Verse 65 - Living by Staying Simple-Hearted

Re: Verse 65 - Advice from Dr Dyer

Re: Verse 65 - Advice from Dr Dyer

Re: Verse 65 - Jonathan Star

From Tao Te Ching - The Definitive Edition by Jonathan Star

The ancient ones were simple-hearted
          and blended with the common people
They did not shine forth
The did not rule with cleverness
          So the nation was blessed

Now the rulers are filled with clever ideas
          and the lives of people are filled with hardship
          So the natuion is cursed

He who knows the play of Tao and Te
          knows the nature of the universe
Tao brings forth Te from its own being
Te expands in all directions
          filling every corner of the world
          becoming the splendor of all creation
Yet at every moment Te seeks Tao
This is the movement that guides the universe
This is the impulse
          that leads all things back home

Re: Verse 65 - The Tao of Motherhood

From The Tao of Motherhood by Vimala McClure

65


EXPERTS

The ancient mothers knew.  There
was no need for books and experts.

Today we have lost much.
We need to relearn the Way.

Be cautious about what the experts
tell you.  What sounds complex
and clever may have no roots.
Wisdom has no cleverness in it.
It is pure and simple, and when it is
practiced the results are obvious.

The wise assist a child's being
rather than his doing.

Re: Verse 65 - Stephen Mitchell & Byron Katie

From Stephen Mitchell - tao te ching - A New English Version

The ancient Masters
didn't try to educate the people,
but kindly taught them to not-know.

When they think that they know the answers,
people are difficult to guide.
When they know that they don't know,
people can find their own way.

If you want to learn how to govern,
avoid being clever or rich.
The simplest pattern is the clearest.
Content with an ordinary life,
you can show all people the way
back to their own true nature.

From Byron Katie - A Thousand Names For Joy - Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are

                                       When they think that they know the answers,
                                        people are difficult to guide.
                                       When they know that they don't know,
                                        people can find their own way.

I don't try to educate people.  Why would I do such a thing?  My only job is to point you back to yourself.  When you discover - inside yourself, behind everything you're thinking - the marvelous don't-know mind, you're home free.  The don't-know mind is the mind that is totally open to anything life brings you.  When you find it, you have found your way.

I work with four- and five-year-old children who suffer from believing the same concepts that adults believe.  These concepts are sacred religions; we're completely devoted to them.  “People should come”, “People should go”, “People should understand me”, “I'm too this”, “You're too that”, “My wife shouldn't lie”, “My children should appreciate me”, “My husband doesn't love me”, “My mother would be much happier if she saw things the way I do”.  Whatever story we're attached to, that's where our devotion is.  There's no room for God in it.

I once worked with a woman in Jerusalem.  Her religion was “I should have thin thighs”; she thought that's what would give her what she wanted in life.  She was the cutest !  And she just wasn't willing to do The Work; she couldn't go inside for an honest answer, because she was terrified that if she answered honestly, she'd end up with fat thighs.  She thought she needed fear as a motivation to exercise and eat right.  It was obvious that she preferred thin thighs to freedom.  She wouldn't take the risk of letting go of control and going deep into herself to see what her own truth was.  For her, the sacred concept was thin thighs; for someone else it's more money, for others it's a relationship.  I love being with these people.  They say they want freedom more than anything in the world, and they cry and beg for help.  And as soon as I get anywhere near their sacred concept, these spiritual seekers, who have been on the path for thirty or forty years, have no interest in freedom.  Zero.  Their true religion has been threatened, and they rush to the ramparts to defend it.  I asked her, “Can you absolutely know that it's true that right now your thighs should be thinner than they are?”  And you'd be amazed at how fast this woman dodged away.  She didn't stop to really ask herself the question, not for an instant.  “Yes, I can!” she said.  Slam !  The gate shuts, the drawbridge goes up, the I-know mind retreats behind its castle walls, ready to defend itself against the whole world.  That's why I love to ask someone who sits with me, “Do you really want to know the truth?”

The education you need is within you.  How can what is already within you be taught?  It can only be realized.  If you're willing to go inside and wait for the truth, your inborn wisdom meets the question, and the answer rings true as if it were a tuning fork inside your own being.

When you believe that there is a problem, the Master doesn't try to convince you that there isn't.  She is rooted in the place of understanding.  She is you reflected back to yourself.  She understands that problems are not possible, except when you believe what you're thinking.  Only mind lives, if anything lives.  The Master will always point you back to your own mind, your own realization.  And a part of the deliciousness is to fully meet every suicidal tendency until, in the presence of the Master within you, the self is finally seen for what it isn't.

