This is purely an invention of mine, having practised Taoism, or rather Taoist techniques and philosophy for thirty years or so, having continued to live fully in the world, enjoying every minute of it, in what could often be seen as a fairly wayward fashion and yet having still received the immense benefits of practice – enlightenment, relaxation, health, energy, endless stamina, damn sexiness, incredible good looks, popularity and especially modesty, thereby spiritualising the profane, without profaning the spiritual. My body has been my nightclub as well as my temple, in other words – and so far, it’s worked out well for me.
During this time, healing people and teaching the Taoist arts, it’s become patently clear, that most of us would like to live like this in the spiritual dimension, while still fully enjoying the fruits of the earth plane, as long as it doesn’t mean having to give up the things we love to do most, things which generally are not so good for us. The way of Wayward Taoism is to do what you love to do most but do it mindfully and simultaneously practice techniques to offset any possible negative effects. So if you insist on drinking buckets of vodka of a night, be sure to do enough t’ai chi, chi gung, self-applied acupressure or massage and drink enough water with lemon squeezed in the next day, to offset the effects on your liver, kidney, spleen and brain. If you’re going to engage in mindless sex with strangers in confined spaces, that could possibly trigger after-feelings of shame and self-disgust, be sure to spend time doing affirmations to increase self-acceptance afterwards. And so on. It’s all about balance – the balance between enjoying yourself without beating yourself up for it and between being in command of yourself without becoming rigid. And seeing as the Tao can be loosely translated as the way and if you’re on the way, you could be described as wayward, it seemed a fitting way for a naught boy with a spiritual bent like me to describe this post-modern, deconstructed form of this ancient way as Wayward Taoism – to more clearly distinguish it from traditional forms of Taoism, which tend to encourage slightly better behaviour and a little more austerity, generally speaking. Wayward Taoism, in short, is the Barefoot Doctor version of Taoism for people who enjoy life too much to give any of it up.
