Lao Tzu: Steps on the Path of Enlightenment is World Peace

Many years ago I found Lao Tzu’s book ‘Dao De Jing’ it means the Way.  I was leaving a philosophy course in London feeling it was not what I was seeking. I saw a little obscure book, very thin amongst the books. I picked it up and read the sonnets, I felt an instant connection. Many years later I found the Later Teachings of Lao Tzu and I recall long walks contemplating this wise old chinese man. I felt a resonance with his wisdom, which is more relevant today then ever. You know when you touch the face of truth, its image in your heart remains unchanged as you can always trace the meaning through your deepest feelings. That is what I found and it has been my inner navigation that has lead me towards such masters. For all these years I still don’t feel I know the truth, but I seem to constantly emerse myself in so many voices, that all return to the one song.

Enjoy this document, it is a blueprint for change and it is the universal way of truth. If you are ready you will receive it, if not that is fine also. There are no mistakes in this life.

http://www.phenster.com/lot-archive/Archive-Stories/Tao-Te-Ching.html

“Welcome. This site is dedicated to the exposition and interpretation of the Tao Te Ching, perhaps one of the oldest books still in existence, and perhaps one of the most profound. The original text, written in ancient Chinese has been kindly translated and commented upon by someone I know not who, nor when. Whoever they are, they have the most profound grasp and understanding of the subject matter, and I honour them as a master. Of the many translations of the Tao Te Ching, this one, for me, is the most rewarding.

How to use this book. If you want to gradually transform yourself into someone who is in harmony with nature, who is in touch with their intuition to the point where they can see their interconnectedness with all things, then I recommend that you bookmark this URL and read one passage a day, preferably in the morning. But more than just read the passages, reflect upon them during the day, looking persistently for evidence in your own life of how the principles discussed in the passages apply in your world. Over time, a gradual transformation will occur. Your insight into the nature of the world will be honed to the point where you intuitively understand situations and people in ways that conventional school-based learning cannot teach.”

Introduction

The Tao Te Ching, the ancient Chinese “Book of the Tao” was written by philosopher Lao Tzu around 600 BC. Not a religion, Taoism resembles modern Physics in that it describes the nature of the universe, the laws that govern it and the ideal ways that a person might place themselves in harmony with those laws. As the oldest surviving book, it shows that the simpler and more in tune with the laws of Nature something is, the longer it will endure.

Taoism is about seeking the middle path through life; avoiding extremes, threading a surefooted way between opposites so lightly and so reasonably that no act is followed by a reaction. The middle path means there no need to suffer the consequences of an act. In terms of the doctrine of Karma, it means knowing how to avoid bad reactions (bad karma).

The practice of Taoism is basically about discovering who you are, learning to sense the world around you directly. To contemplate your impressions deeply. It advises against relying on ideologies because to do so will rob your life of meaning and cut you off from your intuition. It is intuition that should be cultivated because this is the only way to really know the world. By having an intuitive understanding of the world you are in a position to predict the future and be able to position yourself so as to achieve your goals.

Lao Tzu believed that an awareness of the physical laws as they operate both in the universe as a whole and in the minds of people gives a person the power to direct events without resorting to force. How is this done? Use attitude instead of action and influence others by guiding rather than ruling. The object is to avoid using means that will elicit a counter-reaction. Lao Tzu noticed that in Nature, an excessive force in a particular direction tends to trigger the growth of an opposing force, and therefore the use of force cannot be the basis for establishing a strong and lasting social foundation.

The Tao Te Ching is a challenge. It challenges you to see the world as it actually is by accepting the stark truth of the physical laws that control existence and evolution.  It challenges us to discover intellectual independence wherein we have complete trust in our own perceptions and instincts. It challenges you to reject force and rely rather on the steady force of your attitudes to influence others. See the following topics for more detail:

·       What is the Tao?
·       The Tao of Power
·       The Tao of Nature

What is the Tao

No one actually knows where the Tao Te Ching came from, but this slim book of about five thousand words forms the foundation of classical Chinese philosophy. Simply stated, the book explains an evolving force called Tao that operates  throughout the universe; and it describes the personal power that comes from being in step with the Tao, that is known as Te. The word Ching means classic.” Throughout the twenty-five-hundred-year history of the Tao Te Ching, hundreds of translations and commentaries have been published–more than fifty in English alone–making it, next to the Bible, the world’s most-translated classic. The book has found an audience in each new generation and never seems to lose its provocative intellectual value. In this age, the Tao Te Ching has been rediscovered by physicists, who find in it remarkable correlations with their theories of the universe. The Tao Te Ching, moreover, is being explored by psychologists and business leaders who hope to understand that quality of the oriental mind that makes it so centred and insightful in world affairs and economics. The book casts a spell over those who contemplate it; it is a magnet for minds with the potential to influence society. Indeed, influencing society is what the Tao Te Ching is all about.