So the confused mind comes to unlearn its troubling thought through inquiry.  It comes not only to see that the thought isn't true, but also to understand the specific effects of believing it, the price in anger or sorrow or resentment that it pays when it believes the thought, and the freedom that would be available without it, and it sees also that the thought's opposites could be at least as true.  Eventually it realizes that reality is all mind and that the world changes as its perception changes.  To meet the Master with a fearless, open mind is to lose the entire world as you understood it to be.  It is to unlearn a cruel world, a world of ravagement, a world where the heart's desire is never attained.

When people think that they know the answers, it's difficult for the Master to help them find their way, because she is dealing with closed minds, and a closed mind is a closed heart.  Since she understands that openness never can be forced, she becomes very comfortable and listens, she waits for an opening, the slightest crack, and that is when she penetrates.  That is the moment of meeting, of indisputable connection.  The other person can close the door, but it's too late, the Master has already entered.  And in that instant of entering, everything is changed.  Enough clarity gets in to be recognized, and the mind can never be the same again, because like has met like.  The two have become one.

Once the Master moves in through that even slightly open door, the student's mind continues to expand, and the natural way to himself appears.  It may seem as if he can revert to his former world, but that's not possible.  When the mind has seen that it doesn't know what it was so sure of, it begins to unravel, the knots relax and begin to untie themselves.  This leaves no job for the Master.  It leaves her as no one again. 

Re: Verse 65 - The Tao of Emerson

The Tao of Emerson by Richard Grossman

The Texts of Taoism, 1891 by James Legge

The ancients who showed their skill in practicing the Tao
          did so not to enlighten the people,
But rather to make them simple and ignorant.


The difficulty in governing the people arises
          from their having much knowledge.
Who tries to govern the state by his wisdom
          is a scourge to it;
While he who does not try to do so is a blessing.


He who knows these two things finds in them
          also his model and rule.
Ability to know this model and rule constitutes what we call
          the mysterious excellence of a governor.
Deep and far-reaching is such mysterious excellence,
Showing indeed its possessor as opposite to others,
But leading them to a great conformity to him.

From the Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - ”Politics”

As fast as the public mind is opened
          to more intelligence,
The code is seen to be brute and stammering.


The wise know that the State must follow and not lead
          the character and progress of the citizen.
The strongest usurper is quickly got rid of,
And that form of government which prevails
Is the expression of what cultivation exists
          in the population which permits it.


The history of the State sketches in coarse outline
          the progress of thought.
And follows at a distance the delicacy
          of culture and aspiration.

Re: Verse 65 - Dr Dyer's Essay

If you are currently in the important position of ruling a country, I encourage you to take this wisdom especially to heart.  If you're not, I suggest studying this passage of the Tao Te Ching from the perspective of your personal life, which most likely involves leading others.

Supervising or parenting shouldn't mean imposing bureaucratic rules or impressing others with your supposed intelligence and superiority.  A truly influential person isn't cunning, doesn't “shine forth”, “rule with cleverness”, or instill fear in those he or she is designated to oversee.  As Lao-tzu explains, “When they know they do not know, people can find their own way”.  In other words, the effective leader guides others to their own nature.

The realization you're invited to consider here is that your job is to help others know that they don't know !  If they believe that they do have knowledge, then they'll never find their way back to their Tao nature.  That's because they're relying on ego input, which tells them that their true essence is their identification with the physical or material world.  One who lives according to the Tao knows that ego is a false master, drawing people away from knowing their true nature.

Implement the teachings of this verse by refusing to convey superiority or intellectual ingenuity.  Instead, show others how to live from the Tao perspective by being willing to admit that you don't know what's best for them, nor do you even know with any degree of certainty how your own life should go.  Let other people know that you're willing to ask for guidance.  Show them that you're not “in charge”, either of them or of what happens to you.  Allow them to see a man or woman who's humble, lives peacefully in the cycles of life, and stays simple-hearted.

As you change the way you look at leadership, you'll see that individuals who are willing to surrender their egos enjoy a connection to their Tao energy and become simple-hearted leaders.  Their only task is to help everyone in their sphere of influence realize that they also do not know !  Lao-tzu seems to smile wryly as he informs you of this wondrous paradox.