The Tao of Now

1.
The cache is an illusion;
remnants of a Web that no longer is,
it can be learned from,
but never mistake it for what is real Now.

'Coming Soon' is an illusion;
hopes and fears for a Now that may never be,
it can be used as a guide,
but never mistake it for what will actually manifest.

Only the Web of the Now is real.
Be careful though,
for the moment after each refresh,
the page may have changed.

2.
If you want to do good,
you must give up your grand plans,
your thoughts of yourself as a benefactor,
and focus instead on what needs doing.

You might be right, you might be wrong,
and people may resist or resent your efforts;
if you try to push the matter,
or claim the moral high ground,
the whole point will be lost
in the clutter of misunderstanding.

Find what needs to be done,
remain flexible and dedicated
in finding a way to do it,
then swiftly and quietly get to work.

3.
The vision of the planfile is vaporware,
much must be added and cut before going gold;
so why do the masses hang on every rumor,
every interview and press release,
crying foul when things change?

Learn from the changes of the past,
hope and work for improvements of the future,
yet look to nothing but the Now.

4.
Divide up the work
according to each programmer's skill,
as evenly as possible
given each individual's time and talents,
but be careful not to go at cross-purposes;
every project needs a leader
and enough hands to do the work,
yet many heads may not always be better than few.
Too many programmers tangle the code.

The efforts of many
woven into a single project,
whether large or small,
can be a brilliant dance of efficient genius,
or a tangled Web of rivalry and confusion.

Clearly outline all goals before the project begins,
yet meet often to discuss the changes and progress,
always aware that what seemed best yesterday
may not be best for Now.

5.
Comment your code clearly and succinctly;
carefully label and define each variable and module,
leaving guideposts to all who may follow after.

Follow conventions where possible
to ensure fluid accessibility;
innovate by using what Now is,
weaving it in unique ways to create the New.

6.
When the work is done,
and the code is debugged and released,
rest to recover from the energies spent.
Do not begin another project
until you have again reached serenity.

Though you must never develop hang-ups
about how you want your work to be received,
you must always be prepared
to support your code until obsolescence.

7.
When you make unpleasant choices,
don't deceive yourself,
saying you only did what had to be done,
that there was no other choice.

There are always choices,
some are good,
some terrible,
some hardly worth mentioning at all,
but choices they remain.

Whichever course you choose,
take responsibility for that choice,
with nothing to thank or blame
but your own best judgement.

8.
Stick to the basics.

If your work is still pleasing without graphics,
over a dialup connection,
this is perfection.

9.
It isn't about what you've done in the past,
or what you hope to do in the future.

It's what you contribute to the Now that matters.

10.
If a Web becomes shallow and showy,
its netizens become lazy and dull,
unaware of the Nowing unfolding around them
and contributing little to the worlds without and within.

If a Web becomes regulated and controlled,
its netizens become stifled and stagnant,
unable to creatively interpret and forge new ideas,
enslaved to the minds that dominate their Net.

The Nowist strives for substance
so the Web may become substantial,
giving netizens energy and knowledge
with which to build a better world.

The Nowist strives for fluidity
so the Web may become free,
teaching netizens how to learn and grow,
regulating themselves without tyranny.

11.
Be careful, but not suspicious;
netizens who feel mistrusted and monitored,
or dominated and controlled,
soon find ways to subvert,
feeling they have no other choice.

Keep careful guidelines,
designed to outline and clarify community goals,
rather than to dictate and control;
be as generous as is wise,
swiftly and fairly intervening
only when needed
to protect the community.

Trust yourself,
and you will learn how to trust others.
Trust others,
and they will learn to be trustworthy,
trusting you in return.

12.
Fear is a block,
the frozen state between fight and flight,
preventing movement toward a solution,
preventing hope and wisdom from guiding you.

Be constantly aware,
do not be afraid of apprehension
or warning signs of danger;
listen to all the signs and warnings
but do not let them overwhelm you.

There is always another way out,
often to a better place
than you knew just moments before.