According to legend, the book was written by Lao Tzu, a gifted scholar who lived nearly twenty-six centuries ago and worked as the Custodian of the Imperial Archives during the reign of the Chou Dynasty. Lao Tzu experienced a time of political unrest not unlike our own. His world was divided into hundreds of separate provinces, each with its own laws and leaders. He saw a build-up of arms and hostilities as each province competed for political supremacy. Every aggressive act was met with further hostility and aggression, until it seemed to the war-torn people of China that they stood on the threshold of complete destruction and that their world would finish as a wasteland.

The Tao of Power

The Tao Te Ching explores a remarkable power that is latent in every individual. This power, that Lao Tzu calls Te, emerges when one is aware of and aligned with the forces in nature (Tao). It is essential to Lao Tzu’s system that we understand why and how reality functions, and that we come to realise that nature invariably takes its course. We already know that it is rarely worth the effort to swim upstream, but do we know that way the stream is flowing? We realise that it is difficult and unsatisfying to cut across the grain, but can we see that way the grain runs? Lao Tzu believed that a constant awareness of the patterns in nature will bring us insights into the parallel patterns in human behaviour: Just as spring follows winter in nature, growth follows repression in society; just as too much gravity will collapse a star, too much possessiveness will collapse an idea.

Like all matter and energy in the universe, the emotional and intellectual structures that we build are constantly transformed by outside forces. Much of our power is wasted in propping up our beliefs, defending them, and convincing others to believe in them so that they might become “permanent.” Once we understand the folly in this, we gain power by using the evolution in nature to our advantage–accepting, incorporating, and supporting change when and where it wants to occur. Our cooperation with the forces in nature makes us a part of those forces. Our decisions become astute because they are based on a dynamic, evolving reality, not on fixed or wishful thinking. We are able to see things that others might not because the reach of our minds is extended through the contemplation of the universe. We develop vision and we help create the future with the power of our vision.

Lao Tzu believed that when people do not have a sense of power they become resentful and uncooperative. Individuals who do not feel personal power feel fear. They fear the unknown because they do not identify with the world outside of themselves; thus their psychic integration is severely damaged and they are a danger to their society. Tyrants do not feel power, they feel frustration and impotency. They wield force, but it is a form of aggression, not authority. On closer inspection, it becomes apparent that individuals who dominate others are, in fact, enslaved by insecurity and are slowly and mysteriously hurt by their own actions. Lao Tzu attributed most of the world’s ills to the fact that people do not feel powerful and independent.

The Tao of Nature

Lao Tzu was perhaps the first theoretical physicist. He devoted all of his intellectual energy to observing nature and its physical laws and to noting the interdependent relationship of all things. He saw a unified field of forces that he called Tao, but because what he saw could not be expressed in a logical, analytical fashion, he conveyed it through paradox. The eighty-one chapters in his small book are riddled with self-contradictory phrases: “The Tao illuminated appears to be obscure. The Tao advancing appears to be retreating. It is the form of the formless; the image of nothingness.” Lao Tzu used paradox to provoke an unusual awareness in his readers, and to help explain the patterns and cycles, the parity and complementarity, that he saw superimposed on reality by the physical forces in the universe. The most striking of these patterns. central to the Tao Te Ching, is that of polarity.

Polarity arises from the Taoist view of the cosmological origins of the universe: Before existence there was an idea–an Absolute. The Chinese call it T’ai Chi, the Supreme Ultimate. The Absolute, in a sudden and tremendous desire to know itself, divided itself from non-existence in a cataclysmic event resulting in endless cause and effect–an event that neatly parallels the so-called Big Bang Theory. Instantly, space was formed and time began, and two charged states came into being, yin (negative) and yang (positive). As a result of the complementary polarity of yin and yang, matter and energy, that were at first undifferentiated, separated and regrouped into the physical reality that became our universe.

