13

Shameless

To be in favor or disgrace
is to live in fear.
To take the body seriously
is to admit one can suffer.

What does that mean,
to be in favor or disgrace
is to live in fear?
Favor debases:
We fear to lose it,
fear to win it.
So to be in favor or disgrace
is to live in fear.

What does that mean,
To take the body seriously
is to admit one can suffer?
I suffer because I'm a body;
If I weren't a body,
how could I suffer?

So people who set their bodily good
before the public good
could be entrusted with the commonwealth,
and people who treated the body politic
as gently as their own body
would be worthy to govern the commonwealth.

65

One power

Once upon a time
those who ruled according to the Way
didn't use it to make people knowing
but to keep them unknowing.

People get hard to manage
when they know too much.
Whoever rules by intellect
is a curse upon the land.
Whoever rules by ignorance
is a blessing on it.
To understand these things
is to have a pattern and a model,
and to understand the pattern and the model
is mysterious power.

Mysterious power
goes deep.
It reaches far.
It follows things back,
clear back to the great oneness

48

Trust and power

The wise have no mind of their own,
finding it in the minds
of ordinary people.

They're good to good people
and they're good to bad people.
Power is goodness.
They trust people of good faith
and thy trust people of bad faith.
Power is trust.

They mingle their life with the world,
they mix their mind up with the world.
Ordinary people look after them.
Wise souls are children.

60

Staying put

Rule a big country
the way you cook a small fish.

If you keep control by following the Way,
troubled spirits won't act up.
They won't lose their immaterial strength,
but they won't harm people with it,
nor will wise souls come to harm.
And so, neither harming the other,
these powers will come together in unity.

54

Some rules

Well planed is not uprooted,
well kept is not lost.
The offerings of the generations
to the ancestors will not cease.

To follow the Way yourself is real power.
To follow it in the family is abundant power.
To follow it in the community is steady power.
To follow it in the whole country is lasting power.
To follow it in the world is universal power.

So in myself I see what self is,
in my household I see what family is,
in my town I see what community is,
in my nation I see what a country is,
in the world I see what is under heaven.

How do I know the world is so?
By this.

69

Using mystery

The expert in warfare says:

Rather than dare make the attack

I’d take the attack;

rather than dare advance an inch

I’d retreat a foot.

It’s called marching without marching,

rolling up your sleeves without flexing  your muscles,

being armed without weapons,

giving the attacker no opponent.

Nothing’s worse than attacking what yields.

To attack what yields is to throw away the prize.

So, when matched armies meet,

the one who comes to grief
is the true victor.

---

A piece of sound tactical advice (practiced by the martial arts, such as Aikido, and by underground resistance and guerrilla forces), which leads to a profound moral warning. The prize thrown away by the aggressor is compassion. The yielder, the griever, the mourner, keeps that prize. The game is loser take all.

71

The Sick Mind

To know without knowing is best.

Not knowing without knowing it is sick.

To be sick of sickness

is the only cure.

The wise aren’t sick.

They’re sick of sickness,

so they’re well.

---

UKLG: What you know without knowing you know it is the right king of knowledge. Any other kind (conviction, theory, dogmatic belief, opinion) isn’t the right kind, and if you don’t know that, you’ll lose the Way. This chapter is an example of exactly what Lao Tzu was talking about in the last one -- obscure clarity, well-concealed jade.

6

What is complete

The valley spirit never dies.
Call it the mystery, the woman.

The mystery,
the Door of the Woman,
is the root
of earth and heaven.

Forever this endures, forever.
And all its uses are easy.

32

Sacred power

The Way goes on forever nameless.
Uncut wood, nothing important,
yet nobody under heaven
dare try to carve it.
If rulers and leaders could use it,
the ten thousand things
would gather in homage,
heaven and earth would drop sweet dew,
and people, without being worded,
would be fair to one another.

To order, to govern,
is to begin naming;
when names proliferate
it's time to stop.
If you know when to stop
you're in no danger.

The Way in the world
is as a stream to a valley,
a river to the sea.

Wise Souls

So wise souls hold to the one,
and test all things against it.

Not showing themselves,
they shine forth.
Not justifying themselves,
they're self-evident.
Not praising there,
they're accomplished.
Not competing,
they have in all world no competitor.

16: Returning to the root

Returning to the root

Be completely empty.
Be perfectly serene.
The ten thousand things arise together;
in their arising is their return.
Now they flower,
and flowering
sink homeward,
returning to the root.

The return to the root
is peace.
Peace: to accept what must be.
to know what endures.
In that knowledge is wisdom.
Without it, ruin, disorder.

To know what endures
is to be openhearted,
magnanimous,
regal,
blessed,
following the Tao,
the way that endures forever.
The body comes to its ending,
but there is nothing to fear.

41 - On and Off

On and Off

Thoughtful people hear about the Way
and try hard to follow it.
Ordinary people hear about the Way
and wander onto it and off it.
Thoughtless people hear about the Way
and make jokes about it.
It wouldn't be the Way
if there weren't jokes about it.

So they say:
The Way's brightness looks like darkness;
advancing on the Way feels like retreating;
the plain Way seems hard going.
The height of power seems a valley;
the amplest power seems not enough;
the firmest power seems feeble.
Perfect whiteness looks dirty.
The pure and simple looks chaotic.

The great square has no corners.
The great vessel is never finished.
The great tone is barely heard.
The great thought can't be thought.

