He who knows men is clever;
He who knows himself has insight.
He who conquers men has force;
He who conquers himself is truly strong.
He who knows when he has got enough is rich,
And he who adheres assiduously to the path of Tao is a
man of steady purpose.
He who stays where he has found his true home endures
long,
And he who dies but perishes not enjoys real
longevity.
To see other people objectively and to understand why they behave as
they do is of course a great and necessary skill. But it takes an extra effort to understand the
person who looks at others - that profile of biases that shapes and distorts
all the information that comes to us through the senses. Who were are, and the way we see things, is
not at all easy to see. We are all
shaped according to the family, the culture, the time we are born into yet
these shaping factors can seem so obvious, so given, that we rarely assume that
they might be distortions that we might get any perspective on.
As we develop in our spiritual practice, our sense of identity shifts
more and more towards the empty observer.
Our self in time and space, our ego, becomes as much an object to this
silent witness as the other men and women on the street. Slowly we develop the ability to see and gain
perspective on aspects of our behaviour that before were entirely
unconscious. Who we are in this world
becomes an object to be studied alongside our study of other people.
What we gain is called by the sage ‘insight’. And with insight we are given the space and
the opportunity to actually reflect on who we are in the world, and modify
those aspects that do not please us. And
the more we become rooted in the silent peace of the witness, the more we are
able to creatively shape our lives according to our actual wishes. For the first time we have the power to stop
acting automatically. And by gaining this
power, and by making visible changes in our conduct, we become ‘a new way of
doing things’ for all those around us.
What we gain through self-insight is liberating not just for ourselves
but for all those people around us who are likewise trapped into habitual ways
of doing things.
He who conquers men has force;
He who conquers himself is truly strong.
If we are acting badly then sooner or later we are going to encounter
someone who objects to what we are doing.
Of course, if we are in a position of power than we can make sure that
this person suffers for opposing us. Or,
more likely, the person will not openly oppose us in the first place because
they are afraid of the consequences.
This is why the path of power is still sought by an overwhelming portion
of the population. With power we get our
way, and our will can be fulfilled unimpeded.
But exercising our power in this way creates a tension in nature. Those who we trample on will not be trampled
forever. There is a power that forever
springs up in recoil, and before long we will feel this power and come to
repent of our forcefulness.
The better way therefore is to conquer ourselves first. By conquering our self we gain power of those
impulses that lead us to trample on others.
We find a peace on the inside, and with this peace ever at hand, we do
not need to strive and compete with other people over superfluous resources. We do not need to trample because we are
already fully satisfied with what we have got.
And if something must be fought over, then that is already proof that it
does not contain the peace of the Tao, the Primal Simplicity.
So by foregoing our outer desires, and finding the compensation on the
inside we conquer our self, and this makes us stronger than the strong. Whatever power can give us, we already have.
He who knows when he has got enough is rich,
And he who adheres assiduously to the path of Tao is a
man of steady purpose.
Dissatisfaction feels precisely the same whether we are millionaires, or
whether we are paupers. Either way it is
discontent, and two million in the bank account is not enough for the person
who wants the three million yacht.
Satisfaction can therefore be found at surprisingly low levels, if we
know where to look. Spiritual traditions
from all places and all times have each taught that the cure for
dissatisfaction is ‘finding the treasure within’. This is the essence of all pleasure of all
satisfaction. When the tycoon makes a
killing on a new deal, that feeling he gets is the treasure within. But what he may not understand is that he
went to way too much trouble! A few
simple practices, whether prayer or good works, might have brought him the
exact same thrill.
The more we tune into the ‘treasure within’ the more we are capable of
letting the Tao run its course. We do
not need to intervene in search of pleasure and wealth. And the more he abides by the Way the more in
tune his desires will become. It will
only occur to him to desire what is already headed his way!
He who stays where he has found his true home endures
long,
The true home is of course the Tao.
The Tao is the place we are always at; the holiday or the business trip
does not exist in the Tao, so it is no wonder we can call it our home. By staying home and never wandering far, we
preserve our energies. We do not exhaust
ourselves with fruitless voyages, and we do not despair that we never find what
we seek.
And he who dies but perishes not enjoys real
longevity.
The death that occurs is the death of a smaller identity. It is the ‘corpse’ that is left behind once
we have shifted our identity to the Primal Simplicity that is our true
nature. Once we have become the Primal,
there is nothing that death can reach.
Whatever dies, is no longer to do with us.
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