Willie Nelson: The Tao Of Willie.

Today I thought I would tell you about a book I have enjoyed reading this past weekend. The Tao Of Willie, by Willie Nelson and Turk Pipkin. A friend of mine gave me an excellent album by Willie Nelson a couple of years ago called A Beautiful Place, and listening to songs like Energy Follows Thought (See song below) and Live Every Day made me realise that Willie is a philosopher as well as being a great singer-songwriter. Willie was in his 70s when this book was published in 2006, and he is 91 now, so he must be doing something right. The Tao or Dao is the natural order of the universe according to East Asian philosophy and religion which has meanings including 'way', 'path', or 'road'. In order to have a happy and healthy life it is important to live in harmony with the Tao. The book is a very entertaining collection of Willie’s words of wisdom on living a happy life. To me his philosophy seems to be a mix of Buddhism, Cherokee, and cowboy wisdom. Willie understands that happiness isn’t an emotion, it is our natural state of being. It is the negative thoughts of our conditioned mind that makes us think otherwise. 

Laughter is a bi-product of happiness, so consequently Willie’s book is full of humour and jokes, even if I have heard most of his jokes before. There is one chapter on ‘The Golden Rule’ which is "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". That is a quote from the bible but is common to all the major religions. Willie practices meditation everyday and talks about the importance of being aware of our breathing. Most people go through life totally unaware of the fact that they are breathing. He says we should, ‘Sit, Listen, Breathe, Dream, Renew’.  The important thing is to live in the present moment, ‘Be’ happy, not ‘Been’ happy. Willie says that we should take time to slow down and smell the flowers, or in his case smoke the flowers 😊. 

Willie has plenty of practical advice for healthy living as well, such as the importance of drinking lots of water instead of alcohol and caffeine which dehydrate us. He says we should drink six to eight glasses of water a day. “Pee more and live longer”, is Willie’s motto on that subject. I don’t agree with everything that Willie comes out with. He seems to have been influenced by a Father Taliaferro, pastor of the non-denominational St Alcuin’s Community Church of Dallas Texas. I looked him up on the internet and found out that he was a Rosicrucian and a Freemason which all seems a bit dodgy to me. 

I don’t want to appear negative though, so I’ll concentrate on the things I do agree with. I like Willie’s political views. He is a close friend of Jimmy Carter who I think is the most well meaning and honourable US President of the last 50 years. I’m glad they have both lived long enough to vote for Kamala Harris in the coming election. Willie has a lot to say about the weaknesses in the American voting system, especially the Electoral College where a candidate can win the popular vote but lose the election. This has happened twice in recent times, so I am praying that doesn’t happen to Kamala Harris. There are also some nice anecdotes about his close friend and neighbour on Maui Kris Kristofferson who passed away recently. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book of the wit and wisdom of the one and only Willie Nelson who is an American national treasure.