The Way is hidden
in it's namelessness.
But only the Way
begins, sustains, fulfills.

60

Staying put

Rule a big country
the way you cook a small fish.

If you keep control by following the Way,
troubled spirits won't act up.
They won't lose their immaterial strength,
but they won't harm people with it,
nor will wise souls come to harm.
And so, neither harming the other,
these powers will come together in unity.

24

Proportion

You can't keep standing on tiptoe
or walk in leaps and bounds.
You can't shine by showing off
or get ahead by pushing.
Self-satisfied people do no good,
self-promoters never grow up.

Such stuff is to the Tao
as garbage is to food
or a tumor to the body,
hateful.
The follower of the Way
avoids it.

54

Some Rules

Well planted is not uprooted,
well kept is not lost.
The offerings of the generations
to the ancestors will not cease.


To follow the way yourself is real power.
To follow it in the family is abundant power.
To follow it in the community is steady power.
To follow it in the whole country is lasting power.
To follow it in the world is universal power.


So in myself I see what self is,
in my household I see what family is,
in my town I see what community is,
in my nation i see what a country is,
in the world I see what is under heaven.


How do I know the world is so?
By this.

Happy Monday

Monday came as it always does, and the dawn was a bit difficult, ensconced as I was in the warmth and comfort of it all.

And yet, the tao and the day continue to show me the Way of it all.

The path is not in error just because it curves.

14

Celebrating mystery

Look at it: nothing to see.

Call it colorless.

Listen to it: nothing to hear.

Call it soundless.

Reach for it: nothing to hold.

Call it intangible.

Triply undifferentiated,

it merges into oneness,

not bright above,

not dark below.

Never, oh! never

can it be named.

It reverts, it returns

to unbeing.

Call it the form of the unformed,

the image of no image.

Call it unthinkable thought.

Face it: not face.

Follow it: no end.

Holding fast to the old Way,

we can live in the present.

Mindful of the ancient beginnings,

we hold the thread of the Tao.

61- Lying Low

61-Lying Low

The polity of greatness
runs downhill like a river to the sea,
joining with everything,
woman to everything.
By stillness the woman
may always dominate the man,
lying quiet underneath him.
So a great country
submitting to small ones, dominates them;
so small countries,
submitting to a great one, dominate it.
Lie low to be on top,
be on top by lying low.

--translation by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Spiritual Way of Lao Tzu – On the Art of Living

"I have three treasures. Guard and keep them: The first is deep love, the second is frugality, and the third is not to dare to be ahead of the world. Because of deep love, one is courageous. Because of frugality, one is generous. Because of not daring to be ahead of the world, one becomes the leader of the world." ~ Lao Tzu

Lao Tzu was the most famous philosopher, mystic and alchemist in China. He is the author of the Tao Te Ching, or the Way. He is regarded as one of the foundation stones of Taoism. Originally, the word Tao meant a specific line of action, probably a military one, because the ideograms that compose this word mean “feet” and “leader”. Lao Tzu interpreted the Tao as a way, the essence of the Universe. In a written poem Lao Tzu describe “the Way” as the emptiness that cannot be filled, but from where everything manifests from.

In his most famous image, Lao Tzu is portrayed as riding a buffalo, because the domestication of this animal is associated with the Path of Enlightenment in Zen Buddhist traditions.

"Don't think you can attain total awareness and whole enlightenment without proper discipline and practice. This is egomania. Appropriate rituals channel your emotions and life energy toward the light. Without the discipline to practice them, you will tumble constantly backward into darkness." ~ Lao Tzu

It is believed that he lived to be 160 years old. In his old age he received the visit of Confucius, who witnessed Lao Tzu reprimanding a young disciple for being too ambitious and prideful. Ancient tales said that Confucius was so impressed by the way of discipline of Lao Tzu that he compared him to a flying Dragon that can reach heavens and winds.

“I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.” ~Lao Tzu

He is considered by some to be just a mythical figure in the unconventional universe of ancient legends. One of these tales declares that he was born already with an appearance of an aged man, from which he received the name Lao Tzu, which means literally, “old sage”. Others consider this legend to be just a metaphor to describe the antiquity of Taoism and its philosophical concepts which were antecedents of the Tao Te Ching itself.

Copyright 2011 Humanity Healing Network

Challenge: Water

Nothing is softer or more flexible than water,

yet nothing can resist it. 

Lao Tzu

I can't believe another challenge cycle has spun around again. The new timeframe seems to be uncannily aligned with my life's rhythms, to boot. Life is frequently like that.

Last challenge I learned much - so very very much - about how love is stronger than fear. It was a lesson I understood intellectually, but had no true grasp on, and I delved in to put the principle into practice.

It was as hard as it sounds. At times, I could not imagine how to release the fear, let alone find the love, but it was there, the whole time, waiting for me, whenever I was ready to receive.

And now, armed with a new understanding, I can move into practice a step further, finding strength in the softness, in the compassion, in the unity. For we are all one; to injure anyone is to injure myself. I have no enemies other than myself. Unity can heal all divides.

This challenge I flow forth as water: welcoming, accepting, unifying, undeniable strength through nurturing and softness.

My tools along the journey are simplicity, gratitude, stillness. The sauna and the hot tub, the keyboard and printer are my allies. As a river does not flow in a vacuum, I will lean on my supporters and support others in turn. We will do more, together.