Chapter 40

 

The movement of the Tao consists in returning.

The use of the Tao consists in softness.

All things under heaven are born of the corporeal:

The corporeal is born of the Incorporeal.

The Chinese word fan may be translated in many ways and ‘returning’ is one of the common options.  As ever, the opening couplet speaks to us at two levels: an everyday, and an esoteric, and we shall discuss one and then the other.

Everything that builds and grows and seeks to endure in its own individuality will succeed for a while, but there comes a time when the pull of the Tao will re-exert itself.  Atoms will agglomerate into molecules, which will organise into tissue and whole organisms.  During this process the corporeal is in the ascendant and the Tao may be said to be in abeyance.  But with time, the phenomenon will reach the end of its lifespan and the process will reverse, in exactly the same order that it grew.  Tissue will dissolve into chain of molecules which will in time return to the atomic.

At a more esoteric level, the phenomenal is dissolving moment by moment.  Even the hardest granite is annihilated the moment we softly close our eyes.  To the witnessing consciousness, change is a radically constant process and ‘the movement of the Tao’ is nothing other than this irresistible stream of impermanence.  Things arise and return back to the Tao with the same rapidity, says the Buddha, of a lightning strike or a bubble of foam.

The Daoist sage is able to witness and abide and find their place in the stream of change without needing to go through the endless frustrations of growth that is followed by decay.

The use of the Tao consists in softness.

We charted the rise of the living organism but it is the weakness inherent in the body that will eventually allow time and the Tao in, and the decay to set in.  But if we never oppose the Tao in the first place then there is nothing to decay.  Softness is never seeking to prevail; softness is always remaining in the starting position.  We observe the changing tableau and stay exactly as we are.  Our needs are small and insignificant, we are simple beings at peace with ourselves. 

So in order to use the Tao for our own health and happiness, simplicity and small actions are the way.  By taking our pleasure in small simple satisfactions, nothing accrues that must later be undone.  When we are already at peace we have no need to go into combat with opposing forces in order to secure our peace.

All things under heaven are born of the corporeal:

The corporeal is the word for the world that pre-exists before arrival.  The mountains were formed out of the pre-existing mass that was the Earth.  The planet Earth was formed from the pre-existing matter of the Cosmos.  And of course, the acorn is born of the pre-existing oak tree and we are born of our pre-existing parents. 

Not everything in the Tao Te Ching has to be so mysterious, this scheme is the one we all know and accept.

The corporeal is born of the Incorporeal.

But even to distant galaxies and ancient stardust, there is a backdrop.  The Incorporeal is the subtle realm from which all that we see is formed.

The existence of the subtle realm is not recognised by modern science; science deals exclusively with the corporeal matter discussed in the previous line.  The subtle realm is, however, insisted upon at one time or other by all peoples and all religions.  For this reason it is called the Perennial Philosophy and is the view that consciousness is prior to matter.  Consciousness is the energy that congeals and solidifies into matter, and the solid world that we know is prefigured in our deepest recesses by our dreaming selves. 

A belief in the subtle realm only tends to take hold in a person as result of some remarkable or miraculous experience where we may find ourselves knowing or seeing something, perhaps in a dream or a daydream that then turns into truth in the real world.  We might see the vision before time, or we may see it in a far off place.  We may also gain sudden intuitive insight into a situation of which we had no empirical knowledge.  Whichever it is, there is a strong subjective element to the experience and is so unique in its application that it can’t be verified scientifically.

In the world of science there are two universally acknowledged phenomena that do point to the primacy of consciousness over matter.  The first is in the famous experiments into the behaviour of light, whereby conscious witnessing causes the photon to behave as a particle rather than a wave.

The second is in the placebo effect in medicine, whereby believing in the efficacy of a medicine is enough to effect a cure even when the medicine is bogus.  If our incorporeal mind has accepted a truth then our corporeal body will follow suit.  As the sages knew: ‘the corporeal is born of the Incorporeal.’

 

 

 

 

 

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Chapter 39

 

From of old there are not lacking things that have attained Oneness.

