An Introduction to 'A Beginner's Guide to Taoism'

An excerpt from my book

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The following is a draft introduction to my new book, A Beginner’s Guide to Taoism. It’s currently undergoing editing by

Nanie Hurley

and I plan to release it early next year. If you’re a paid subscriber, please enjoy it, and you can expect more freebies from me as the release draws closer.

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Please enjoy this excerpt!

For all of the Star Trek and X-Men film fans, it may come as a surprise, but my name is actually Patrick Stewart. I could show you my driver’s license in person sometime. I’ve often wondered if my parents coincidentally naming me identically to a soon-to-be-famous British actor was the first of a series of strange happenings in my life. It’s easy to connect the dots looking backward. 

For example, two and a half years into college,  I changed my degree from Music to Communications. Had I not done so and graduated after four years, I wouldn’t have met my wife during my sixth year at the University of North Texas. Had I not searched for the word “Taoism” on YouTube in 2018, I would not have discovered George Thompson, a man I now call teacher, and spent every other Thursday morning discussing the existence and ramifications of the great Tao. When I was twelve years old, had my computer not come preinstalled with Microsoft Paint, I wouldn’t have drawn the Yin Yang, which I found in an encyclopedia on my parent’s bookshelf. I wouldn’t have remembered that same symbol decades later and began to study its origins on YouTube. 

Not everything in life can be connected so seamlessly, but my study of Taoism can. In fact, most of this book is about making connections. Connections with yourself, the world around you, people in your life, and more. This book is about understanding nature and how we are nature in return. I’ve spent the last six years attempting to grasp that which Laotzi stated can not be grasped. It can’t be understood or explained by words created by people of any time in history. Much like dark matter in the cosmos, we lack the ability to explain what Tao truly is, but we can see the ramifications and calculate its manifestations. 

Through study, practice, and discussion, I wrote a series of articles between February and December 2023 to teach all I currently know about Tao and the effect it has had on my life. But more than the books I’ve read or the conversations I’ve had with people much wiser than I am, I’ve experienced something spiritually I can’t describe. In these last five years, I’ve had a testicular cancer scare, developed permanent ear-ringing diagnosed as tinnitus, and, for the first time in my life, regularly take anxiety medication. So much has occurred that it seems far-fetched that it happened to me. 

I grew an online pet project into an 800-writer-strong organization with five trusted editors and advisors, made friends worldwide, and now earn a healthy side hustle's worth of income each month from my written and spoken works.

So, the dots continue to connect– one after another. A never-ending cycle of connections of new faces, names, stories, and ideas. I hope, over the next eleven chapters, that I am able to pass on what I have learned in the hope that you can connect your own dots. In Taoism, it’s not ‘This is why I am right and you are wrong.’ Instead, we say, ‘Here is what I have seen. What do you think?’ When I find an answer that contradicts mine, it’s a source of study and intrigue. 

So, let’s get started by stating I hope you find my journey intriguing.