Go with the flow, or swim against the tide? Lent 2023: Day 38

The Zen Buddhist concept of the Tao (or Dao) is extremely useful, but difficult to pin down. The way, the path, the flow, the unfolding; something entirely natural that just happens. I wrote in January about the key skill of knowing when to hang on and when to let go - Taoism is letting go in a conscious manner.

Can one let things take their own course, while willing an optimum outcome that is ultimately aligned with the Purpose? I believe one can.

There are times when hanging on makes sense (Ukrainian defence of Bakhmut), there are times when it doesn't (holding assets in a plunging stock-market rather than cutting losses). There are also times when over-planning, over-analysing, leads to paralysis and ultimately depression.

"Only the dead fish swim with the stream" is a metaphor that's neither correct in its literal sense (many live fish do swim with the stream to conserve energy by using the water's flow to aid efficiency) nor apt (whilst there are some cases in which it's right to challenge existing paradigms, there are many other where going along with the flow makes more sense. 

A life in balance calls for setting the slider between two extremes; this is a slightly different case.


It's a case of knowing which situations require action and involvement, and the ones in which you can step back and let fate take the wheel - but willing it in the right direction. Trusting that all will be well in the end, with the 'well' being something higher, greater, than that which you initially imagined to be what you want. 

Zen Buddhism suggests that everything in life is impermanent and constantly changing, so holding onto things or trying to control them is ultimately futile, leading to disappointment and frustration. This is slightly too fatalist a view for me. You can, I believe, guide outcomes, will them into being, but as long as they fit into the greater scheme of things. And when they come to pass, never forget to feel genuine gratitude.

I have stressed the importance of intuition, something metaphysical, beyond reductionist-materialist science. Something that we know to exist, yet cannot in any way prove.

Learning to go with the flow is not synonymous with passive fatalism, but actively wishing luck. That difference is crucial. Letting go, but not being indifferent to the outcome. And be aware that it resides at a higher level, not at the material level. Letting go means placing trust in a higher order than just the cause-and-effect of rationalism. The optimal outcome should be one that elevates the whole, that stands one tiny step closer to One on the infinitely long path from Zero to One. It might not look that way from where you are right now; but with the passage of time, all becomes clearer.

Lent 2022: Day 38
When I was a child, I understood as a child

Lent 2021: Day 38
Will we ever understand what's inside the atom?

Lent 2020: Day 38
Religion, Society and the Individual