someone else has the answer,
some other place will be better,
some other time,
it will turn out.
This is it.
No one else has the answer,
no other place will be better,
and it has already turned out.
At the center of your being,
you have the answer:
you know who you are and
you know what you want.
There is no need to run outside
for better seeing,
nor to peer from a window.
Rather abide at the center of your being:
for the more you leave it,
the less you learn.
Search your heart and see
the way to do is to be.
Like a lot of people in my generation, I grew up in an environment that was very achievement driven. Getting good grades in school was paramount. I hate to admit it, but there were times when I so desperately wanted to ace a homework assignment that I sneaked a peak at the answers in the back of the book instead of spending more time working through an answer that just didn't seem to come. Getting the right answer was more important than learning how to get there.
As it turns out, this kind of thing turned out to be a major disservice to my adult-self. The problems we face as an adult are far more complicated than the chemistry problems of high school, and finding the answers seems harder than ever.
What do I do with my life?
Am I living in the right place?
Am I taking the right path?
What can I do that will make people proud of me?
Am I doing the right thing for my family?
Am I doing the best I can?
The more we scramble to seek the answers by looking outside us, to parents, to teachers, to peers, to competitors, the further from the answers we become.
What Lao Tzu says is that we don't have to look in the back of the book to find the right answers to our life because there are no right answers, and that is totally ok.
The only thing we have to do, is to BE.
That's the only answer.
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