Motivation

[ninjasm]

I am curious about any Taoist thoughts on personal motivation

 

What are your thoughts on the relationship of Taoism and motivation?

Also -

What are some things that motivate you?

 

The only constant is change - and I've been discovering that many of my past motivations that have caused me to make some lasting decisions have shifted and I'm starting to doubt the path I've walked even though some steps taken can't be unwalked.

[Rara]

Interesting as I have similar questions. I seem to change my mind left right and center so I can never seem to commit to any chosen path!

 

However, I have since decided on short-term things and to just make my life up of these. Change keeps me motivated in that sense. And if I can't get motivated, I should probably be sitting down and watching TV until I pick up again. No kidding, I'm naturally quite driven, which leads to problems if I make a habit out of doing things. So, sometimes, my motivation is to take myself away from something to learn how much I miss it!

[Clarity]

Who is motivated?

 

Who chooses?

 

Who commits?

 

Who decides?

 

Who walks a path?

 

There is no such thing as "Taoist thoughts on motivation."

[ninjasm]

Clarity - I don't know... what motivated you to reply to this thread? What motivated Lao Tzu to write?

 

I would argue that without motivation there is only stillness and inaction. Neither of which pay the bills.

[Samurai Mountain man]

There is no such thing as "Taoist thoughts on motivation."

But there *IS* a driving force behind everything; I believe this force is called Te, no? if the driving force is part of the tao, and if the tao is all-encompassing and uncontainable, there is nothing that cannot be considered "non-taoist". You can say something is out of balance or not at peace with the tao but you can't say that something is not of the tao.

 

Now let's say ninjasm wishes to buy a new motorcycle, he could very well devote his time and energy to aquiring money as the new bike he wants is his Te. Or he could seclude himself in his room, meditate all day and learn to deatach himself and let go of his desire for a bike and disregard all material things he has... But why not both? if you need to be constantly motivating your self through passion to reach a goal, it's likely you'll suffer (unnecessarily) along the way and that you might not actually reach it. However, if we embrace the original Te, if we become it we'll reach the goal seemingly without effort, it'll be as natural as breathing or walking and we'll disregard whatever obstacles get in our way, like if we were water.

 

Now, sometimes motivation is more than the drive to reach a goal, sometimes we think of motivation as a reason to get up every morning and take control of our lives; Well Old man Lao has something to say about that:

"If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present."

 

I should know a thing or two about demotivation, I faced a decade of depression with my ups and downs, and understanding that the simplest form of motivation comes from the very fact that you're not motivated, really freed me from that vicious cycle. "I don't want to keep this up anymore" Sometimes you don't have to, and moving on onto something else is not always as complicated as we make it seem; other times there appears to be no choise (or the choises we have don't look any better) so how to deal with that? the Tao Te Ching teaches that we tend to get stuck in complaining and fighting a situation instead of accepting we're in it and then solving it.

 

Let's say two men are on a boat, neither man knows how to swim.

A strong wave knocks them out of the boat and into the water; one man beings to spash and shout and curse at his bad luck, he soon becomes tired and drowns. The other man, realizing this was going to happen to him, calms himself and begins moving his arms and legs and soon discovers how to displace the water arround him to stay afloat and to move towards the boat.

 

As I said before, I was very unmotivated to do anything, this made me feel horrible and in turn it made me even more unmotivated. Rinse and repeat ad nauseam. How'd I got out of It? I stopped looking for a magical way out of the cycle, I stopped asking why and stopped looking for answers, there were none of those and I was never going to find them so I simply said to myself "moving on" and I did, I started comming to terms with everything that was causing me grief, I accepted as a thing of the past that which I couldn't change and started changing what which I could. I don't know how many times I read the same story told by someone else on the internet and thought I had it, only to have a "relapse" after a while. You see, it's not a gospel, it's not a chip you can put in your head to change your programming, that's not how it works, the Tao te ching taught me that, taught me how to let go and simply become the change.

[thelerner]

I would argue that without motivation there is only stillness and inaction. Neither of which pay the bills.

 

Hmnn, Tao also means path. You can be goal-less, walk the path steadily and you get some place. A good path takes you to a good place. Versus no path and you tend to walk in circles or So goal oriented you lose the path because your eyes were on focused on the distance.

[Stosh]

A path is undefined unless there is a destination

Tao doest have bias so there is no definition of its path for you

There are roads all over the place

But in defining your destination there are choices that are expedient

and those that are not

Lao and Chuang ( and apparrently Bruce Lee ) discuss those.

[Clarity]

Clarity - I don't know... what motivated you to reply to this thread? What motivated Lao Tzu to write?

 

I would argue that without motivation there is only stillness and inaction. Neither of which pay the bills.

