There are many people who lost interest in learning something that they once were hyped about. Not just Taoism, but even for people who do workouts in the gym, or even learning school, or maybe its something that you want to learn before, and now suddenly you stopped and tapered off that hype. What should you be doing and how can you save yourself from really dropping out of this potential success? For Taoists in our lineage, I have seen many disciples going into this stage, and it is actually a very common hurdle for learning, regardless of subject. In this article, you will learn to deal with this hurdle and get yourself rescued!
First of all, why do you learn? Learning something new is for a goal. So why do you go to school and learn? There are many different subjects to learn, math, science, language, etc. Most kids would lose interest because they don’t see how those things they teaches in school can be applied in real life. They would think that my parents are working and making money, they don’t even need or know calculus and algebra, why do I need to learn all these? Or maybe like why you need to know so many histories and such when they have nothing to do with you anyway. When we see that things are not relatable, we will not want to continue in learning and accepting, because it is just a waste of time.
Remember to tell your kid this answer when they go into this hurdle – “The goal of learning all these things in school is to get a good mark on the test and get a good-looking report card FOR the sake of graduating, getting the cert with a good shiny mark on it, then you can enter a good university, which is for another shiny cert, and with those certs you can get a higher paying job because you are a more skilled professional.” That’s right, learning in school is not about knowledge, it’s about earning the stuff you need to make a living later, or even more realistically speaking, is to get a job and be hired for a higher salary.
mart kids might tell you “ but XYZ never go to school, they are drop out and now they are a millionaire running a company.” Right, I agreed, but are you one of those XYZ with the kind of life potentials behind you? If you took the risk, you can end up like them, or you can end up being a jobless or some low-pay labor later for the rest of your life. You can choose, but there is always a risk. Right, even getting a shiny cert can end up jobless too, and that is normal too, because life is just not that linear. However, if you choose to take the drop out path and start a business, then what do you want to do and do you have a plan to execute? The kid might just end up speechless, because many of them only bring out that example to “vent” and fight back, but they never have a plan in mind. Those that already have a plan in mind, like me, when I was 18, I already started my business with my wife today, and walked out of school because I am too busy on business stuff, not because I need to escape school. The real ambitious ones for the venture route will not drop out because they want to drop out, they only do so because they have a better plan in action.
Taoist’s Journey
So you are a Taoist here cultivating the Tao, but one day you realized you lost interest and hype, what to do?!
Same pattern applies! You have forgotten the reason why you cultivate the Tao and the purpose of learning! The ultimate goal of cultivating the Tao is to have a good death, then move on to a good destination after death, Dai Law Tin. We don’t want to be a wandering ghost being bullied in the spiritual world, we don’t want to be kidnapped asd a ghost, we don’t want to freak out and be in that scary world without being able to defend ourselves. To achieve that, you need to learn, you need to go through the hurdles in this life, and you need to be disciplined to pass the journey here for going to Dai Law Tin.
It might be “boring” at times, but do you know that learning is not about playful and fun? Look at snipers learning how to be a sniper, it is not fun and joyful, it’s about grinding on studying, practicing and doing the same thing over and over again to polish their sniper skills. It is not fun but painful. Pain, gives you gain. Kids playing is about fun, but that’s for kids, and playing don’t give you real achievements. You are adult here, you should know that learning is for a bigger goal, and to achieve that goal, you cannot be a kid, you need to grow up from the kid stage and become a real Taoist warrior. Do you ever see warrior talk about “fun” and “playful”? We are not a bunch of 3 years old throwing LEGO around calling ourselves Taoists here. Real magic power comes with real learning and training. We are like real soldiers learning to become a real battle-ready warrior for the country, it’s a serious matter, to be done with a serious attitude. When you are being attacked by evil magic or spirits, do you think they are playing with you or they are serious?
To pick up from the “stuck point”, you need to remind yourself of the big goal about why you cultivate the Tao. Everyone is cultivating in a religion, for the end result of going to where their religious path will take them to later on. If you give up and go back to an ordinary person, then you are going nowhere, and you are just left with the option of being a weakling ghost later, being bullied by other spirits, and facing a lot of things that isn’t going to be enjoyable for you. Those other guys in another religious path have their path set, do you have your path set?
Most people lost interest because their vision got distracted and pulled away. They have lost the focus and forgot the main purpose of the whole thing. For you, do you see the importance of cultivating the Tao yet? Maybe you did, ordain today to begin cultivating then!