The sky attained Oneness and became clear;

The earth attained Oneness and became calm;

The spirits attained Oneness and became charged with mystical powers;

The fountains attained Oneness and became full;

The ten thousand creatures attained Oneness and became reproductive;

Barons and princes attained Oneness and became sovereign rulers of the world.

All of them are what they are by virtue of Oneness.

If the sky were not clear, it would be likely to fall to pieces;

If the earth were not calm, it would be likely to burst into bits;

If the spirits were not charged with mystical powers, they would be likely to cease from being;

If the fountains were not full, they would be likely to dry up;

I the ten thousand creatures were not productive, they would be likely to come to extinction;

If the barons and princes were not the sovereign rulers, they would be likely to stumble and fall.

Truly, humility is the root from which greatness springs,

And the high must be built upon the foundation of the low.

This is why barons and princes style themselves “The Helpless One,” “The Little One,” and “The Worthless One.”

Perhaps they realise their dependence upon the lowly.

Truly, too much honour means no honour.

It is not wise to shine like jade and resound like stone-chimes.

 

A long and lengthy chapter from the normally laconic old man!  Yet so much of it is an exposition of a single, yet radical idea: The world is as it is because it has found harmony with the abiding principle; the Tao.  The permanence and stability of the earth is the near-perfect expression.  The minerals and the metals are not excitable; they endure and exist over time frames unimaginable, and in their simplicity, their crystalline structures are almost perfectly adjusted to the vicissitudes of time.

And if we want an even more perfect expression of the Tao, consider the sky!  The earth will crumble away over the millennia but the sky remaineth.  Pure, clear and yet dynamic and ever changing, the sky is cleansed of nearly all materiality.  With nothing except the simplest atoms, the ethereal sky is as close to the Tao as we can imagine. 

As is often the case in the Tao Te Ching, the argument then proceeds through a hierarchy of attainment.  Water, gods and spirits and animals are all dependent in their own way upon the Tao for the qualities that define them.  Living vitality is the trait of the animal; the power to adapt, respond and self-regulate is our inheritance from the Tao and without it we are dead.  Of course, special concern is how we, as ordinary human beings, can best embody the Tao.

If the barons and princes were not the sovereign rulers, they would be likely to stumble and fall.

Truly, humility is the root from which greatness springs,

And the high must be built upon the foundation of the low.

While barons and princes must be the exemplars of how to abide with the Tao, the lesson is for all of us.  The discussion proceeds as a meditation on statecraft; what is most striking here is that the sovereignty of the ruler is dependent upon the degree to which they can abide by the Tao.  This cuts through the dilemma that has plagued Western civilisation: is there, as Shakespeare suggests, a ‘divinity that doth hedge a King?  Or is the King an all too human figure who must continuously warrant his position by merit, or else be overthrown?

The Tao Te Ching suggests the ruler accrues merit by obedience to the Tao, and the Tao in return will confer upon him the ineffable stamp of sovereignty that all recognise, and before whom all will bend their knee.

Humility is clearly presented as the correct method: but what does it mean that the high must be built upon the low? 

If we don’t have a conception of a higher force shaping who we are then we will inevitably ‘take the credit’ for all the good fortune that comes our way. We will consider ourselves clever, powerful and determined.  We will view others as less clever, powerful and determined as we are.  We will place too much faith in our own judgement and less on the judgement of others.  Dissenting voices will be dismissed as misguided; agreeing voices will be judged as most wise for no other reason than that they concur with our own.

As we discussed in Chapter 39, when our opinions about the world start to become fixed we lose the ability to appreciate situations in their complexity.  Our conduct is based on what happened ‘last time’ and we fail to realise that circumstances never repeat exactly.  Actually, we are faced with something novel and unprecedented and we must carefully appraise the situation as something unknown.  Our rich experience and wonderful wisdom must count for nothing; so too must our status and power to ‘strong-arm’ events.  The only wisdom here is a humble beginner’s mind.

This is why barons and princes style themselves “The Helpless One,” “The Little One,” and “The Worthless One.”

 Although when we take stock of our current crop of world leaders it is hard to imagine any of them following suit!

Truly, too much honour means no honour.

