefit in having goals.

Though the first goal should probably be that you learn to fully enjoy the travelling towards your goals and allow that enjoyment to be your main source of succour, rather than pinning your hopes on the achievement of your other goals to provide that for you.

Perhaps the second could be that you exist in a state of constantly-on loving: loving yourself, loving others, loving what's going on, loving what isn't going on and generally loving being here, simply for being here, no matter what you do or don't achieve, because there's no other lubricant for the mechanics of reality as powerful as love.

And possibly the third one could be that you always express yourself, as a vessel of love, creatively, authentically and fully, no matter what.

Beyond that, the real benefit of having goals is to lend your life a sense of direction and meaning, without which it is generally much harder to maintain a positive spirit, in respect of getting out of bed in the morning, in the face of so much apparent opposition arising from meaningless and potential chaos occurring in the world around you. 

It also serves to provide you with some divinely sublime moments of satisfaction and wonder, watching something that came to you as a mere idea suddenly, in the fullness of time, mysteriously becoming an actuality. It can bring tears of joy to your eyes, in fact, to bear witness to that mysterious invisible movement of life bringing to fruition what you've wanted for a while with all your heart.

But it's the process of manifesting that's the miracle and potentially epiphanic rather than the manifestation itself, for it's there you can spot the Tao doing its dance.

For one of the slickest tools in the trade for honing your manifesting skills, check out today's BAREFOOT JOURNAL but for now, in honour of the dance of the Tao, take a moment or more to examine your current set of goals. Spend a while purifying them of aspects that might not serve you well and refining them so they are fully honed on what is most likely to facilitate your perfect flourishing.

When you've done, write your goals down.

When you've written them down, also write down at least six times by way of autosuggestion, 'I am now choosing to manifest all these goals or even better ones I haven't yet thought of, easily, effortlessly, enjoyably, swiftly and miraculously.'

This will help you feel focused and in command.

Now let go and surrender to enjoying being here now at the start of the next phase of your journey and give thanks for the forward momentum in your life.

Miracles will start happening almost instantly.

May your Monday be replete with so many miracles you don't know where to put them all.

Love, Doc

BarefootDoctorWorld.

Current events how potentially flimsy is the invisible latticework holding our current version of the world together. The very fact we're here enjoying the implausible ease and splendour of the current world-version at all, is nothing short of an out and out miracle. Of course we pride ourselves on being able to return to 'normal' in a trice and forget all about the bigger perspective, but the fact remains that us still being here at all is a miracle of improbable complexity and scale.

So a suggestion to instigate a most profoundly altered state in which you access a whole new level of inner strength, confidence, flexibility and glee today and through the weekend: imagine this is the very last weekend on earth. Allow yourself to go through the inevitable cycle of emotions: fear, sadness, grief, anger and finally arrive at joy - reposition yourself and reframe the view this way and you'll feel such appreciation for every aspect and detail, gain such perspective and clarity, it'll totally shift your priorities, cleanse you of all your worries and resentments and reset your entire system for the better.

In fact any wise person, anyone who's been exposed to the reality of death and isn't living in childish denial, knows full well that taking even the next minute for granted is presumptuous, so there's nothing that outlandish about temporarily adopting this existential stance. To the contrary, it's eminently sensible and will give rise to a most splendidly enlightening and enjoyable weekend.

I wish you a most splendidly enlightening and enjoyable time of it today, tonight and through the weekend (and may there be countless more).

Weekend Special -

[2010-05-13 05:00:00]

We're naturally social animals. It dates back to the cave days, when you had to get along or die, which doesn't mean we always get along, as too well, no doubt, you know, but essentially we love grouping. And there's nothing we love grouping for more than a good party (as in any social gathering wherein you feel yourself transported in the presence of others to a place that transcends the mundane, in which somehow through celebration at some level, you touch the divine within you and cause similar in the others around you).

Of course there are times you feel antisocial and that's fine too - it's the yin to the yang. But ideally you want to be able to override any reticence to mix or innate shyness enough to be able to make contact, as this gives a unique richness to your life, unlike any other human activity.

To which end, the Taoists suggest investing in being the useless clod, the shy, awkward one, if that's the role you seem to have assigned yourself for the night, yet inform your useless cloddishness with an intended mission to feel and radiate joy to one and all regardless.

In other words, let go of the need to be seen to be or treated as important, magnificent, extraordinary and instead allow yourself to revel in being ordinary and unimportant on an individualistic level, merely here to spread the joy of the Tao in whatever way you find to do that, however clumsily or awkwardly.

So rather than hold back from the social possibilities over the next few days with a hundred plausible reasons why, simply override the need to be seen to be somebody, be nobody, go out and have (and give) a good time.

Invariably when you do so, miracles happen anyway and you meet amazing people and your whole life changes.

And for a neat little trick for boosting confidence anyway, spring to the Members' DocBox without delay.

I wish you a day, night and weekend of meeting amazing people and your whole life changing for the better.

Love, D

Look back over your life, at all the big shifts and you'll discern a pattern: just before each time you jumped up a quantum level, just before each time your life expanded to afford you much more and much better of whatever it was you wanted, just before each time you got that something huge and new you'd wanted, you were required involuntarily to let go of something, say goodbye to something, leave behind something of equal hugeness.

And if you look back at those times, you'll remember how with each you initially perceived that loss as a terrible, painful thing, when now, with the wisdom of retrospect, you can actually see them as the necessary levers to bring on the new, bigger and even better.

And where you are now, whether in the throes of letting go of something huge or on the way, with trepidation to doing so, is no different. So while whatever's happening may feel hard on your soul, assuming you're facing or dealing with loss of any kind, allow yourself a brief yet potentially profound fillip here and remind and assure yourself that whatever's happening now is actually an expression of the Tao's pure and absolute love for you, no matter how painful it may be currently feeling and that the result will be as beautiful, joyous and magnificent as it's presently difficult.

Find out how to energetically increase letting-go ability in the Members' DocBox.

I wish you instantaneous deliverance into the new.

Love, D

"Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Begin it now."
Goethe

"It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well."
- René Descartes: French philosopher.

The Snow Goose need not bathe to make itself white.
Neither need you do anything but be yourself.
- Lao-Tse

Learn to be silent.
Let your quiet mind listen and absorb.
- Pythagorus

Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her.
But once they are in hand, he or she must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.
- Voltaire

"If you are on the road to nowhere, find another road."
-- Ashanti proverb