 

It's not really about motivation, all you need is the insight into what's needed and the energy to take the necessary action.

 

People's thoughts and misinterpretation take away their energy and then they think they need motivation.

 

When there's no mental confusion, no reacting, and no emotions, then the motivation is just built in because the energy is there and nothing gets in the way of taking action.

[Samurai Mountain man]

It's not really about motivation, all you need is the insight into what's needed and the energy to take the necessary action.

 

People's thoughts and misinterpretation take away their energy and then they think they need motivation.

 

When there's no mental confusion, no reacting, and no emotions, then the motivation is just built in because the energy is there and nothing gets in the way of taking action.

 

So we have to re-define traditional concepts such as goals, motivation and achievement and combine them into a single thing that's a natural part of our being (as opposed to our doing).

 

You do honor to your screen name.

[Stosh]

When there is no reacting emotions confusions there is no doing anything

We call it comatose where I come from

[Harmonious Emptiness]

I'd say motivation is connected to Will which Daoism says quite a bit about. From the elemental perspective:

 

Earth and spleen are connected to planning. When you're calm and chill, you plan things. Also wood and liver are connected to thinking. The brain is both wood and water element.

 

Water and kidneys are connected to courage, adaptability, and will. Without this element, the thinking of the earth and wood elements are not acted upon, they will not grow and flower.

 

This adapatability of water and it's ability to "just do it" without thinking about it, should be noted.

 

This slogan "just do it" used by the Nike brand, was likely taken from the Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi. This book was well read by business executive types in the 80's and 90's, along with an adaptation of The Sun Tzu: "Art of War for business management."

 

Musashi divided the book in to five chapters titled by the five elements (according to Japanese tradition). In the "Water" chapter, Musashi talked about "Munen Muso: your natural abilities to act free from any conscious thought to act" and also "Utsu: the conscious dealing of a strike" versu "Ataru: to strike without thinking of doing it, that is just doing it" (trans./commentary by Nihon services corporation, 1982, ).

 

The "Ataru" strike is usually to respond immediately, and is done so as to be able to "Utsu" afterwards.

 

Will and motivation are like this as well. Too much thinking and there will be no action. When the water element is being blocked by earth and stolen by wood: Ataru!!

[Stosh]

Reflex is, will --executed ahead of time

[SEEKER OF TRUTH]

Clarity - I don't know... what motivated you to reply to this thread? What motivated Lao Tzu to write?

 

I would argue that without motivation there is only stillness and inaction. Neither of which pay the bills.

I think you just do and then let go of it. If you need to work, then work, need to be creative, be creative, then let go and be at peace, till the next thing. Don't get so attached to outcomes or goals, just do the thing then step back, sort like Chapter 9 says:

 

Fill your bowl to the brim

and it will spill

Keep sharpening your knife

and it will blunt

 

Chase after money and security

and your heart will never unclench

Care about people's approval

and you will be their prisoner

 

Do your work, then step back.

The only path to serenity. (SM version TTC)

[Clarity]

When there is no reacting emotions confusions there is no doing anything

We call it comatose where I come from

 

Don't need any of that to perceive life or to take action.

 

Your heart beats on it's own without any psychological motivation.

 

Strengthening everyone in this thread for misinterpreting, misidentifying, and misinformation.

[三江源]

 

 

 

Strengthening everyone in this thread for misinterpreting, misidentifying, and misinformation.

I'm in this thread now...

[Clarity]

I'm in this thread now...

 

You got strengthened by posting, how cool is that?

[Stosh]

Don't need any of that to perceive life or to take action.

 

Your heart beats on it's own without any psychological motivation.

 

Strengthening everyone in this thread for misinterpreting, misidentifying, and misinformation.

I disagree

[Clarity]

I disagree

 

Excellent! And what else is new?

 

Resolving the karma between our ancestors.

 

Resolving the disagreeable experiences.

[Stosh]

I dont know of any bad Karma of my ancestors to rectify , as I have said elsewhere,

I dont think one gets to drag any ' bad blood' into a new life

children are innocent in MY eyes

 

and disagreement isnt bad karma either , besides

do you really think YOU will ever be in complete agreement with everyone else?

[Gettodachopper69]

But there *IS* a driving force behind everything; I believe this force is called Te, no? if the driving force is part of the tao, and if the tao is all-encompassing and uncontainable, there is nothing that cannot be considered "non-taoist". You can say something is out of balance or not at peace with the tao but you can't say that something is not of the tao.

