Stop Wasting Your Time
by The Maui Taoist
“To attain Tao you must first be egoless”
No one can grasp Tao with their intellect, and yet there are many that try this approach. I say it is impossible. Since Tao is ungraspable with the mind it really is a waste of time and they will fail. What a shame to work so hard and be so desiring of something only to find that all your hard work and desire has lead you in the opposite direction!
All the Taoist scriptures are clear on this point, they all talk about non-striving and non contrivance, just actually read the Tao Te Ching, or the Chuang Tzu and it is as plain as the nose on your face.
So why then do so many approach Qigong and meditation training from such an intellectual perspective? Healthy ignorance drives curiosity that brings enlightenment. Overdoing the knowledge part and block true learning. Perhaps, some have bought into the theory that you can attain Tao by learning all these forms… or knowing all this stuff about the internal workings of your energy system or by purchasing some devices, or traveling to some exotic location. Well now, that is all fine and good, but if you cling to your intellect, you are ego driven and you will never rise above a self imposed limit. Learning Tao, requires one to move far beyond knowledge.
Forget intellectual learning… Real understanding is beyond knowledge
Intellectual learning can be worse than a waste of time, it can be actually harmful. Real understanding is beyond knowledge. Christian scripture says, “Seek first the kingdom of Heaven and all things will be given unto you.” This is the dirty little secret about health, happiness, and spiritual success. If you value intellectual learning over spirit, you will fail. There is no real need for knowledge, or people, places or things.
A real Taoist knows this; that is why you will never meet a true master that is arrogant, pride-full, profit seeking, egotistical or anything but humble and loving. I have never met a master that had an ego… you might say, to be a true master, you must be egoless.
To attain the Tao is a spiritual thing. That is really all that matters, I don’t follow teachers with huge egos. I don’t believe what some supposed “masters” write in their over-priced books and workshops or purchase products that promise enlightenment from them; many are charlatans. I don’t believe myself either, in that I do not listen to my intellect; we have all been conditioned to believe that we can think our way through life. All we are is that which the spirit projects into our aura, over time our bodies will take on a new configuration. The spirit produces the bodies that we have, and no amount of wishful thinking or contrivance will make one iota of difference.
Be loving and patient, kind and forgiving and seek guidance from people with those qualities and all things will be given unto you. There is no substitute for practice, and only a spiritual approach will give you the impetus to practice. Even a very simplistic practice is sufficient. The fact is, you don’t even need a teacher, you need only simple practice fueled by your spirit!
Hush, be still and know….(your spirit knows the truth) and the truth will set you free.
The Maui Taoist 
This made me think of Intellectual Clinging. Clinging comes from a word meaning “shrink”. Be still and know, yes, or die and become. Only in abandonment are we made strong. Strip away any false selves, undoing ego patterns that is when you become a master. Taoist call it dissolving which can only really be felt and known by doing the practice itself. Not reading what someone else pushes with “their intellectual background” of being above all others. Go to the source and read Taoist philosophy. If it is natural it will find its way.