 A Taoist story tells of an old man who accidentally fell into a river and was sucked by the river rapids to the bottom of the river, completely out of sight. Onlookers feared for his life and rushed down to the riverbank, trying to see him. Miraculously, as they ran down a riverbend, they came to a shallow section and they found the old man, walking out, completely unscathed. The people all rushed to his side and asked him how he managed to survive. The man looked at them, ringing out a shirt and simply said, I became one with the water, instead of trying to force the water to do what I wanted it to. Plunging into the swirl, I came out with the swirl. I surrendered to the flow, which ebbed up and down naturally. This is how I survived. Now, naturally, we don't recommend that you jump in some rapids and take this literally just to try it out, but this parable does have some great insights if you know how to apply it. Many times, spiritual people spend their lives swimming upstream, fighting a powerful current in their attempts to be holy, and live the way they believe their God will find pleasing, or that they think is an alignment with their true self. After some time, many of these people will get tired in their efforts to maintain what they believe are holy, righteous lives and will often give up. Whenever we go against the grain, we're not only having to put the effort into succeed, but also to push back against friction and resistance, which makes our job twice as hard. If instead you take a second to see the direction things are moving naturally and adjust yourself to that, you'll gently flow with the current. It's also interesting to see that the old man ebbs up and down with the flow of the river, as we should remember that flow doesn't always go in one direction. Life is more of a push and pull, yin and yang than a straight path, and while we often think going down or backwards is a bad thing, following hermetic laws, everything is cyclical, and it's only later that you'll look back and recognize that the whole process was ultimately beneficial, even the part of being dragged under the current. A lot of Taoist parables mention flowing water and rivers, mostly in metaphors for the flow of life itself. However, as water naturally flows around obstacles, viewing the situations in our lives as obstacles is an expression of judgment. Instead, perhaps by surrendering to the flow of life, we flow with the stream of the Tao, and our attitude becomes one of non-judgment, which, like the water, allows us to flow unobstructed and freely, no matter what the situation. Now, it's important to say I don't think that this means turning the other cheek or becoming a doormat as a reaction to events in life, but instead, the lesson of this parable seems to lie in being proactive in life, following the natural order of things, solving problems by not creating them in the first place, by not forcing one's way against the flow of the river, and letting it naturally carry you to your exit point with grace.