13.
Win before fighting;
a single step forward or back
before you see
a clear way to victory
could create your defeat.

Win without fighting;
so often victory can be won
without a single confrontation.
If you circumvent their field,
refusing to use their weapons,
their territory,
how can they target you?

If they cannot find you,
or fight you,
how can you not win?

Consider the field,
choose the times and places
to your advantage,
winning before your opponent
even realizes you are there.

14.
You cannot change others' minds,
they can only change themselves;
you may present new information,
compelling ideas and debates,
but it will have no consequence
unless the mind is receptive
and ready to change.

Don't take others' opinions personally;
they may be intended as intensely personal,
but you don't have to internalize the pain or pleasure
they mean to cause you.
The choice is yours.

Be above bitterness and anger.
Only take in what adds to your whole self,
letting the rest slip away.

15.
The Web is community;
not a thread is pulled
that does not resonate
throughout Hyperspace.

Not a netizen is helped
or harmed
without healing
or harming
the health of the whole Web.

16.
What is the Now?
It could be a thought,
a feeling,
someone touching you,
a dog barking,
but only if these things
are happening
Now.

The Now is not what's past;
no matter how close
the memories feel,
it is only your remembering
that's happening now.

The Now is not your plans
or your fears;
no matter how big
or vitally important
they may feel,
it is only your imagining
that's happening now.

Don't mistake the echoes,
whether future or past,
for the Nowing occurring
in the Web at hand.

17.
What is Nowing?
It is the act of
perceiving and being formed
through perception.

It is the act of processing info
and impulses
and responding or choosing
not to respond.

It is being.
Above all, it is being
in the present,
Now.

To truly be Nowing,
forget the past,
keeping only the lessons learned;
forget the future,
thinking only of what you can
do to prepare in the
present moment.

Simply be in the Now.
The rest will be itself.

18.
Only the now that can be felt
is the eternal Now.
Only what can now be experienced
is the eternal Experience.

The present moment is the eternal Now.
Imagining is the origin
of all non-present things.

Caught up in your own mind,
you are trapped in the mystery.
Free from your own limitations,
you can experience the manifestations.

Yet the mysteries
and the manifestations
are the product of the same source.
This source is your own perceptions.

Perceiving your act of perception.
The gateway to learning to understand.

19.
Do not deceive yourself
into believing that your perceiving a thing
is the same as knowing a thing
to be true

Your perception of any present moment
is merely a product of how
you have learned to perceive,
an interplay of your patterns of thought
and perception
as built up by years of perceiving
and thinking,
of learning and judging.

How can you know
how much different your perceptions,
your 'truths',
would have been,
had you chosen a different way of thinking,
just once,
long ago?

20.
What is your plan?
You have only each moment,
only the present,
in which to think and to feel and to act,
building the foundation of the moment to follow.

What of the next moment?
And the next?
And the next?
Where and how will you guide them?

Can you truly control
where one moment leads
the moment after it has gone?

Is each present moment
truly disconnected
from the moment that preceded it?

Is there a difference,
and if so,
how may you apply that difference
in your life,
this very moment,
Now?

21.
You ever walk into a room,
then wonder why you did?
You think and you think,
but you simply cannot remember
your purpose for being there.

Life is like that.

22.
Frogs live in two worlds.
As adults, breathing air,
they swim through the water
and leap across the land,
moving freely between them.
Yet as eggs and tadpoles,
they must remain
in the waters of life to survive.

Allow them the peace of the pond,
and they will grow their legs
until they may travel outside the water,
free to survive in both worlds.

Dry up the waters
on which the tadpoles depend
and together they die,
there in the dust,
before they ever had the chance to live.

We are like that.

What a small thing it is,
to simply carry them to a lasting pond.

23.
Remember when
it was time to say goodbye,
but you didn't want to let go?

Perhaps you lost your favorite toy,
broke something precious,
or had to travel away
from your greatest friend.
You knew you had to move on,
yet you faced it with reluctance,
perhaps fear.

