Verse 20 - Living Without Striving

[Eva Libre]

20th Verse

 

Give up learning and you will be free

from all your cares.

 What is the difference between yes and no ?

What is the difference between good and evil ?

 

Must I fear what others fear ?

 Should I fear desolation

when there is abundance ?

Should I fear darkness

when that light is shining everywhere ?

 

In spring, some go to the park and climb the terrace,

but I alone am drifting, not knowing where I am.

Like a newborn babe before it learns to smile,

I am alone, without a place to go.

 

Most people have too much;

I alone seem to be missing something.

Mine is indeed the mind of an ignoramus

in its unadulterated simplicity.

I am but a guest in this world.

While others rush about to get things done,

I accept what is offered.

I alone seem foolish,

earning little, spending less.

 

Other people strive for fame;

I avoid the limelight,

preferring to be left alone.

Indeed, I seem like an idiot:

no mind, no worries.

 

I drift like a wave on the ocean.

I blow as aimless as the wind.

 

 All men settle down in their grooves;

I alone am stubborn and remain outside.

But wherein I am most different from others is

in knowing to take sustenance from the great Mother !

 

 

Contemplation/Meditation Verse

I am doing nothing,

                  rather, 

I am being done.

 

 

Do The Tao Now

 

Begin to notice the situation where you're not in the moment because you're striving to complete or attain something for a future benefit.  You may not realize how often you endeavor to accomplish all sorts of things with the idea that once you do, you'll finally have the time to do what you really want.  This is one of the most pernicious ways that many of us unconsciously prevent (or perpetually postpone) a life free of striving.  It's a tough one to become aware of, and may be easiest to see when your free time becomes hijacked by family members or business emergencies.

Here's an example:  You've put in extra hours at work all week in order to have a deliciously imagined free day to [fill in the blank], when you learn that your spouse has invited a friend of a friend who's never been to this part of the country before -- and whom you've never met -- to stay at your home.

There are two opportunities to practice living without striving in this situation.  The first, of course, is to catch yourself wrapped up in striving for future benefit, notice what you're doing, and focus on the now.  The second comes after the example above, which is a difficult but incredibly rewarding exercise.  Do the Tao now by accepting what is offered -- that is, know that this situation, in some way that your striving ego rejects, is actually sustenance from the Great Mother.

 

Source - Change Your Thoughts - Change Your Life (Living the Wisdom of the Tao)

by Dr Wayne W Dyer

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Practice letting go of thoughts about what's not here now.

 

Just allow yourself to meld into the perfection of the universe you live in.  You don't need another thing to be happy; it's all being provided for you right here, right now.  Be in this moment, and free yourself of striving for something more or someone else.  This is a mind exercise that will put you in touch with the peace of the Tao.

Affirm:

It is all perfect.  

God's love is everywhere and forgets no one.  

I trust in this force to guide me,

and I am not allowing ego to enter now.

 

Notice how free you feel when you relax into this no-fears, no-worries attitude.

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Take time to "let go and let God", every single day.

 

Say the words over and over to yourself until you can actually tell what the difference feels like.  Letting go is a markedly distinct physical and psychological experience, much different from striving.  Let go of your demands, along with your beliefs that you can't be happy because of what is supposedly missing in your life.  Insisting that you need what you don't have is insane !  The fact that you're okay without what you think you need is the change you want to see.  Then you can note that you already have everything you need to be peaceful, happy, and content right here and right now !  

 

Relax into this knowing, and affirm again and again:

 

I am letting go and letting God.

I am a glorious infant nursing at the great all-providing Mother's breast.

[Eva Libre]

From Vimala McClure - The Tao of Motherhood

20

EDUCATION

 

The real education teaches us to

be whole human beings.

 

Be concerned with this: that you,

your marriage, and your home

teach health and balance

and truth.

 

Any further education merely

augments this basic course.

[Eva Libre]

From Tao Te Ching - The Definitive Edition by Jonathan Star

 

The difference between a formal "yes"

     and a casual "yeah" -- how slight !

The difference between knowing the Truth

     and not knowing it -- how great !

 

Must I fear what others fear ?

Should I fear desolation

     when there is abundance ?

Should I fear darkness

     when that light is shining everywhere ?

Nonsense !

The people of this world are steeped

     in their merrymaking

     as if gorging at a great feast

     or watching the sights of springtime

Yet here I sit, without a sign,

     staring blank-eyed like a child

 

I am but a guest in this world

While others rush about to get things done

     I accept what is offered

Oh, my mind is like that of a fool

     aloof to the clamor of life around me

Everyone seems so bright and alive

     with the sharp distinctions of day

I appear dark and dull

     with the blending of differences by night

 

I am drifting like an ocean, floating like the high winds

Everyone is so rooted in this world

     yet I have no place to rest my head

Indeed I am different

     I have no treasure but the Eternal Mother

     I have no food but what comes from her breast

[Eva Libre]

From Richard Grossman - The Tao of Emerson

From James Legge - The Texts of Taoism, 1891

 

When we renounce learning we have no troubles.