Lao Tzu believed that everything that exists comes into reality through the polarity of yin and yang. He called the specific physical laws and cycles that control and govern reality the Tao, and suggested that the actions of the Tao reflect the purpose of a larger entity (the Absolute). So if reality came about because the Absolute wanted to know itself, then our evolutionary destiny must be to help it get a good look by investigating, observing, and emulating nature.

Conceiving of a universe where reality is shaped through the force of the intellect (and vice versa) may be somewhat easier for physicists than it is for the rest of us, but it is a concept that is indispensable to anyone seeking powerful insights into the ways of the world. All investigations–whether at the atomic level or at the level of our own cultural behaviour–yield more refined and accurate information when approached from this paradoxical point of view. Fortunately, the structure of the brain and the bilateral processes of the mind can make effective use of this form of thought.

The brain accepts all types of information from all stimuli simultaneously, and the mind processes it in the form of emotional responses, intuitive feelings, and logically formulated analyses. In the West, we rely almost exclusively on logical analysis. We are encouraged to think in a linear fashion, using words and numbers to draw conclusions about our work and our lives. These logical functions, according to neurological research, are performed by the left hemisphere of the brain. At the same time, we learn to discount aesthetic or intuitive information–a right-hemisphere function–because it is considered less valuable to our culture. Thus we find ourselves primarily concerned with measuring events and analysing their meaning, rather than creating and directing their flow. We are taught to ignore the intuitive or irrational, no matter how strong these “gut feelings” might be. As these right-hemisphere feelings are repressed we lose touch with our intuitive mind and our insights become increasingly rare.

Lao Tzu believed that intuitive knowledge was the purest form of information. For that reason, he expressed his philosophy in the form of thought experiments–mental exercises designed to enhance and evolve the intuitive skills. In the Tao Te Ching, he compels us to use intuition as an equal partner with logic, and encourages us to combine our cognitive understanding of the world around us with a strong personal vision. Neurologically, we might call this a “whole-mind” approach, wherein the spatially and aesthetically astute right hemisphere of the brain is put into use along with the analytically and logically oriented left hemisphere. In this way, we gain a holistic and precise view of reality because we are also perceiving mood, change, and possibility–the mood of the times, the change as society evolves, and the possible future we might create. It is the view of the artist, the philosopher, the visionary–a view that has always carried with it the power to influence the world.

The Tao in Nature

This group of twelve passages discusses the basic physical laws underlying Taoist philosophy; the cosmology of the Tao and the origins of the universe. It is best understood using a scientific point of view.

The twelve passages are as follows:
·       The Nature of the Tao
·       Perceiving the Subtle
·       Using What Is Not
·       The Essence of the Tao
·       Knowing the Collective Origin
·       The Tao of Greatness
·       The Evolving Tao
·       The Way
·       Mastering the Paradox
·       Knowing Polarity
·       The Power of Impartial Support
·       Nature’s Way

The Nature of the Tao

“The Tao is not the source of the universe – the Absolute – rather it describes the way everything in the universe changes, evolves. It is a distilled representation of a greater reality.”
The Tao is a unified field of forces. Like a mathematical formula it is both empty and beautiful; and like a formula it can be used again and again. We can perceive the reality of the Absolute by studying the Tao in the same way that we can understand mathematics by studying its principles. For example if we understand the formula pr2 we can use it to calculate the area of any circle whether the size of an atom, our planet or a galaxy.

The Tao permeates nature. It moves through the world as an omnipresent influence, levelling extremes – smoothing and harmonising – and evolving the universe and all things in it.
We can no more remain unaffected by its influence than a naked person swimming in the ocean can remain dry. Enlightened people learn to recognise it’s ways and harmonise their actions with those ways. This is the way to human happiness and success in our endeavours. (1)
Perceiving the Subtle

“The Tao is like a subtle female in the sense of having archetypal feminine characteristics – it is passive, receptive, tranquil.”

“A subtle person does not attempt to use force to achieve their ends because it invites an equal and opposite reaction. Rather they work at the underlying cause and with comparatively little effort bring about the result they want. This is being subtle because to an observer they have apparently not done much.