Death is like that.

24.
The knowing of a thing and the one who knows,
they are integral, inseparable,
closer to one another
than the thing that is known.

Experiencing something now,
only in the now,
is rarer and more difficult than many realize.
Every sight, sound, smell and thought
is immediately placed in the context of past experiences,
and the remembering and the experiencing inexorably blend
so deeply and so closely that we cannot see the seams.

Perception is therefore always tainted.
Fully knowing a thing through direct experience is a myth.
Beliefs are only interpretations,
the product of a lifetime of interwoven best guesses.

Be open, then,
always, always open
to the idea that to more closely know the world around you,
you must throw out everything you thought you knew before.

25.
Why are standards important,
and why should netizens follow them?
Why shouldn't each individual simply apply their own preferences,
regardless of the guidelines and procedures others may follow?

Each developer, programmer and end user have finite energy,
only so much time and attention they can afford to spare
to accomplish their goals with a given task.
When each contributor adheres to basic similarities of format and usage,
these energies can seamlessly be applied,
with little time wasted,
and so much more may be accomplished.

When a developer, project or a entire company selfishly rebels,
allowances must be made by all,
diverting valuable resources to accomodate those rude errors,
squandering potential and generating bad blood.

Standards should be clear and easy to follow,
and each responsible netizen should adhere as best they can.
Just imagine how much more could be done,
with the time, energy and respect this will earn you.

26.
There is a gentle knowing,
a quiet, inner wisdom that arises
when you stop beating back reality
with what you think you know.

This is the open space
between what we endeavor to know
and the act of interpretation,
the fluid ebb and flow of experience itself,
unfettered by conscious judgements.

In this open space
between ourselves and what we believe is outside ourselves,
there lies the true realm of experiential reality,
of shared being,
the mystery of life itself.

How will you explore it,
and allow yourself to be explored within in it?
How will you realease yourself fully,
that in the end,
your true self may be more fully grasped?

27.
We are conditioned to crave approval.
When we question or dissent from what others value,
we may be treated as less than human,
unworthy of respect or love
by those who live in the fear and the pain
of discovering their world may not be what they think it is,
that what they sacrificed for approval
may have been in vain.

There's an intrinsic problem with this model,
for there's little more inherently human
than the act of innovation,
of creating new thoughts and actions,
our own personal evaluations
and resulting personal evolutions.

This inner nature can't be the price of being called human,
for the sublime heights of the human experience
can only be won if we are free to explore,
free to grow.

So long as we hold onto the chains that bind us,
that lock us under the power of the status quo
and those who profit from our enslavement,
we will never truly grow,
we will never be free.
We can only wither and evaporate
under the buring glare of repression.

Stagnation is the soulkiller.

28.
There is grave danger in over-defining ourselves
according to our place in our culture, our surroundings,
for anything that may threaten our perceptions of these things,
may be perceived to threaten our very identity.

Such challenges become terrible theats to be feared and avoided,
for they bring with them the worst fate we can imagine:
losing our purpose, our identity, our reason for being.
Worse still, if those around us share these fears,
they may cut us off to protect themselves.
We then are left destitute, misunderstood and alone.

Why do we put ourselves in these cages?
Why do we instill these fears in those we love?
Can't we encourage each other to be our true selves,
rather than pull each other back for fear of change?

Let us be the cure for each others' fear, each others' loneliness,
and let the trembling vultures of culture learn to fend for themselves.

29.
Life is a reaching out;
we must make connections
with each other,
with ourselves,
or else we will wither and die,
in spirit, if not in flesh

If we feel unable to reach one another,
to elicit responses and meaningful changes,
our lives become pointless,
burdensome,
bereft

Reach outward, then,
with caution but not fear,
determined to make those connections
that make us alive.
With time, practice and patience
we will find those who resonate in answer to our resonance,
empowering our worlds with greater meaning,
with joy.

