Tao Te Ching 8
The supreme good is like water…it is content with the low places that people disdain.
When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.
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We respect people for many reasons but we almost always respect someone who exhibits a sense of peace and contentment, no matter what their station in life may be. It’s only the ego-driven person who believes they find respect through competing. This idea doesn’t make competition bad; it just removes its goodness.
These two lines invite us to draw a contentment connection between “the low places” and simply being yourself. Just as water naturally flows to and nourishes the low places, the “supreme good” naturally flows to and nourishes those who are content with themselves as they are in the present moment.
Comparing ourselves against other people is one of the growing sicknesses of our time. The need to compare drives the competitive addiction to what we perceive to be beauty, wealth and power. Real beauty, wealth and power are found on the other side of that coin.
posted by Jonathan @ 9/09/2007 11:28:00 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
I LOVE this verse. I play this one a lot and have considered painting it.
I visualize water settling in those "low places" in the concrete we see on our walks. You know, the ones that have a build up of slime because they never dry completely.
In drawing the connection you describe, my "low places" include illness. Some days I am better able to accept, and therefore be content despite, illness. I actually compare myself to other people here! How crazy is that--something for which I have little or no control. I need the acceptance reminder on a regular basis.
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