Any Dreamer Will Tell You

Only the Tao is real: only the preatomic force generating this endless hall of mirrors – everything else: all the reflections you see in the distorted glass, are merely relative phenomena.
This doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt when you brush up against these reflections too brusquely but that pain is merely a relative phenomenon too.
Ultimately it all comes down to identifying with the Tao informing this realm of relativity, for only in that identity can you ever touch the real.
This won’t stop the fun. To the contrary, it will only enhance it. The more identified with the Tao you allow yourself to become, the more easily you are able to induce the reflections to bend their light in such a way as to facilitate the outcomes you desire in each and every situations.
The more aware you are that you’re asleep dreaming, the more pliable all aspects of the dream become. It’s only when you forget you’re dreaming that the action grows terrifying, causing you to freeze and lose your power. Any dreamer will tell you so.
So as you wend your way today, tonight and through the weekend, with every instance of being sucked in by the illusion to the extent you’re feeling anxious or upset, remind yourself, ‘only the Tao is real – what I’m seeing here is just a distorted reflection of its light, which will bend to my will, as soon as I relax and soften my heart.’
This is one of the keys to attaining the state of perpetual happiness.
May it serve you well and, as a result, may you experience a run of unexpected blessings today, tonight and through the weekend.
Love, Doc

Find yourself today at BarefootDoctorWorld.

Think With The Totality Of Yourself

With the world becoming increasingly nonsensical, some would say insane, it behoves us ever more as relatively awake warriors on the path of self-realisation, to engender a state of peace within and transmit that globally. It’s the same as if you’re at a party where the atmosphere is turning sour on account of various people becoming stressed and, as a result, acting unwholesomely in some form or other: if you relax and visualise your relaxation spreading like a sedating vapour to everyone present, especially the offending parties, the atmosphere tends to be ameliorated within a few minutes without a word needing to be said. It’s magic and it works every time (so far). And there are no limits to the scale it works on. Hence if you get in the right mode and attune yourself to the ineffable Tao informing the entirety of existence at the preatomic level and so attuning, allow yourself to feel at peace by desisting from interfering with the process with the raging bull in your mind, and imagine your peace spreading vapour-like to all corners of the globe, triggering an increase of peace for every living soul, that too will have an actual effect. It may be imperceptible but like a butterfly passing wind, its effects will accumulate and eventually be felt throughout the universe. If all parts of this universe are in motion and interconnected, how else could it be? It’s basic physics. And the more often you do it, the more effect it will have. Ultimately, in your fully-realised state, you will know yourself to be nothing less than the Tao itself, expressed momentarily in human form. As such, the choices you make affect the whole, so feel impotent in the face of incipient global insanity no longer: the thoughts you think with the totality of yourself have power.
A good shorthand method for bringing the fullness of yourself to bear on the moment, is to press lightly with forefinger in the dead centre of your forehead, just above the line of the eyebrows for 30 seconds, repeating the words, ‘I am one.’
This acupuncture point, known as the ‘happy point’, draws mind, body, spirit and the world around into a momentary state of unity within a few minutes of releasing the pressure and taking your finger away and is guaranteed to induce a subtle increase in happiness as a result.
May you feel so subtly happy as a result today and tonight, you feel moved to run to the highest human-made or natural point in your district and subtly shouting, ‘Barefoot is a brick,’ for all the world to hear.
Love, Doc
Find yourself today at BarefootDoctorWorld.