 

Now let's say ninjasm wishes to buy a new motorcycle, he could very well devote his time and energy to aquiring money as the new bike he wants is his Te. Or he could seclude himself in his room, meditate all day and learn to deatach himself and let go of his desire for a bike and disregard all material things he has... But why not both? if you need to be constantly motivating your self through passion to reach a goal, it's likely you'll suffer (unnecessarily) along the way and that you might not actually reach it. However, if we embrace the original Te, if we become it we'll reach the goal seemingly without effort, it'll be as natural as breathing or walking and we'll disregard whatever obstacles get in our way, like if we were water.

 

Now, sometimes motivation is more than the drive to reach a goal, sometimes we think of motivation as a reason to get up every morning and take control of our lives; Well Old man Lao has something to say about that:

"If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present."

 

I should know a thing or two about demotivation, I faced a decade of depression with my ups and downs, and understanding that the simplest form of motivation comes from the very fact that you're not motivated, really freed me from that vicious cycle. "I don't want to keep this up anymore" Sometimes you don't have to, and moving on onto something else is not always as complicated as we make it seem; other times there appears to be no choise (or the choises we have don't look any better) so how to deal with that? the Tao Te Ching teaches that we tend to get stuck in complaining and fighting a situation instead of accepting we're in it and then solving it.

 

Let's say two men are on a boat, neither man knows how to swim.

A strong wave knocks them out of the boat and into the water; one man beings to spash and shout and curse at his bad luck, he soon becomes tired and drowns. The other man, realizing this was going to happen to him, calms himself and begins moving his arms and legs and soon discovers how to displace the water arround him to stay afloat and to move towards the boat.

 

As I said before, I was very unmotivated to do anything, this made me feel horrible and in turn it made me even more unmotivated. Rinse and repeat ad nauseam. How'd I got out of It? I stopped looking for a magical way out of the cycle, I stopped asking why and stopped looking for answers, there were none of those and I was never going to find them so I simply said to myself "moving on" and I did, I started comming to terms with everything that was causing me grief, I accepted as a thing of the past that which I couldn't change and started changing what which I could. I don't know how many times I read the same story told by someone else on the internet and thought I had it, only to have a "relapse" after a while. You see, it's not a gospel, it's not a chip you can put in your head to change your programming, that's not how it works, the Tao te ching taught me that, taught me how to let go and simply become the change.

 

 

It's not really about motivation, all you need is the insight into what's needed and the energy to take the necessary action.

 

People's thoughts and misinterpretation take away their energy and then they think they need motivation.

 

When there's no mental confusion, no reacting, and no emotions, then the motivation is just built in because the energy is there and nothing gets in the way of taking action.

 

These are very inspiring, thanks for sharing!

[ChiForce]

I guess it would mean when yin energy is abundance, yang energy will rise. That's your motivation. The cause for change.

[Gettodachopper69]

I guess it would mean when yin energy is abundance, yang energy will rise. That's your motivation. The cause for change.

I am way to new to all of this to have any idea what the difference between the two would mean. Which does what? All I have dived into is the small universe meditation Spring Forest QiGong.

[Rara]

I would argue that without motivation there is only stillness and inaction. Neither of which pay the bills.

 

 

Now I'm starting to think is it a bad thing or not to be a commitment-phobe?

 

Put it this way, I have a list of things to do. Today, I can't be bothered...tomorrow I might be, maybe Friday I'll be best motivated. Who knows? But what if I need to do those things today (by request of a client, for example) ? My brain is saying "f*** 'em" but I know of the consequences if I do. So I begrudgingly do the work...

 

Doesn't seem healthy...but I have to accept that there are some things in life that just need to be done...like you say, to pay the bills.

 

Hmmmm....

[Spotless]

Look at these three components:

 

Stuck

Many mechanical means are available to help in this area - fasting, Qi Gong are among them.

 

Depletion

Indulgence in any number of habituations is a leading factor in the dissipation of our energies and the architect of our blinders.

(Sexual indulgence is just about the least of these indulgences and generally insignificant by comparison on all levels).

 

We fume about the future, sentimentalize the past and force square pegs into round holes on a daily basis.

 

Fear is always the topic and quick fixes are always the rage. We vent our anger or quietly dismount and lament - all for nothing but depletion and habituation to the same.

 

Intake of depleting substances, habituation to psychotics in food, drink and friends, energy sapping lower world vibrations - banging energy blowing through the din of habituation - just about always seems good at the time and we seem alive for a moment.

 

Judgement diminishes everything - it acts as a dissipation by its categorizing and labeling automation. We become "better and better" in judging and so we see less and less - we discard and filter out vast quantities of energies in our judgement space, in our future space and in our past space. Present space is largely not allowed.

 

Storage

Meditation, Qi Gong, Right Thinking, good diet, cultivation of a present mindfulness and a neutral non-judgemental viewing.

Being with ourselves - in nature, (for me sailing) - those activities that allow for play and interaction within your whole being without

the banter of the current most popular buzz in your life complicating the interaction.