If we have honour it is because we are willing to accept it.  Perhaps we should be embarrassed – mortified to have people subjugate themselves before us.  To not correct people in their subservience is itself proof that you are not deserving of the honour people wish to give you.

It is not wise to shine like jade and resound like stone-chimes.

You are the one who will be found out in the end.  One is reminded of Napoleon, Emperor of Europe to all except his peasant-born mother.  ‘Pourvu que ça dure,’ she would say: ‘So long as it all lasts!’

 

 

 

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Chapter 38

 

High Virtue is non-virtuous;

Therefore it has Virtue.

Low Virtue never frees itself from virtuousness;

Therefore it has no Virtue.

 

High Virtue makes no fuss and has no private ends to serve:

Low Virtue not only fusses but has private ends to serve.

 

High humanity fusses but has no private ends to serve:

High morality not only fusses but has private ends to serve.

High ceremony fusses but finds no response;

Then it tries to enforce itself with rolled-up sleeves.

 

Failing Tao, man resorts to Virtue.

Failing Virtue, man resorts to humanity.

Failing humanity, man resorts to morality.

Failing morality, man resorts to ceremony.

Now, ceremony is the merest husk of faith and loyalty;

It is the beginning of all confusion and disorder.

 

As to foreknowledge, it is only the flower of Tao,

And the beginning of folly.

 

Therefore, the full-grown man sets his heart upon the substance rather than the husk;

Upon the fruit rather than the flower.

Truly, he prefers what is within to what is without.

 

The opening lines of this chapter demonstrate well the mind-boggling paradox that makes the Tao Te Ching so famous.  To wrap our heads round what is being said, the first thing we need to understand is the distinction between capital ‘V’ Virtue and small ‘v’ virtuousness.  Small ‘v’ virtuousness is what we develop with our intellects.  We look at nature, we take a preference for some aspects of it more than others, and then we try to emulate what we like in our behaviour.  It is the mind-set that knows what is good and what is bad, and then tries to shape nature to include more of the former and less of the latter.

 

Capital ‘V’ Virtuousness doesn’t do this.  The man or woman of Virtue is safe and secure in themselves.  They are at peace.  They therefore no longer think to divide reality into the good and the bad because they are genuinely at peace with all of it.  The flow of nature is not opposed.  Things are left to happen, without judgement, and the sage is able to live alongside his fellow men and women without the need to coerce or control their behaviour according to any agenda…’therefore it has Virtue.’

 

High Virtue makes no fuss and has no private ends to serve:

Low Virtue not only fusses but has private ends to serve.

 

This is the perceptive insight into all those that are so very keen to live the virtuousness life: they wish to get something in return.  Whether it is just the day-to-day admiration and respect of those around them, or the ‘end of days’ entry into Heaven, the do-gooder is engaged in a transaction.  They are wishing to coerce the Tao into serving private ends.

 

The do-gooder is not at peace.  They do not have the inner confidence to simply let things be and so must fearfully orchestrate their lives according to their own illusory agenda.  And of course, because it so intellectually based, it is certain that some other do-gooder somewhere has come to the exact opposite conclusion.  The moralist is always on a collision course, if not with other people than with Nature itself.

 

High humanity fusses but has no private ends to serve:

High morality not only fusses but has private ends to serve.

 

A very interesting distinction is made here between ‘humanity’ and ‘morality’.  Both ‘fuss’ over the situation, but the humane person seems to be able to keep themselves out of the picture.  They are seeing the requirements of the individual situation, and the needs of the individuals involved.  The humane person is not concerned about the status quo, about what normally happens.  They are not invested and attached to the usual moral outcomes.

High ceremony fusses but finds no response;

Then it tries to enforce itself with rolled-up sleeves.

 

Then the argument turns mystical.  Ritual is deployed in order to petition the hidden powers; this way we will gain the outcome with which we know and love and feel safe – the outcome that will not rock our boat and upset our order.  But we do not realise that our desires are unreasonable, and will therefore ‘find no response’.  If the universe will not maintain the order easily and naturally, then we must do it the hard way.  We roll up our sleeves and enforce order through fear and intimidation.