Flower Of The Tao

Just as there are allegedly many ways to skin a cat – there are many ways to explain what’s underpinning the evidently growing insidious neurotic social urge to display status at every opportunity – the posing and pretension, the airs and graces, the obsession with brands, looks, styles, the fascination with momentary celebrities, the complex maintenance of the ever-shifting hierarchy, as well as the ever-shifting criteria by which status is judged – the conundrum Bob Dylan labelled ‘the disease of conceit’, the vanity of the human funfair – but whichever level you look from, the sociological, the psychological, the metaphysical or so on, self-esteem or lack of it is at the nub.
The extent to which you hold yourself in high esteem, is the extent to which you’re unsusceptible to the marketing and promotion of products, services and ideas that false-promise to antidote or banish your latent adolescent complexes and existential insecurities. The extent to which you hold yourself in high esteem, is the extent to which you’re able to feel comfortable and at one with the human race, regardless of perceived status – and indeed, vice versa. The extent of your self-esteem directly determines how comfortable others feel around you, no matter their perceived status.
There’s nothing wrong with wearing the latest fashion, sporting the latest look, smelling of the latest fragrance or listening to the latest music, indeed I want you to listen to my latest music, when it comes out shortly, as these things add flavour and colour to your experience to various degrees. However, no matter how you dress or otherwise colourise everyday reality, self-esteem has nothing to do with this. Even proudly driving the sleekest, fastest, most outrageously priced sports car on the road, though your status while on the move will be assured, your self-esteem levels will not necessarily be affected.
Obviously surrounding yourself with nice things, having the right tools, the right disguises, the right credentials all help boost your momentary confidence and are indications that you value yourself enough to make your material set-up easy on the senses but in themselves, no external factors can ultimately touch your self-esteem.
Self-esteem in fact has nothing to do with externals and everything to do with remembering who and what you really are: nothing less than an expression of the ineffable miracle of existence, a flower of the Tao, for as soon as you remember that, how can there be anything other than self-esteem? We’re talking about being a manifestation of the inexplicable generative force at the heart of this universe, which must strike a chord of awe and respect to some degre, even in the most devout atheist.
However, even remembering your universal status is not enough. You also have to remember the same holds for every other living being on this planet, especially the other 6.5 billion humans wandering frantically on, beneath and above its surface. As soon as you do, you experience unity with all that is. Unified you are complete in yourself and need no external artifice to bolster you.
Paradoxically, this leaves you free to indulge the world's froufrou to your heart’s content, should that be your whim, without identifying with and hence being enslaved by it: in the world of the world but not of it.
If everyone on the planet managed to access their innate self-esteem, it would dramatically attenuate the urge to violate, dominate or exterminate each other and peace and plenty would more easily prevail - though a lofty aim, it starts with each of us as individuals and spreads out from there/here.
May you be awash in peace and plenty of everything good today and tonight.Love, Doc

Find yourself today at BarefootDoctorWorld.

Fundamentally Altered

The problem with talking about self-esteem, is that for many, there is no self in the first place, merely a composite of acquired reactions to life, which over the years form a habit, hence rendering them highly susceptible, not only to the skills of any marketing person offering the latest branded life-accessory promising in vain to give them an identity, providing they can pay, hence the unprecedented levels of vanity currently demonstrated in society, but also to social angst and stultification whenever confronted by those perceived to be of higher status.
This sense of self is a nebulous phenomenon, one which some wise ones say derives from your mother and the degree of healthy energetic, emotional, psychological and practical input she gave you in those first crucial days, weeks, months and years. Indeed the ancient Taoists believed the energy generated in your spleen, which governs your relationship with the earth plane (food, money, other people and awareness of your place in time and space), derives similarly from your mother and its strength and effectiveness is directly determined by the quality and consistency of that original maternal flow in your direction. The more adjusted your spleen energy, the more of a stable sense of self you have, regardless of external factors or conditions and, paradoxically, the more adroit you are, therefore, at manipulating the material plane to your advantage as a result.
However, as all mothers have always been and always will be human and therefore fallible, it’s rare to find an individual whose sense of self is absolute – as with everything, it’s a matter of degrees but there are ways to develop selfhood gradually and over time have it be established enough to withstand most of the storms life throws at you, without even having to delve that deep, simply by dealing directly with the spleen energy with a view to growing it, a sound method for doing which is explained in this weekend BAREFOOT JOURNAL.
In the meantime, consider the immensity of the universe and of the power that informs its eternal motion. Your self is a direct expression and manifestation of that – nothing less. Same goes for every other living being. Still your mind for a moment, long enough to realise it now and the reality you perceive around you will be fundamentally altered for the better by a quantum leap.
May you experience a whole run of quantum leaps today, tonight and through the weekend, leaps that thrill and delight you to the marrow.
Love, Doc

Find yourself today at BarefootDoctorWorld.