Peaceful living feels like a one giant paradox to me most of the time. I read koans, or some of the little snippets of conversations between masters and disciples, and to be honest, I identify more often with the clueless students making neither heads nor tails of the enigmatic language used by their teachers than with the teachers themselves. One of the most common concepts presented by the Tao that I struggle with, is the idea that living fearlessly and passionately is achieved not by taking life by the horns and submitting it to our will, but rather by surrendering control of our lives to the ebb and flow of whatever comes.