The key to the mysterious power of the Tao lies in it’s subtlety.”

Our perception of reality is like being in a large valley – we can see the valley and everything in it and it seems like a lot. But the boundaries of the valley obscures what lies beyond. In this metaphor it is the source of creation – the underlying cause of the valley – that lies beyond.
The Tao is like the entrance to the valley; it connects the source of creation beyond with the interior of the valley that we can see. By studying the way the Tao functions we can see a reflection of the source of creation that lies beyond what we see around us.
Enlightened people know that when they are in step with the Tao in worldly affairs, their endeavours can be completed effortlessly. (6)

Using What Is Not

“In the same way that doors and windows cut into the wall of a room are what makes the room useful, the Tao is that vital component that is ‘not there’ but that is indispensable to the process of change.”

“In the same way that a missing electron causes atomic events, it is the Tao that inspires natural events. It acts as a catalyst; it causes a reaction but remains unchanged during the process.”
So like the physicist in the laboratory, Enlightened People know that it’s possible to use what is not there to shape events in the outside world.

To manifest an effect, they create a sense of absence that the forces of nature are compelled to resolve. This intellectual integration with the laws of nature is what allows Enlightened People to position themselves effectively in the world.

Take advantage of what is there by using what is not there. (11)

The Essence of the Tao

“The Tao can be looked at but not seen, listened to but not heard, reached for but not obtained; it’s name is formless, soundless and intangible. Therefore it is beyond analysis, it can only be known by the intuitive mind.”

“Unlike the rising sun, it is not bright; unlike the setting sun, there is no dimming of the light when it sets. Endlessly this nameless essence of the Tao goes on, merging and returning to nothingness.”
That is why the ancients called it the form of the formless, the image of nothingness. It is why they called it elusive; when confronted it cannot be grasped.

The nature of Tao can be understood by knowing what it is not. Awareness of it cannot be reached via the senses, only by the intuitive mind and by it’s observed effects in the environment, on people’s ideas, and on society.

World events occur in repeating cycles, over and over again. Enlightened people learn to recognise these recurring patterns and develop the ability to trace events back to their origins. In doing this, the enlightened person comes into closer contact with their own intuitive mind.
With an intuitive understanding of the patterns of life, the outcome of events can be predicted and steps taken to affect the outcome.

The essence of the Tao is that an observer can have an effect on the observed through tactical observation. (14)

Knowing the Collective Origin

“The power we observe in Nature is expressed through the Tao. But we can’t sense the Tao directly, we can only observe it’s effects. Like a powerful magnet, we can’t directly see the magnetism but we can see the effect it has on ferrous metal.”

“The Tao is an informed force. It brings power to those who are aware of it because the collective-unconscious urges and the social trends of our culture directly parallel the physical laws that operate through the Tao.”

“Enlightened people contemplate the interdependent cohesiveness of matter and energy; the way it is held together and in a state of constant evolution by the power of this informing principle, this life force that we call the Tao. When looking about at the patterns of nature, we can see that some kind of informing principle underlies and permeates nature. This force – the Tao – expresses itself in the diversity of life and in the amazing complexity and cohesiveness of the processes of nature.”

The thousands of life-forms around us – both animal and plant – are all expressions of the same life-force. These life forms, ourselves included are all subject to the same laws of nature – we are all born, gather strength, reach a peak, go into decline and then die. There are no exceptions, only variations in outer form and the length of the lifecycle. The same can be said of cyclones and human societies.

These laws of nature – the Tao – are expressed on a higher level, that of our unconscious mind and in the patterns of our social behaviour. Enlightened people gain influence by learning to recognise and identify with these underlying laws of nature. That way, they can predict future trends and take early action, place themselves in the right place at the right time.
The Collective Origin is a way of saying that the informing principle that underlies space and time is the same state that preceded the Big Bang. Reaching further back, before the bang Enlightened People seek to identify with the Absolute – the creative state that exists outside of time and space, ever engaged in creating realities such as this one. (21)

The Tao of Greatness

“There was something in a state of fusion in the moments before heaven and earth were born. Silent, vast, independent and unchanging; working everywhere, tirelessly; it can be regarded as the mother of the world. This is the Taoist view of the universe moments before the Big Bang that created the universe. The Tao had come into existence but all matter and energy was still a cohesive and undifferentiated mass.”