 

As every tyrant knows, this strategy works very well… up to a point.  Fear of pain and death is woven into the fabric of the universe, a gravity-like constant imprinted in the hearts of living beings.  But as the history books show, order is always restored by the virtuous ones.  The wise beings secure in the immortality of their inner self, who are not afraid to stand up to injustice because they are not afraid of death.

 

Failing Tao, man resorts to Virtue.

Failing Virtue, man resorts to humanity.

Failing humanity, man resorts to morality.

Failing morality, man resorts to ceremony.

Now, ceremony is the merest husk of faith and loyalty;

It is the beginning of all confusion and disorder.

 

The sequence of events is spelled out here in a nice summary.  As we start to develop ideas about the way things should be, so we begin the spiralling descent into injustice.  This is the paradox of morality.  Our most heinous crimes are committed through the attempt to preserve the ‘good’. The hard hearted are naively convinced of their own righteousness, and cannot and dare not change course.  Blatant evil is perpetrated with a desperate clinging to a fading vision of good. 

Let others go their own way.  The wise person stays close to the source of things.  Small adjustments here and there, allow time to grow and time to prune.  Nothing will get too far off centre.

 

As to foreknowledge, it is only the flower of Tao,

And the beginning of folly.

The term foreknowledge here is perhaps more mystical than it sounds and refers to what we might call clairvoyance or soothsaying.  Then, as now, clairvoyance is a rare but undoubtedly valid experience and is granted to us a kind of gift from the Tao.  A beautiful adornment of life that reminds us that the world is more magical than we suppose. 

 

Foreknowledge can sometimes provide us with the right answer, and inspire a course of action that we couldn’t have made without superior guidance.  Become dependent on it though, and we risk falling into the same trap as those at the ceremony.  There is nothing more injurious than the belief that we are the special ones who can reliably know the Tao ahead of time. 

 

Nothing is fixed; events are probabilities only.  There is always room for the miraculous intervention.  Even our sacred visions are twice translated interpretations.

 

Therefore, the full-grown man sets his heart upon the substance rather than the husk;

Upon the fruit rather than the flower.

Truly, he prefers what is within to what is without.

If we describe our lives as blessed, and refer only to our material circumstances, then we likely don’t understand what blessing is.  There is an inner peace required before we can enjoy a stable appreciation for our material goods.  Ironically, if that inner peace is in place then the bar of expectation gets set very low.  Our rusty old car will serve very well as a beautiful symbol of our inner condition – it will be poignant in its beauty, as anything can be.  Nothing is irredeemably ugly; all is ready and waiting to be redeemed by the loving eye of the wise.

This chapter has been about those who desperately seem peace outwardly, in the form of political harmony.  To be free from harassment is the only tranquillity some people can understand.  But the Tao Te Ching tells us that the political peace we crave is only a symbol of true peace.  Yet find what is within, and you will find it without as well.  

 

 

 

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Chapter 37

Tao never makes any ado,

And yet it does everything.

If a ruler can cling to it,

All things will grow of themselves.

When they have grown and tend to make a stir,

It is time to keep them in their place by the aid of the nameless Primal Simplicity,

Which alone can curb the desires of men.

When the desires of men are curbed, there will be peace,

And the world will settle down of its own accord.

If we can only reconcile ourselves to the way things are; if we can find our peace on the inside and cease always trying to manipulate nature in order to meet our demands, then we will discover to our astonishment that all our basic needs and desires will be met of their own accord.  Like Jesus said: ‘look at the lilies of the field – they do not labour or spin.’  This is because having our needs met is our birth right as a citizen of this planet.  When we find peace on the inside, we will find life unfolding easily and naturally and without the need for any fretting on our side.

Our work will issue from us easily and joyfully.  The people will beat a path to our door wishing to remunerate us for what we have done.  They seek out the fruits of our labour as naturally and as joyfully as the bee seeks out the nectar of the flower.

If a ruler can cling to it,

All things will grow of themselves.

