Keeping to My True Nature: My Contemplation of Verse 38 of the Tao Te Ching

Dr. Dyer's book is Change your Thoughts--Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao.

Today, I am focusing on verse 38 of the Tao Te Ching, particularly this portion:

The great master follows his own nature

and not the trapping of life.

It is said:

"He stays with the fruit and not the fluff."

"He stays with the firm and not the flimsy."

"He stays with the true and not the false."

I have often asked myself questions before doing or saying something.  Should I do this?  Should I say that?  I replay something in my mind after traumatic events in my life.  Then, I keep those things in mind for the "next" time.

I know we all do it.  We second guess ourselves.  We wonder if we are doing the right thing.  Are we hurting someone?  Are we doing something we'll regret later?

A better question to ask is: What do I really want to do or say?  If we are honest with ourselves, we can retain our integrity.  We have to own our true natures.  I'm not giving permission to anyone to be cruel or rude.  I'm just saying we need to own up to what we really want to do or say.

I'll give you some examples.  There have been times boundaries have been crossed.  People have said inappropriate things to me.  Several people have told me I should respond in a rude manner and put the rude persons down; however, that's not how my mother raised me.  My personality is not built to pay back rudeness for rudeness.

My nature is to tear away from negative people like that.  I am not built to be rude.  I can't stand rude people.  I try to be respectful around others, but I have my limits.  That's my true nature--to tear away from people who continually mistreat me.

Let's be true to our natures and surround ourselves with positive people.

Thanks for reading today's post.  

I appreciate it.  

I hope this post blesses you, my dear readers.

I've got some questions for you: What is your true nature?  How do you deal with negative people?  Are you rude to rude people?  What is your gut reaction to rude people?  I pray we all seek our true nature. Let's ask God to help us live our true natures.  He will surely help us.

May God bless you, my beloveds, with His wisdom and peace, in Jesus' name.  Amen!

This has been an entry for Wisdom Wednesdays.

I am currently drawing inspiration from Dr. Wayne W. Dyer's book and the 81 verses of the Chinese wisdom book the Tao Te Ching.