“This view agrees with that of the theoretical physicist searching for the unified field at the heart of the universe. In the first billionth of a second after the bang, four forces appeared; gravity, strong nuclear force, electromagnetism and weak nuclear force. Energy and matter, time and space were now differentiated. Lao Tzu calls the actions of these forces throughout the universe and in the social patterns of humans, the Tao.”

“I do not know it’s name; the word I say is Tao. Forced to give it a name, I say great. Great means that it goes on forever, so far that it comes back, eventually.”

The Tao is great because it is cyclic; given enough time, history repeats itself. The movements of the Tao follows the laws of nature, and the power of Taoism lies in perceiving and understanding the manifestation of those laws in society.

Enlightened people intuitively perceive the evolution of society and so are able to guide themselves and others towards harmony and fulfilment. (25)

The Evolving Tao

“The Tao is everywhere and in everything. All things depend on it for growth and it always supplies what is needed. It is the life force that evolves all matter and energy. It acts spontaneously and without motive or possessiveness – an automatic process.”

“Enlightened people learn to recognise the Tao and allow it to evolve their social environments in the same way as the natural environment. They instinctively and deftly untangle the knots and smooth the fabric of life and allow the need for growth, creativity and independence in those around them to be fulfilled.”

People are drawn to inspiring individuals who allow the greatness (the Tao) to work through them. Lao Tzu believed that to emulate the behaviour of the Tao would bring individuals into the closest possible harmony with actual reality and true meaning in life.

A life that shares, in it’s aims, the purpose of the universe, will also share in it’s greatness and significance. That life comes to embody the universe and truly demonstrates the fact that the macrocosm (universe) is reflected in the microcosm (person). (34)

The Way

“Polarity is the movement of the Tao. Receptivity is the way it is used. The world and All Things were produced from it’s existence. It’s existence was produced from non-existence.”

“According to Lao Tzu, it was from non-existence – the Absolute – that the Tao was produced. The Tao, in turn, produced the positive and negative states Yin and Yang. These charged states coalesced into all physical reality, with their behavioural and structural characteristics based on a unified field of forces.”

These forces, or physical laws reflect the actions of the Tao. The Tao operates through polarity, a physical law that governs cause and effect. Similar to Newton’s law that every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

In social realms this manifests in such cycles as easy and difficult, passive and active. The law of polarity changes and evolves all things by acting upon extremes. Extremes are overcharged and begin moving in their opposite direction. Those who follow the Tao avoid extremes and practice moderation and receptivity. In this way they gain power by moving with the prevailing forces. (40)

Mastering the Paradox

“When enlightened people hear of the Tao, they work hard to practice it. When average people hear of the Tao, they appear both aware and unaware of it. When fools hear of the Tao, they roar with laughter. Without the foolish laughter, the old sayings would not be true: the Tao illuminated appears to be obscured. The Tao advancing appears to be retreating. The Tao levelled appears to be uneven.”

“Superior power appears to be low, great clarity appears to be spotted, extensive power appears to be insufficient, established power appears to be stolen and substantial power appears to be spurious.”

“The greatest space has no corners, the greatest talents are slowly mastered, the greatest music has the rarest sound and the Great Image has no form. The Tao is hidden and nameless yet it is the Tao that supports and completes.”

Those who follow the Tao continually look beyond present reality in an attempt to perceive the seeds of change. They know that all reality is subject to the process of change, the cycle towards the opposite – life to death, positive to negative, energy to matter – and then back again. By recognising and understanding the law of polarity as it is countlessly manifested gives enlightened people great insight into worldly affairs.

Enlightened people know that unintuitive people can be dangerous to work with since they are guided solely by the current appearance of things that are, in reality, changing. Unintuitive actions and decisions lack dimension and may interfere insensitively with the natural process of change and cause counter-reactions.