The ruler errs from the Tao when he starts to imagine how he wishes his people to behave.  And with these vision in mind he issues laws and edicts designed to coerce the people into following his vision.  But there is no need for all this interference.  If the ruler is at peace with himself he will trust his people and enjoy them.  They will be left free to act as their desires and instincts tell them.  They will regulate themselves.  They will have the native insight into what true infraction of the Tao is, and the transgressor will be corrected in the best and most natural way.

When they have grown and tend to make a stir,

It is time to keep them in their place by the aid of the nameless Primal Simplicity, Which alone can curb the desires of men.

When matters have grown and tend to make a stir – that is, when things have departed from the Tao and grown out of balance – the usual remedy taken by man is to correct them with the opposite course.  An economy that has been allowed to develop too much national debt must retrench and pass through a period of austerity by way of correction.  This is the usual course.

But here the sage is saying something rather different.  For the trouble is with the above strategy is that it shall before long go too far in the opposite direction.  There is the danger that austerity will become the new normal, and green shoots of economic growth will be suppressed out of fear.  This situation will continue until all balance is lost.  New strategists come in and announce the wisdom of more spending, and soon the original problem is repeated…and round we go.

So what is the sage recommending?  The return to primal simplicity is the stepping back from the world into the realm of Emptiness: the abode of the Tao itself.  At the level of the Tao none of this disturbance is happening.  The Tao is the steady backdrop that remains even when we have lost touch with it and fallen into imbalance.  Abiding in the primal simplicity gives us the peace and the patience to let balance restore itself very naturally.  It gives us the strength to work hard and pay back the deficit, while knowing that our boundless energy is arising from a limitless source.  Knowing what is backing us up, we do not need to fear poverty and we do not need to adopt austerity as a policy.  We are confident that we can pay off the deficit and have enough to spare.  Our peace and our pleasure is taken in that which need not be paid for.  Only when we find this shall our deficit creating desires by fulfilled for free.

When the desires of men are curbed, there will be peace,

And the world will settle down of its own accord.

This is the beautiful message of hope that we find in all the religions, and the truth of it can be found within us all if we only take the trouble to go within.  

Say we desire a new sports car because we want the beauty and we want the thrill of the speed and we want that feeling of warmth that we get from our neighbour respect (and envy).  Well, what the sage is telling us here is that the essence of all these things is a certain inner feeling.  The sports car makes us feel good in so many different ways.

When we find the Tao there is no sports car in our drive, but the exact same feelings that the sports car gives are there in bucket loads.  And this is the important lesson.  We don’t really want the sports car itself, we want the feelings that it gives us.  And these feelings can be gained in a way that is infinitely more intelligent.  We do not have to compete and strive in the business world in order to find the Tao.  We do not need to worry that our neighbours are trying to steal our Tao, or that some mindless vandal will scrape a key along the door in pure envy.  The Tao is ours.  It is safe and pristine and available to us whenever we want it.

When we gain this inner treasure our behaviour in the world completely changes.  We become calmer, simpler and happier.  Our actions are authentic and necessary and entirely in keeping with the basic, inviolable order of things.  This is why the sage promises us that the ‘world will settle own of its own accord.’

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Chapter 36

What is in the end to be shrunken,

Begins by being first stretched out.

What is in the end to be weakened,

Begins by being first made strong.

What is in the end to be thrown down,

Begins by being first set on high.

What is in the end to be despoiled,

Begins by being first richly endowed.

Herein is the subtle wisdom of life:

The soft and weak overcomes the hard and strong.

Just as the fish must not leave the deeps,

So the ruler must not display his weapons.

So often we imagine our own behaviours, our own projects, our own works to be somehow above the forces of nature.  We imagine that we live in a world of concepts and theorems that are universal and can survive the cycles of growth and decay that apply to organic life.  But this is the chief error that the Tao Te Ching sets out to expose.

If something has grown stronger than all else around it.  If one aspect has attained predominance over its competitors, then that is an unstable situation that cannot endure.  Nature is nothing other than the ceaseless process of correcting balance.  If too much air has descended in one place, and the air pressure is high, then the air will be sucked towards where the air pressure is low.  The wind will blow.  Why this is no-one knows.  It is simply a law of physics that we cannot explain and can only accept.  Excess will flow to the place of deficit and balance will be maintained.

