The power of 'So what!'

You may have read the Tao Te Ching or another book about Taoism, non-action, non-desire and the like and wondered ‘yes, yes, this all sounds very well and good, perhaps for a monk living in ancient China. But how can I possibly apply it in my modern daily life?’ I know you may have thought this because I certainly have. And I am here to tell you of a book that will show you how.
The ‘Barefoot Doctor’s Guide to the Tao – A Spiritual Handbook for the Urban Warrior’ by Stephen Russell takes the precepts of Taoism and relates them to modern situations and emotions that everyone can identify with. And on top of this, he does so with a distinctive, humorous style that belies the profoundness of what he is telling you. In vain have I searched for a sequel to this book. But, in the end, no sequel is necessary.
Here is a powerful ‘urban warrior’ self-defence move against any disappointment attack. Trust me, it works.

So you’re disappointed. So what! Disappointment’s only disappointment. It will be transmuted into its opposite by the immutable law of yin and yang anyway.
So, so what! May sound impolite or downright compassionless, but really, so what.
The thing about “so what!” is that it’s got an edge, a small portion of anger released every time you say it. That’s its advantage over “never mind”, which is also good and valid, but only when you truly don’t mind. Most of the time, though, especially when the disappointment’s just recently dropped, you do mind. So with that faint hint of churlish delinquency, stand up, release that irritation and boldly proclaim, “So what!”
So when you experience frustration, disappointment and self-doubt, as your brilliantly conceived plans go astray and leave you stranded, try a “so what” session for yourself.

One by one, think of the things about your life that are pissing you off or causing you undue stress and drop a “so what”: ‘But I’ll lose my job – so what!; but Charlene/Charley will leave me – so what!; but I’ll die – so what!” That’s it, be brutal, gently brutal, until you’ve cleansed yourself of all attachments; and then you can sit down and call yourself the Buddha.

Karma does not crush

'It's my karma’, ‘it’s the way I am’, ‘it’s the story of my life’ and ‘you can’t escape your destiny’. We have all heard or even said these things, as if we were in the grip of some inevitable outside force. But karma is not inevitable and it is not an outside force. It is more like a law and its effect is dependent on us. Our karma is therefore always changing according to what we think, what we say and what we do. If we uplift our thoughts, our words and our acts we will inevitably uplift our karma. Here is a simple and clear exposition of karma from a book on my ‘rare book’ shelf, ‘A Study in Karma’ by Annie Besant (first published in 1912).

Karma does not crush

Now karma is the great law of nature, with all that that implies. As we are able to move in the physical universe with security, knowing its laws, so may we move in the mental and moral universes with security also, as we learn their laws. The majority of people, with regard to their mental and moral defects, are much in the position of a man who would decline to walk upstairs because of the law of gravity. They sit down helplessly and say: ‘That is my nature. I cannot help it’. True, it is the man’s nature, as he has made it in the past, and it is ‘his karma’. But by a knowledge of karma he can change his nature, making it other tomorrow than it is today. He is not in the grip of an inevitable destiny imposed upon him from outside; he is in a world of law, full of natural forces which he can utilize to bring about the state of things which he desires. Knowledge and will – that is what he needs. He must realize that karma is not a power which crushes but a statement of conditions out of which invariable results accrue. So long as he lives carelessly, in a happy-go-lucky way, so long will he be like a man floating on a stream, struck by any passing log, blown aside by any casual breeze, caught in any chance eddy. This spells failure, misfortune, unhappiness. The law enables him to compass his ends successfully and places within his reach forces which he can utilize. He can modify, change, remake on other lines the nature which is the inevitable outcome of his previous desires, thoughts and actions; that future nature is as inevitable as the present, the result of the conditions which he now deliberately makes. ‘Habit is second nature’, says the proverb, and thought creates habits. Where there is law, no achievement is impossible, and karma is the guarantee of man’s evolution into mental and moral perfection. .

Photo by Dimitar Janevski

The Yogi of Action

The following text from Mahatma Ghandi has been stuck to the back of a door in my bathroom for 5 or 6 years. This does not mean that I have integrated it into my everyday life. (Is it possible?) It does not even mean that I understand it fully. But it does mean that I have read it 100 or so times in that period, and that perhaps, when someone shows me disrespect for example, my reaction is different today from what it might have been. Perhaps I still get upset, for a second or two instead of an hour, or for an hour instead of a day. And that’s not bad, is it? I think it was a pretty good idea 'I had', to stick it on the back of a door in my bathroom...

The Yogi of Action

He is a devotee who is jealous of none,

who is a fount of mercy,

who is without egotism,

who is selfless,

who treats alike cold and heat, happiness and misery,

who is ever forgiving,
who is always contented,

whose resolutions are firm,

who has dedicated mind and soul to God,

who causes no dread,

who is not afraid of others,

who is free from exultation, sorrow, and fear,

who is pure,

who is versed in action yet remains unaffected by it,

who renounces all fruit, good or bad,

who treats friend and foe alike,

who is untouched by respect or disrespect,

who is not puffed up by praise,

who does not go under when people speak ill of him,

who loves silence and solitude,

who has a disciplined reason.

Such devotion is inconsistent with the existence at the same time of strong attachments.

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Photo by Barun Patro