The Master Keeps Her Mind Always At One With The Tao: Taoist Wisdom

Last Updated on May 7, 2025 by The Unbounded Thinker

“The Master keeps her mind always at one with the Tao; that is what gives her radiance.”

This Taoist quote by Lao Tzu, “The Master keeps her mind always at one with the Tao”, is about attaining a state of conscious oneness with the Divine by going with the flow of life.  

The Tao is the life-force energy that governs all existence. It is the source of life and the underlying natural order of the universe, the silent intelligence behind all life: the way things unfold naturally.

The master understands that the best way to approach life is to keep her mind always at one with the Tao, and she does this by following the natural flow of life. She stops wishing that life must unfold in a certain way. She stops wishing that things should happen on a specific timeline. She does not judge people or events. She does not try to interfere with the unfolding of life by becoming angry at whatever happens. She does not struggle against what is. She stops creating unnecessary suffering by arguing with reality.

The Master knows that the Tao – the life-force energy that guides the unfolding of life – is infinitely more intelligent than her egoic mind. It has existed long before she was born, and it will continue to exist long after she is gone. It exists in all beings and all forms. It knows how to create life, create galaxies, how to grow flowers, how to turn seeds into forests. It directs rivers, heals her wounds, and keeps her heart beating.

How, then, could she think that she knows better than it does? This realization humbles her, and in that humility, she becomes wise. She lets go of control and allows this divine intelligence to lead, to govern her life, to show her the way.

She looks around and sees how everything in nature happens at the right time. Flowers bloom when the pollinators, like bees and butterflies, are most active, making sure that pollination happens at the right time. Animals give birth when food is abundant. Forest fires often occur at the end of dry seasons, before rains begin, to clear old growth and enrich the soil for new plants.

She realizes that everything follows its natural path, and it all works together perfectly. Nothing in nature worries or tries to control things and yet everything gets done.

She then notices that she is part of nature, just like everything around her, and she realizes that she always separates herself from the natural flow of life by resisting and trying to control it. She stops overthinking about life as she stops arguing with it. She relaxes as she realizes that to be in tune with her true nature, she must trust and allow life to unfold on its own. She then allows the Tao – the eternal way – that flows through nature to direct her life, trusting that everything will happen as it should, in its own time.

As a result, her mind becomes at one with the Tao as it is no longer filled with doubt, fear, or resistance. The mental chatter, which is characterized by constantly questioning life and trying to figure out the next best move disappears. The monkey mind, which is always worried about this and that not happening dissolves into the infinite mind of the Tao. Her thoughts no longer fight against the flow of life as they flow effortlessly with the current of existence. The Tao’s mind becomes her mind.

In this state of calm acceptance, she becomes radiant. As she fully allows divine intelligence to flow through her without blocking it with mental noise, it starts shining brightly through her. The light it shines cannot be seen. It can only be felt.

In her presence, people feel something shift. Their minds relax and they feel peaceful without knowing why. Some feel as though a burden they didn’t know they were carrying has been lifted. It’s as if just being near her awakens their true nature. They may not have the words for her effect on them, but they know that they feel better.

She has become one with the Tao the way of nature, the eternal way.

This deep surrender to the Tao is similar to what the Stoic philosopher Epictetus called, “Uniting with God.” Like Lao Tzu, Epictetus understood that one can only unite with the Divine by following the natural flow of life. Or as he observed, “A person who reasons well, understands and considers, that if he joins himself to God, he shall go safely through his journey. ‘How do you mean join himself to God?’ That whatever is the will of God may be his will too, that whatever is not the will of God, may not be his.”

Like Lao Tzu, Epictetus meant that attaining a state of oneness with the Divine or God requires an individual to align one’s will with whatever is happening by letting go of desires that conflict with what is beyond one’s control. To release mental resistance and accept whatever happens by recognizing that what is happening was destined to happen and is part of the cosmic dance.

And as a result of releasing the mental resistance, one becomes a master, a Taoist, whose life becomes a reflection of the Tao. A master who has aligned herself with the universe’s rhythm, allowing her life to unfold with effortless grace. A master who becomes a radiant living expression of the Tao because she keeps her mind always at one with the Tao