What is in the end to be weakened,

Begins by being first made strong.

If a man gains too much power over his fellows then laws of physics – mysterious forces – will ensure that the balance is maintained.  If we want nature to weaken something, then we can hasten the process by first, of our own volition, making it strong.  If we did not first make it strong then balance will prevail.  The wind will not start to blow.  But once something has become strong then the situation is set up for the process of weakening to commence.

This is such a hard lesson for most people because we attached to certain outcomes.  We wish to be always strong, and therefore cannot tolerate or even consider the necessary times of weakness that must precede our strength.  Conversely, we imagine that our position of strength can be forever maintained, and our desperate attempts to buck the course of nature only contribute to our eventual downfall.

The wise person of course not only understands all this but accepts it.  They are as at peace with the highs of life as with the lows.  This is because their peace is in the Tao itself.

Herein is the subtle wisdom of life:

The soft and weak overcomes the hard and strong.

That the hard and strong overcomes the weak is not a lesson we need to be told.  But how many of us understand how the soft and the weak have the Tao working for them?  And as our weakness grows so too are the hidden forces that will one day burst out to correct the balance.

Just as the fish must not leave the deeps,

So the ruler must not display his weapons.

When the fish rises from the deeps and finds the light, then that very motion will lead it into the fisherman’s net, or the jaws of the heron.  For the ruler to display his weapons is the very action that will lead him to use them.  The ruler reveals himself to the light, and thus presents himself as a target to be fought. 

This is how upside-down our thinking can be! For the ruler imagines that his fearsome display will deter people from fighting him.  He does not understand that the only deterrent to aggression is to appear mild, and defenceless.  Then the forces of nature, acting through men, will not need to weaken his strength.  Such forces will, instead, strengthen his weakness by granting him the true strength that comes from being able to cooperate productively with all the nations around him.  To display your strength will ensure that you will be weakened by the need to wage war.

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Chapter 35

He who holds the Great Symbol will attract all things to him.

They flock to him and receive no harm, for in him they find peace, security and happiness.

Music and dainty dishes can only make a passing guest pause.

But the words of Tao possess lasting effects,

Though they are mild and flavourless,

Though they appeal neither to the eye nor to the ear.

With the Great Symbol we see an ancient idea that can be found in spiritual thought all around the world.  Just as Jesus Christ was the Son of the Father, God, so is the holder of the Great Symbol the physical representation of that Tao itself.  Whatever this person’s political standing is, the holder of the Great Symbol will be a leader of the people. By virtue of their great docility they have been able to embody the principles of the Tao in their own person.  His will is not separate from the flow of events that we see in nature.  He will provide comfort and nourishment to the people, just as the Earth provides comfort and nourishment to all the animals on the planet.

To flock to the holder of the Great Symbol is not a guarantee of physical safety. Clearly, all living beings will fall ill and die eventually.  The security is spiritual in nature.  It is the discovery that the deepest, most essential aspect of who we are cannot come to any harm.  We are literally untouchable.  This is what the great sage teaches us, and can demonstrate very clearly with his own being.  And when we see that this is true, we understand that all our physical notions of safety and security – the cosiness of being in bed while the storm rages outside – are nothing more than metaphorical preparations for the true security taught by the sage.  To discover that we are entirely safe and secure exactly as we are is the greatest good fortune that can befall us, and it is for this reason that the people ‘flock’ to their beloved ruler.

Music and dainty dishes can only make a passing guest pause.

But the words of Tao possess lasting effects,

This passage clarifies that same point.  The world is full of appealing things – ‘music and dainty dishes’ – but these are all just transient hints of the true joy of the Tao.  Te wise person in all of us is able to recognise the beauty and the goodness in the dainty dish.  We know how to recognise pleasure.  But the foolish person in us does not understand that there is a limitless source of pleasure and it exists inside the very being of each and every one of us. 

Though they are mild and flavourless,

Though they appeal neither to the eye nor to the ear.