Enlightened people seek out others who have intuition and vision – a form of intelligence comes from cultivating the instincts, observing the direction of change and apprehending the evolution of ideas. (41)

Mastering the paradox means looking past the effect to the underlying cause. Seeing the cause provides insight since it is the underlying pattern that influences past, present and future events. When we look at the last 1,000 years of European history, we see a pattern of unification emerge. From a multitude of small states has come a single European Union via a tortuous process of war and peace that has merged the smaller states into larger. This movement of the Tao from positive to negative and back to positive many times has evolved Europe into a single entity. Given this tendency towards unification, we can expect the trend to continue. In the future, Europe will probably consolidate itself as an integrated entity and look beyond its borders, seeking to become united with its neighbours. This is how we can look beyond present reality of Europe and see the seeds of change at work.

Knowing Polarity

“The Tao produced the One, the One produced the Two, the Two produced the Three and the Three produced all things. All things carry Yin and hold to Yang; their blended influence brings harmony. People hate to be alone, lonely and unfavoured; yet leaders take these names.”
“So in natural law, some lose and in this way profit; some profit and so lose. Those who are violent do not die naturally.”

“This is Lao Tzu’s description of the creation of the universe. Before the One there was the Absolute that stands outside of space and time, outside of the Universe it creates.”
The Tao produced the One: temporal/spatial reality. The One produced the Two: the opposite charges of positive and negative (yin and yang). The Two produced the Three: matter, energy and the physical laws that bind them together. From these three came the existence of all things in the universe.

All things are interconnected and interdependent, and from this concept comes the behaviour of polarity: when something increases something else decreases. So it is that enlightened people who wish to endure do not put themselves above others, and if they wish to live long, are never violent.(42)

The Power of Impartial Support

“The Tao produces, it’s power supports. It’s natural laws give form to the universe, it’s influence brings about the completion of all matters. And so it is that all things respect the Tao and value it’s power, if they did but know what to call it.”

“The Tao therefore advances, cultivates, comforts, matures, nourishes and protects. It produces but does not possess that that it produces. It’s subtle power is such that it acts without expectation and advances without dominating.’

The Tao is completely indifferent to that that it produces, but it’s movement tends to favour those that follow a spontaneous and natural path. It’s power can be used by those who align themselves with it’s current influence.

To unenlightened people who do not follow the Tao (i.e. go against the grain of their own natures) the Tao is still indifferent. The only result of this is a difficult life path.
In the East, the universe is generally regarded as an illusion, and the source behind it – the Absolute – is viewed as impersonal. It is an intelligence that creates and supports matter and energy for the sake of it’s own manifestation.

Therefore in the Eastern view, people who maintain an attitude of impartiality, in emulation of the laws of nature, are able to use the subtle powers to shape their own destiny. (51)
The Tao is the indefinable thing spoken of with reverence by every culture as they try to express the underlying cause of the universe and our lives in it. In this picture the Tao is the split arch within the larger arch (the world as we know it). The background is the unified field of natural forces operating throughout the universe.

The Tao is like a huge river flowing so very slowly and we are swimming in it. The flow equates to the gradual evolution of the world, measured in millennia. To see the direction of flow, we need to step back far enough to gain perspective. This stepping back is the Taoist perspective.

Natures Way

“Those bold in daring will die, those bold in not daring will survive. Of these two, either may benefit or harm. Nature decides that is evil, but who can know why? Even enlightened people regard this as difficult.”

“The Tao in nature does not contend, yet skilfully triumphs. Does not speak, yet skilfully responds. Does not summon, yet attracts. Does not hasten, yet skilfully designs. Natures network is vast, so very vast. It’s mesh is coarse, yet nothing slips through.”

In the Taoist view, the way of nature is considered the ideal in behaviour – we should model our behaviour on the way nature works. It is a pattern to be followed so as to place ourselves on the path of least resistance, in step with the Tao.

Nature is described as an infinitely large network, a unified field of physical laws that influence all actions, all thoughts and all natural phenomena.

Nothing escapes the laws of nature, and nothing escapes nature’s notice and reaction. The Tao in nature is intelligent and powerful. It achieves it’s plan without effort and it responds to potentially unbalancing extremes with precision and accuracy. (73)

The Tao in Awareness

This group of 14 passages further explores the physical laws operating in Nature as well as the basic philosophical assumptions in Taoism. The passages are in the form of thought experiments: awareness exercises that can be used to expand the mind and cultivate the powers of intuition.