30.
A great crime is committed
when authority decides to perpetuate itself
by removing its subjects from self-reliance,
making them believe silent obedience is required,
that if they do not blindly follow authority,
they will irrevocably be lost.

When artificial order is imposed,
Nature's order is lost.
When all learning is institutional,
our intuitive knowing atrophies.
When external validation is required,
we are forced to rely on authorities
to even know who we are.

All of us have the capacity
to learn our own most effective way,
to mediate for ourselves
between possibility and truth,
deciding on our own the best course to take
to accomplish what's most important
in our individual lives.

31.
Life isn't a competition,
no matter how strenuously
some struggle to make us believe it is.

When you waste time weighing
your accomplishments against another's
you're momentarily blinded
to your own true value,
distracted from the good you should be doing,
stifling your own creative power.

Don't forget that we're all in this together,
that we each have our part to play
to make our world a better place.
The only failure to measure up
is the failure to do our best,
be our very best,
for the benefit of our selves and our world.

32.
Those who feed themselves by controlling others
sustain their control through the belief
that the thing most to be feared is loss of control.

The joke's on them,
for nothing is ever truly,
in reality,
under control.

The tighter they grasp,
the more true security slips away.

33.
Many will here see random nonsense,
others will see wisdom,
a computer will see nothing but binary,
interpreted into shapes of words
and instructions on how to display them.
Which of us is correct?

Don't look to anyone else for the answer.
Only your own experience can validate
your thoughts,
then invalidate them later on
when you are again prepared to learn
an even better way.

Continual growth
Continual self-creation
This is the self-expression of the divine.

34.
Demand honesty
from yourself,
from others,
and most of all,
in your perceptions
of the universe itself

You are what you do
You do what you think
Let your thoughts and actions
arise only from your truest self.

35.
Those who demand
respect from others
do not fully
respect themselves

Find your inner 'who you are'
become your own best friend

Love yourself,
without fear,
without rejection,
only then can you be free
from the cage of others' opinion

36.
Each of us probably
has a portion inside us
that feels marginalized,
rejected,
either by ourselves or by others

Learn the truths of yourself,
accept them without resistance;
only then can you be free
to move in the direction you need to go.

Every piece of ourselves we lock away
holdes a vital piece of our power.
We can only get it back
by utilizing our whole selves,
flaws and all.

37.
Don't rely on others
to guide you
to show you what's true
to tell you the meaning of your life.

Only the guide inside you,
your own creaky compass,
can point you where you need to go.

Trust it.
Even your missteps
will bring you further along your path.

38.
It's ironic that those who benefit least from a system
will be those who most strenuously defend it.

Is it because they sacrificed the most to sustain it,
and fear the pain of injustice if they were wronged?

I don't know.

39.
When your thoughts run wild,
don't try to shut them out;
they'll think you're trying to kill them,
and will fight back with greater force.

Instead, imagine your mind in a peaceful, safe place,
filled with glowing, secure boxes;
place each thought in a box for safe keeping,
promising to return to it when the time is ripe.

When you're ready, go back to it,
pick it up again, with gentle care.
Be prepared to act
on the new answers and ideas
that will arise.

40.
It may seem easier
to turn to others for answers,
to alleviate the fear of getting it wrong
if you instead tried finding them on your own

But what if the whole point
was learning how to learn,
asking the right questions,
discovering for yourself
the truth or deception of your own perception?

If that were the case,
how could leaving that discovery to others
possibly be right?

41.
Solipsism is the belief
that we may only know our own selves to be real

Nowism is the belief
that we can't even be sure of that.
All we may know for certain
is that we probably are
participating in the act of knowing,
whatever that means.

42.
Having an answer
that doesn't lead
to an even better question
is missing
the whole point.

43.
The mind acts
like a ping-back.
We do,
it tells us what we've done.
We think,
it tells us what we've thought.
We want,
it tells us it's important.
We experience,
it tells us how we're supposed to feel.
All of this is as though,
if the mind didn't think it,
it never happened.

