{"id":11526,"date":"2024-10-11T11:05:59","date_gmt":"2024-10-11T17:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wakeupcall\/?p=11526"},"modified":"2025-07-30T19:10:38","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T01:10:38","slug":"the-tao-of-willie-nelson-wisdom-religion-and-life-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wakeupcall\/2024\/10\/the-tao-of-willie-nelson-wisdom-religion-and-life-lessons\/","title":{"rendered":"Willie Nelson at 91: Wisdom, Faith, and the Road Ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Willie<\/a>
What religion is Willie Nelson? Willie, circa 2018, courtesy Pamela Smith & Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Tao of Willie Nelson: Wisdom, Religion and Life Lessons<\/h3>\n

Willie Nelson turned 91 years of age earlier this year. And you might not be surprised to learn he\u2019s on the road again, with three shows scheduled in Texas later this month. Willie was a member of one of my late father-in-law\u2019s all-time favorite groups, The Highwaymen. With other group members Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and now Kris Kristofferson no longer with us, Willie is literally the last (Highway)man standing.<\/p>\n

Almost 20 years ago, when he was a young man of 72, Willie wrote a book titled The Tao of Willie: A Guide to the Happiness in Your Heart<\/em>. I\u2019ve been a little tardy in getting to it, but it did not disappoint in showing both the wit and wisdom<\/a> of Willie, along with the legendary singer-songwriter\u2019s spiritual side.<\/p>\n

As the book title suggests, Willie has an Eastern take on religion and spirituality.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

From a young age, Willie attended a Protestant church in Abbott, Texas. He sang in the church choir with his sister Bobbie. But he says that at the age of sixteen or seventeen, he started to realize there might be more to life than what he was hearing from the pews each Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

As a teenager, Willie was already writing songs and came to a realization. In his words, \u201cI was writing cheating songs when I was too young to have any idea what I was writing about. I shouldn\u2019t have known anything about broken hearts, but there was something inside of me that did know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willie had a hunch that he knew these things so well because he had experienced them in another lifetime. He began searching for answers at his local library. And sure enough, he learned about Eastern religions<\/a> and the idea that a person might be reincarnated and live many lives.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a concept Willie thought long and hard about. He noticed that sometimes bad things happen to good people. And he wondered if they didn\u2019t happen \u201cbecause of something that had happened to them earlier, in another lifetime.\u201d He wondered if we don\u2019t keep coming back to earth to learn from our mistakes and are given another chance to get it right.<\/p>\n

Willie believes he has had many former lives.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

He came to this belief because \u201cI haven\u2019t run into anything I haven\u2019t seen or heard before. I also feel as if I can put myself in the place of just about everyone I see, and that gives me the feeling I\u2019ve been in their shoes before.\u201d He sees reincarnation<\/a> as \u201ca beautiful thing.\u201d That makes him feel better about his own eventual death, explaining:<\/p>\n

\n

Like everyone else, I\u2019ve lost friends and family who I loved beyond the description of words. And though my sorrow weighted me like a stone, I am lifted by my belief that they will be back on earth, benefitting from the good things that they did and from the love that was in their hearts. Perhaps we\u2019ll cross paths again in some future life. Our eyes may meet, and a flash of recognition may pass between us.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Willie sees different religions as different paths leading to the same place.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Willie thinks of the world\u2019s religions as \u201ca thousand paths to a single destination.\u201d Ultimately, they all have the same goal\u2014to bring us closer to the divine. He also believes the path to God is clear. In his words:<\/p>\n

\n

Whether you\u2019re a Southern Baptist or an Eastern Buddhist<\/a>, if you think of God as everything in the universe, including you and me, then your ultimate responsibility is to live your life in harmony with God. There is one God in all things<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He is also a firm believer in the Golden Rule or \u201cDo unto others as you would have them do unto you.\u201d Every religion has its own version<\/a> of the Golden Rule. Willie advises us to \u201cfollow the Golden Rule in all our decisions and everything else will just fall into place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seven More Pearls of Wisdom from Willie Nelson<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Here\u2019s some additional nuggets of wisdom from Willie, lightly edited.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The easiest mistake on earth is to forget to appreciate what you have right now. Happiness<\/a> exists at just one time. And that time is now. You can be happy about how yesterday turned out, but you can\u2019t be happy yesterday. You can only be happy today, this hour, this minute \u2026 now.<\/li>\n
  2. Slow down. Not just your body but your mind. God is all around us, but it takes stillness to know his message.<\/li>\n
  3. Breathing is its own form of meditation<\/a>. Breathe from your chest; breathe from your gut; breathe from your heels.<\/em> Breathing can calm you and put you in touch with your own spirit. It can deepen your contact with the world around you. If you concentrate and listen to your own breathing, what you will hear is the sound of God.<\/li>\n
  4. As soon as you admit to yourself that everything good you do comes back to you twenty times over, then your life will change in incredible ways. Doing things because they\u2019re the right thing to do\u2014and not for some tangible gain\u2014will ultimately reward you in better ways than money, power, or fame.<\/li>\n
  5. Connections to those around you, to the world around us all, and to the universe<\/a> that stretches into the great beyond are things that define us.<\/li>\n
  6. The older I get, the more I realize it\u2019s never too early to start appreciating the people in your life. If you love your family, it\u2019s essential that you tell them. If you can make someone feel better with just a few words, why wouldn\u2019t you use them?<\/li>\n
  7. Love<\/a> is what I live on. Love is what keeps me going. When in doubt, I try to remind myself that the path to God is paved with love.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    You might also like this story on another of the chillest people on Earth, Willie\u2019s fellow Texan Matthew McConaughy<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Tao of Willie Nelson: Wisdom, Religion and Life Lessons Willie Nelson turned 91 years of age earlier this year. And you might not be surprised to learn he\u2019s on the road again, with three shows scheduled in Texas later this month. Willie was a member of one of my late father-in-law\u2019s all-time favorite groups, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1184,"featured_media":11529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2451,1084,48],"tags":[1087,1347,2454,2457],"class_list":["post-11526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eastern-religion","category-reincarnation","category-spirituality-2","tag-reincarnation","tag-the-golden-rule","tag-the-tao-of-willie","tag-willie-nelson"],"yoast_head":"\nWillie Nelson at 91: Wisdom, Faith, and the Road Ahead<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A look at what the legendary singer-songwriter Willie Nelson thinks about life\u2014and death.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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