Tao Te Ching 30 (Teaching 2)

Because the Master believes in himself, he doesn’t try to convince others.
Because he is content with himself, he doesn’t need others’ approval.
Because he accepts himself, the whole world accepts him
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I can’t count the number of times in my life I have verified this teaching – in two very different ways.

First, the vast majority of the people I have admired the most are those men and women whose self-acceptance and contentment give them a quiet confidence that isn’t dependent on the acceptance of others. These people rarely attempt to convince others to think the way they do, because they don’t need others to think the way they do.

Second, the vast majority of the times at which I’ve least admired myself are when I try too hard to convince others about something or when I’m caught in the snare of seeking the approval of others. It’s at those moments when I feel least acceptable and accepted. The root of my discontent at those moments lies in my lack of self-acceptance.

I’m experiencing the peace of self-contentment more and more as time passes. In turn, I’m experiencing the freedom that comes with letting go of many of my conceptual truths, or at least of the need to convince others about them. That’s good for me and for others in my life.

It always feels good to unpack after a long trip. I’ve come “home” with a lot of baggage to unload. During my travels I bought way too many truth trinkets and conceptual souvenirs that seemed appealing when I saw them in a foreign place. But, back home, they sit on a shelf for a while and then they get thrown away because they don’t look or feel right at home, the way they did on the foreign shelf.

There’s no place like home.

Tao Te Ching 30 (Teaching 1)

Whoever relies on the Tao in governing men doesn’t try to force issues or defeat enemies by force of arms. For every force there is a counterforce.

Violence, even well intentioned, always rebounds upon itself.
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Time and time again throughout history we see instances when violence is directed against a country, an ethnic group, a religion, and in due course that violence produces an equally or even more violent reaction. Newton’s third law of motion says that for every action there is an equal and opposing reaction. The Tao Te Ching addressed this law of physics more than 2,000 years before Sir Isaac Newton.

Violence among people is not exempt from the application of this law. Violence produces violence, sooner or later. We should look closely at history and listen carefully to its countless lessons.

When Germany was defeated and humiliated at the end of World War I by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the certainty of the Second World War was set in motion. That war brought an even great horror in the form of the Holocaust.

The battles between Palestinians and Jews, Serbs and Croats, Greek and Turkish Cypriots, Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, Basque nationalists and Spain, Hindus and Muslims in India and Pakistan, have been going on for decades, if not centuries. The sectarian violence between Shiites and Sunnis has been relentless since 632 C.E.

When the Taliban and al Qaeda attacked America in September 2001, the invasion of Afghanistan was set in motion. When America invaded Iraq in March 2003, the seeds for an insurgent reaction were planted, watered and fertilized in one motion. The cycles of violence will continue as long as violence is seen as the solution to violence.

But, we don’t have to turn to the tragic events in world history to see this law unfold. We can see the truth of this teaching acted out on elementary school playgrounds, in high school cafeterias, in domestic abuse, or in the turf wars between inner-city gangs.

We’ve been taught the truth since we were little children. Mom said, “What goes around comes around.” The Golden Rule makes the point in positive terms, “Do unto others what you would have them do unto you,” and in negative terms, “Do not unto others what you would have them not do unto you.”

The law of karma embodies the law of cause and effect. Hate causes hate. Violence causes violence. The Bible teaches this principle as the law of the harvest – we reap what we sow. Sow the seeds of violence and reap the harvest of violence. The world, nature, the Tao, can give us nothing other than the fruit of the seed.

When will we ever learn?

Tao Te Ching 29

Do you want to improve the world? I don’t think it can be done.

The world is sacred. It can’t be improved. If you tamper with it, you’ll ruin it. If you treat it like an object, you’ll lose it.

The Master sees things as they are, without trying to control them. She lets them go their own way, and resides in the center of the circle.
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There’s only one thing we can improve – our self. If we want the world to be a better place, then we need to be a better part of the world in terms of our moral and ethical conduct. In so doing, we impact the lives of other people in loving and compassionate ways and that positive energy is then conveyed through those people to other people.

Our well being in life is sustained by living things and making any improvement in “our world” is a matter of improving the well being of the living things that contribute to our life. The world itself is what it is. It has its natural rhythms and processes and the best thing we can do for the world is to avoid tampering with its rhythms and processes.

It’s hard to avoid the indictment that we have treated the world like an inanimate object rather than like a living thing. As a result, we run the risk of losing the world just like we eventually lose every other object in our life.

The Tao Te Ching invites us back to the center of the circle, where we live in harmony with the rhythms of the world, where we have the clarity to see the world as it is. Only in that truly centered position can we see that there is no need, and no benefit, to trying to control the world.

Tao Te Ching 28

Know the personal, yet keep to the impersonal: accept the world as it is. If you accept the world, the Tao will be luminous inside you and you will return to your primal self.

The world is formed from the void, like utensils from a block of wood. The Master knows the utensils, yet keeps to the block: thus she can use all things.
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I have often recommended The Four Agreements, a book by Don Miguel Ruiz, in which we’re advised to make and keep four agreements with our self:

-- Be impeccable with our word
-- Don’t take anything personally
-- Don’t make assumptions
-- Always do our best

Each agreement is challenging, but the one that may be the most consistently difficult for me is not taking things personally. Here, the Tao Te Ching advices us that accepting the world as it is, which is essential to living a peaceful life, is to keep to the impersonal. That might be another way of saying, don’t take things personally – everything that happens in our life is not all about us.

People who don’t take things personally are able to open up the ego-based shell that both defends and takes offense and thereby open up a path to the primal self – the real self that underlies all the egotistic layers – a self that is luminous in nature.

Similarly, rather than focusing on the objects of creation, including the self, the Master stays focused on the source of all things and by doing so maintains an ability to see, understand and use all things without discrimination. The Master’s drawer is filled with far more utensils than ours.

A Pause

I’m one-third of the way through my brief commentaries on the Tao Te Ching. Many of the postings I made prior to September 1 were the result of hard labor. I worked and strained and struggled with many of them. It was heavy lifting and tiring. The postings I’ve made since September 1 have been just the opposite. They’ve flowed with relatively little effort.

I’m not sure what conclusions to draw from that observation. Just because something is consistently difficult doesn’t make it something to be abandoned and just because something flows with relative ease doesn’t make it something to be embraced. Someone else would undoubtedly have exactly the opposite experience. S/he would write with ease about politics, the war in Iraq or religious intolerance, whereas s/he would struggle mightily with commentary on a text like the Tao Te Ching.

For me, that latter has simply been more akin to my nature. Most of my new-age tendencies are rooted in old-age philosophies and worldviews. In time I suspect that I’ll return to what I perceive as heavier lifting, but for now it’s nice to rest in the flow of something that offers peace and well being through even momentary awareness.

I feel the need to admit the obvious. I regard the philosophy that I’ve written about over the last month to be sufficiently true to provide significantly helpful guidance for my life. But – that which seems easy on one level has embedded difficulty on another level. By that I mean, I don’t always walk the talk.

I wish I lived every moment of every day consistent with the principles that I’ve discussed over the last 30 days. But, I don’t. These teachings, which are natural for me to embrace and espouse, come equipped with their own strain, struggle and heavy lifting as I try to follow them. Staying in the present moment, avoiding dualist thinking, letting go of my multitude of attachments and aversions – are all a significant challenge for me. I’m a work in progress, to say the very least.

To those who know me and see the inconsistency, sometimes glaring, the problem lies with me not with the teachings I’m discussing here. In a month, a year, a decade, I hope to be more integrated. Integrity can be hard labor.

In the meantime, I practice.