Do we need this constant reinforcement
to be who we really are?
If we ask it,
the mind says we do,
but that's like asking a politician
to eliminate his own position.

We do not exist because we think,
but too often,
we think because our mind's afraid
it someday may cease to exist.
Let it.

Once you've quieted the warring memes,
at least for a temporary truce,
you'll find the quiet necessary
to discover the you
the mind tries so hard to become.

44.
Guilt is the hope-killer.
Once you've been conditioned
to feel unworthy of what you have,
and deserving of far worse,
you become an unwitting pawn
in the greed-game played
by those who know better.

Be aware of yourself,
your wishes, your wants,
your needs, your deeds.
Then do what you can
to set things right,
and just let the rest be.

45.
The mind is noisy.
It likes the noise
so it has enough distraction
to keep you busy,
to keep itself feeling
like it is in control.

Find the quiet.
The mind will freak out at first,
so just let it throw its tantrum
without giving it your attention.

Soon it will tire itself out,
giving in,
giving you
quiet enough to hear yourself be.

46.
To work with something,
you first must understand it.
To understand something,
you first must be open to it.
To be open to something,
you first must love it.

To love something,
you first must love yourself.

47.
Forgiveness is not absolution.
It doesn't make something wrong
into something right.
It doesn't mean choosing not
to remember.

Forgiveness means disentangling
your karma from another's.
It means you cal live your life freely,
unburdened with a past
that only weighs you down.

48.
Loving yourself isn't complicated.
You were born loving yourself,
loving the world around you,
seeing no real difference between the two.

All you need do now
is forget all the lies you were told
about love being earned through perfection.
Love isn't about being without flaw,
it is being without blame or shame,
embracing happiness and unity in their place.

Stop blaming yourself for who you've been.
Stop being ashamed of the paths you've walked.
You are who you are, learning what you learn,
and your past is merely a set of experiences
that have brought you to where you now are.

You are who you are.
You are a vital element of the world around you.
Embrace that,
accept that,
love that.
You then, perhaps, finally will find
the world that surrounds us
never stopped loving you.

49.
You can't do everything yourself,
no matter what your ego says.
Your ego knows its limitations,
even as it keeps them from you,
lying and saying you alone are able
to fix and create things in your life.

Somewhere inside you already know
so much of reality
'reals' itself in.
Often, your participation
in life's creations
is merely as the midwife,
guiding and receiving
what Life Itself
gives birth to, through you.

50.
Yours is not the only now Nowing.
Nor is mine,
nor is ten thousand peoples'.

We each are but eddies
in the flow of the greater Now.
We participate in it to our own small extent,
guide and are guided by it,
but in the end it is its own force.
We only feel we must fight to control its path
because we haven't yet learned to accept,
to trust,
to let go.

Trust the greater Now,
and as you'll learn to work with it,
you'll learn to let it work through you.
Stop resisting its natural flow,
and allow its gentle, powerful currents
to move you where you most beautifully
will be.

51.
Refusal to forgive
is refusal to move forward.
It is clinging bitterly to something past,
unwilling to just let it be what it was
so you can move in on the present
to create a better future.

Forgive, but don't forget.
Use this opportunity to learn,
to become better prepared in life,
and let everything but the learning just slip away.

Free the past from your anxious grasping,
so you can be free from its.

52.
The Web can't be rushed.
Neither can it be slowed.
No matter how dearly you wish to direct
anything at all on the web,
once a thing has become digitized,
you may no longer control it.

Once a thing is digitized,
it is primed to join the Web.
Once a thing has joined the Web,
its potential for growth and mutation
is limitless,
beyond your grasp.

53.
Always test your code,
your instructions,
even reviewing the descriptions
you give your work.

Assess all you have done with fresh eyes,
a different perspective,
trying to find on your own all the cracks,
all the previously unforseen foibles,
so you can not only fix them,
but learn from the new perspective.

Then, when you are done,
and your work is released,
be ready to hear that others have found more.
Some may be valid errors,
some may merely be differences of expectation,
but all are valuable insights
you never could have reached on your own.