This deeper source of pleasure is very hard to discern.  Not only is it mild and flavourless, it is as nothing as far as we are concerned.  It is so subtle that it seems we need a whole new set of faculties in order to discern it.

The learning process begins in darkness also.  For some reason, a part of us starts to wonder if there is more to life that just ‘music and dainty dishes’.  A part of us starts to feel rather dissatisfied that all the good things in life seem to be very brief and transitory, and bring suffering once they have passed.  A part of us starts to feel very tired and weary of the effort required to secure these transitory things and starts to wonder how this life could be so empty and meaningless.

These questions are the start of the Quest.  If we asking these questions then it shows that our deepest self already knows that somewhere out there is the Holder of the Great Symbol.

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Chapter 34

The Great Tao is universal like a flood.

How can it be turned to the right or to the left?

All creatures depend on it,

And it denies nothing to anyone.

It does no work,

But it makes no claims for itself.

It clothes and feeds all,

But it does not lord it over them:

Thus, it may be called ‘the Little’.

All things return to it as to their home,

But it does not lord it over them:

Thus it may be called ‘the Great’.

It is just because it does not wish to be great

That its greatness is fully realised.

When the river is on flood there is nowhere that is not the river.  And though the river turns right, the Tao is there no less than if the river had turned left.  Indeed, the Tao is like the gravity that acts upon the waters; and it is like the ocean that is waiting at the river’s end.

All creatures depend on it,

And it denies nothing to anyone.

Even when a creature dies the Tao remains as the consciousness that animated the creature.  The Tao cannot be lost; it is the constant space in which all living and dying occur and in which all living and dying are the same thing.  We partake of it; it animates us and we can feel it in our deepest sense of selfhood.  It cannot possibly fail us.  If we are able to doubt the Tao then that ability guarantees that we can be denied.  We depend on it, and yet the Tao allows us to partake of its own immutable nature that we do not, in fact, need to depend on it because we are already self-sufficient.

It does its work,

But it makes no claims for itself.

Those who make claims for the work they have done are just the puppets of the Tao, but yet imagine themselves the authors and the doers.  When we come to see that we are just the vehicle for a higher power, we too, cease to take credit for the work that we do and want nothing other than to praise the true author of all that we are.

It clothes and feeds all,

But it does not lord it over them:

Thus, it may be called ‘the Little’.

When we go out to work to buy food, it is the Tao that sets up the whole charade.  At no point are we independently acting; the whole project is the Tao at work.  But we are not lorded over! If we were we would be acutely aware that there is a master who is granting all the goods of Earth to us.  But so humble is the Tao, so ‘Little’, that most of us never even suspect the reality of the Tao and see only ourselves and an illusory autonomy.

All things return to it as to their home,

But it does not lord it over them:

Thus it may be called ‘the Great’.

When the illusion falls away, we cannot fail to return to the Tao and it is in this moment of recognition that the tables are turned: we are nothing, and the Tao alone is ‘Great’.  This is a beautiful moment is anybody’s life.  With a sudden release, we feel the weight that we were carrying when we imagined we were the great ones.

It is just because it does not wish to be great

That its greatness is fully realised.

We, on the other hand, do wish to be great.  We come up with all sorts of plans and schemes that will raise us above our fellow men and women, and fixated, in our minds, we go against the natural patterns of rise and fall that keep our progress slow and steady; we ward off failure, we go to all measures to avoid it, but this pent up force of the Tao will always have its way in the end.  The greatness we aimed for turns into abject failure.  And all this the Tao lets us do…for It does not wish to always play the Lord.

It is a moment of great liberation when we realise that we no longer need to be great.  Our confidence and self-esteem is not needed when we have the peace of the Primal Simplicity buoying us up in every moment.  We are safe, and secure and realised.  And this gives us options.  We do not need to achieve what the world considers to be achievement.  The bliss of achievement and respect is already felt deep inside as a warmth and a peace that never goes away.  So what to do with ourselves when the world’s projects no longer inspire? We can follow our hearts and do what we love to do! What else is there except to do what we want to do for its own sake.  And as every happy, successful individual will tell us: when we are doing what we love, then greatness is never far away – a greatness that we no longer even need.

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