The Waterfall - a Taoist podcast
Ideas for living a simpler life and finding your inner peace. taoismteachings.substack.com
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- Sep 21, 2026
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- Jul 7, 2026
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3 Taoist Parables for When You Compare Yourself to Others (opens the original)
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Comparison rarely feels like a choice. It arrives in the half second it takes to glance at someone else’s life, and by the time we notice it has happened, the verdict has already been delivered: they are further along, lighter, more certain of where they are going, and we are somehow behind.Most of us have tried to argue with that verdict, and most of us have lost the argument, because comparison does not yield to reasoning. It yields much more readily to stories. Zhuangzi seems to have understo
The Three Treasures of Taoism (opens the original)
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The sixty-seventh chapter of the Tao Te Ching begins with a confession that sounds almost like an apology.Everyone says my Way is great, and yet it seems like nothing at all. It is because it is great that it seems like nothing.And then, a few lines later, Lao Tzu tells us what he actually owns.I have three treasures, which I hold and guard. The first is tenderness. The second is restraint. The third is not daring to be ahead of the world.I have read that list many times, and every time I am str
The Tao Te Ching Podcast - Chapter 24: Making Yourself Taller (opens the original)
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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit taoismteachings.substack.com Welcome back to The Tao Te Ching podcast. I’m glad you’re here. Today, Lao Tzu turns shows us what happens when we strain, and he does it with images drawn straight from the body. To follow along and to meditate by yourself, you can download the reading plan and the version of the Tao Te Ching I am reading here. All episodes are available here. With gratitude. If you liked this podcast, you can support the
We Have Forgotten How to Rest (opens the original)
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There is a passage in the eleventh chapter of the Tao Te Ching that I have carried with me for years.Thirty spokes share one hub. It is the hole at the centre that makes the wheel useful. Clay is shaped into a vessel. It is the space inside that makes the vessel useful. Doors and windows are cut into a room. It is the emptiness within that makes the room useful.Lao Tzu is pointing at something we look straight past every day.We think a wheel is made of wood. It is also made of the hole. We think
Today Is All You Need (opens the original)
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Much of what is written about the present moment carries a hidden scolding. Be here now, we are told, as though remembering were a weakness and planning a failure of trust.I do not believe that, and I do not think it is livable.Memory is a gift. It is how a friendship deepens over the years. It is how gratitude becomes possible at all, because to be grateful you need a before. When you remember your grandmother’s kitchen and something warms in your chest, you have not left your life. You are bei
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