Do not fear them.
Value them.

54.
When surfing the Web,
let its waves guide you.
Read with interest and an open mind,
following links and searching topics
as they spark curiosity within you.

When you can freely experience the Web,
hopping from node to node as you are led,
free of expectation,
you will join in a dance of limitless discovery.
What you may learn,
what you will find,
the person you will become
is beyond measure.

55.
There's no shame in changing your mind.
Information is always shifting,
both in content and availability.
It's not an issue of having been WRONG,
so long as your assessments are based,
not in fanatical devotion,
but your honest best guess
with all that's available to you at the time.

The only shame is a closed mind.
Keep it open.

56.
Inside your mind,
a war of ideas is being waged.
Your consciousness is the prize.

Be wary,
ever wary,
of ideas that make you feel too confident,
too hurt, too euphoric, or too fearful,
for emotions can be weapons memes use to control you.

Learn to separate yourself
from your ideas of yourself,
and you can learn to be free
from the memewars raging within you.

57.
Memes are ideas,
concepts,
parameters,
judgements,
the genes of mindspace.

Though not quite conscious,
they are not quite unconscious.
They battle for survival
through adaptation and attack,
just like any other living thing.
They threaten punishments and offer rewards
as enticements for each mind to hold and serve them.

Memes band together into tribes,
cultures, armies, philosophies, dogmas,
that through the combined force of the many,
the survival of each individual meme may be ensured.

Master the meme.
Reverse millenia of their growing
dominance over the soul
by mastering discernment.
Better judge each meme
through transcendance over the memefield.
Make the fittest memes serve you,
and let the rest die.

58.
chaos isn't a bad thing.
It brings us fun, games,
our wildest dreams,
the beauty of untamed nature.

Overbearing order instills fear of chaos in us,
hoping we'll forget how to enjoy its freedom.
When we give up chaos in favor of tight-gripped control,
what little control we can have slips from our grasp.

Only through accepting chaos,
honoring the sacred abundance of pure possibility,
can we learn to dance our truest path
through our ever-changing, chaotic world.

59.
Order isn't a bad thing.
It brings us stability, practicality,
our most precise plans,
the beauty of well-tended gardens.

Unrequited lusts for freedom instill fear of order in us,
hoping we'll forget how to enjoy the power of focus.
When we give up order in favor of utter randomness,
the ability to make lasting
use of chaos' opportunities slips away.

Only through balanced order,
honoring the sacred power of wisely applied focus,
can we keep our life on its truest course
through a world where others' order or chaos
would dominate us if they may.

60.
Envy is stupid,
destructive,
disruptive to your ability
to actually achieve.

If someone has something you want,
the only productive response is to
start doing what you can to create it for yourself, too.
Everything else is a waste,
a distraction from what will bring you real progress,
real attainment and happiness,
real peace.

61.
Never pass judgement
on another's circumstances,
whether for good or for bad.

You can never know the full experience
of dwelling in the space they occupy.
Were you to trade places
you would be surprised at the vast gap
between what you'd experience,
and what you thought you knew.

62.
You don't need
to tear down a building
and build it back up again,
stone by stone,
just to use it in a different way.

You don't need
to tear down your life
memory by memory,
just to live it in a different way.

We don't need
to tear apart the world
merely to build it anew.

Simply change your actions,
change your expectations,
change your mind.
You can live a new life every moment
simply by refusing to be chained down
by the life you knew just moments before.
As we each choose a better life,
we build a better world.

63.
Release the past,
and everything that happened in it.
It isn't happening now.

Accept the past,
and its every effect in the present.
You can't change what's done,
and you can only change what it means for the future
if you are willingly open
to the reality of Now.

Recognize what the past has built,
but see it clearly here,
now,
as it now is,
as it may now be worked with
to guide what it may become.

64.
Things change,
and not always how you'd expect,
or even want.

Let them.
Don't fight change,
work with it.
Grow with it.
That's what life's all about.