The passages are as follows:
·       Holding to the Centre
·       Non-competitive Values
·       Controlling the Senses
·       Expanding Identification
·       Knowing the Absolute
·       Losing the Instincts
·       Sensing the Insensible
·       Power Without Motive
·       Using Emptiness
·       The Art of Survival
·       Returning to Insight
·       Establishing a Universal View
·       Gaining Oneness
·       Knowing the Disease

Holding to the Centre

“Heaven and earth are impartial, they regard all things as transitory. Enlightened people are also impartial, they regard all people as transitory and as such have no emotional attachment to them. This is seeing people like the leaves on a tree. They are born, flourish, serve a purpose then die to be replaced by another leaf. It is natural that they do this and are beautiful in their way.”
“People are not normally sad when a leaf dies; but people and leaves differ in their outward form and not in their inner nature, they are both living creatures that are subject to the laws of nature. Impartial also means not being too involved with the day-to-day concerns of society – the current issues that come and go.”

“Between heaven (non-physical aspect of nature) and earth (physical aspect) the space is like a bellows. The shape changes but not the form. The more it moves, the more it produces.”
“Too much talk will exhaust itself, it’s better to stay centred.

“Heaven and earth reflect the actions of the Tao in worldly affairs. Because the Tao acts impartially in nature, enlightened people do so as well. They know that they must look at human-kind impartially if they are to gain perspective on themselves and their place in the world.
Evolved people are nonetheless compassionate in their intellectual and emotional independence. Because they are centred, they spontaneously react with benevolence. To hold to the centre is to listen to the voice of the inner mind – an extension of the mind of the universe. To follow one is to be in harmony with the other. This is the path to self-discovery. (5)

The inner mind is an extension of the mind of the universe – listening to it leads to discovery of self and of the universe too. The picture shows a macrocosm (the universe) and a microcosm (a person) – one is a reflection of the other. The best way we can come to understand the world in that we live is to strive to know ourselves. When we know ourselves we become wise. As a bonus, the same knowledge can be then applied to better understand the world around us. We can apply our understanding of self, gained by listening to the inner mind, to the greater world outside since the laws of nature apply equally to everything in the universe.

Non-competitive Values

“The highest value is like water. The value in water benefits all things and yet does not contend. It stays in places that others disdain, and therefore is close to the Tao.”

“The value in a dwelling is location, the value in a mind is in it’s depth, the value in relationships is benevolence, the value in words is sincerity, the value in leadership is order, the value in work is competence, the value in effort is timeliness. Since they do not contend, there is no resentment.”
Water is a recurring image in the Tao de Ching that is used to describe the action of the Tao and so the behaviour of enlightened people – those who spontaneously bring benefit or progress to situations without causing a backlash of resistance or resentment.

Like water, enlightened people do not aspire and compete to reach high places, rather they are content with a lower place. This Taoist view runs contrary to the popularly held belief that one must contend and struggle in order to achieve success.

The values mentioned in this passage can only be attained with a fully expanded perspective: i.e. to achieve location one must know the whole; to achieve depth, one must realise the full possibilities; to achieve benevolence, one must comprehend human nature; to achieve sincerity, one must know inner truth; to achieve order, one must know the entire structure; to achieve competence, one must know the results of a perfectly executed task; to achieve good timing, one must hold in mind both the past and the future.

With such a breadth of awareness, following conventions is unnecessary since the instincts and intuitions that develop lead unfailingly to fulfilment. (8)
Enlightened people emulate the Tao by bringing benefit to a situation without incurring a backlash of resistance or resentment.

Controlling the Senses

“The five colours will blind one’s eye, the five tones will deafen one’s ear, the five flavours will jade one’s taste. Racing and hunting will derange one’s mind, goods that are hard to get will obstruct one’s way.”

“Therefore, enlightened people regard the centre and not the eye. Hence they discard one and receive the other.”

“To follow the Tao, one must carefully control the input to the senses in order to refine their insights and maintain an accurate perspective on the world. A cacophony of sights, sounds and tastes, together with an accelerated, materially oriented life will stand in the way of accelerated character development and inner clarity.

“Enlightened people know that intellectual independence and social freedom come from controlling the senses. Wang Pi, an early commenter said “The centre nourishes by receiving inward material things. The eye enslaves by directing the senses outward to material things. Enlightened people care little for appearances.”