The ready "yes" and the flattering "yea" --

Small is the difference they display.

But mark their issues good and ill --

What space the gulf between shall fill ?

 

The multitude of men look satisfied and pleased.

As if enjoy a full banquet, as if mounted on a tower

     in spring.

I alone seem listless and still, my desires having as yet

     given no indication of their presence.

I am like an infant which has not yet smiled.

I look dejected and forlorn,

     as if I had no home to go to.

The multitude of men all have enough and to spare.

My mind is that of a stupid man; I am in a state of chaos.

 

Ordinary men look bright and intelligent, while I alone

     seem benighted.

They look full of discrimination, while I alone

     am dull and confused.

I seem to be carried about as on the sea, drifting as if

     I had nowhere to rest.

All men have their spheres of action, while I alone

     seem dull and incapable, like a rude borderer.

 

Thus I alone am different from other men, but I

                    value the Tao.

 

 

From the Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - "Illusions", "Circles", "The Method of Nature" (address), "The Over-Soul" 

 

Away profane philosopher !

Seekest thou in nature the cause ?

This refers to that, and that to the next,

And the next to the third, and everything refers.

 

The world rolls, the din of life

     is never hushed.

The carnival, the masquerade is at its height;

Nobody drops his domino.

 

But I am only an experimenter;

Do not set the least value on what I do

     or the least discredit on what I do not,

As if I pretended to settle anything as true or false;

I unsettle all things.

 

No facts are to me sacred, none are profane.

I simply experiment, an endless seeker,

     with no past to my back.

I am a weed by the wall.

I see that I am a pensioner, not a cause,

     but a surprised spectator of this ethereal water;

That I desire and look up,

And put myself in the attitude of reception;

But from some alien energy,

     the visions come.

[Eva Libre]

Tao Te Ching - The Classic Book of Integrity and The Way by Lao-Tzu

A New Translation by Victor H Mair
based on the recently discovered Ma-Wang-Tui Manuscripts

20
(64)

 

Between "yes sir" and "certainly not !"

     how much difference is there ?

Between beauty and ugliness,

     how great is the distinction ?

 

He whom others fear,

     likewise cannot but fear others.

 

How confusing,

     there is no end to it all !

 

Joyful are the masses,

     as though feasting after the great sacrifice of oxen,

     or mounting a terrace in spring.

 

Motionless am I,

     without any sign,

     as a baby that has yet to gurgle.

How dejected !

     as though having nowhere to return.

 

The masses all have more than enough;

I alone am bereft.

 

I have the heart of a fool.

How muddled !

 

The ordinary man is luminously clear,

I alone seem confused.

The ordinary man is searchingly exact,

I alone am vague and uncertain.

 

How nebulous !

     as the ocean;

How blurred !

     as though without boundary.

 

The masses all have a purpose,

I alone am stubborn and uncouth.

 

I desire to be uniquely different from others

     by honoring the mother who nourishes.

[Eva Libre]

Lynn's - Daode jing of Laozi

 

Repudiate learning, and stay free of worry.  Really, how distant can approval be from disapproval ?  Or, how far apart can praise and censure be ? (1)  One feared by others must also fear others accordingly. (2)

        

As it is said in the second part [of the Laozi], "The pursuit of learning means having more each day, but the pursuit of the Dao means having less each day." (3)  As such, learning seeks to increase what one can do and advance what one knows, but, if one were free from desire and thus content, what should he ever seek to get by having more ?  And if one could stay on the mark without knowing how it is done [buzhi er zhong], what should he ever seek to learn by advancing his knowledge ? (4)  For,

 

                    Finches have mates,

                    As do doves.

                    People who live in wintry climes

                    Are sure to know one fur from another.

                    That which by nature is already sufficient unto itself

                    Will only come to grief if one tries to add to it. (5)

 

Therefore what is the difference between lengthening the duck's legs and cutting down the legs of the crane ? (6) And why should the fear of praise that leads to promotion be any different from the fear of punishment ?  For how far is approval from disapproval or praise [mei] from censure [e] ? (7)  Therefore, feared by others, I also should be afraid of them.  And I never dare rely on such things [approval/disapproval, praise/censure] as reason for action. (8)

 

A gulf so vast, oh, it is truly infinite !

 

One sighs that the distance that sets him off from the vulgar crowd is so great.

 

Common people, caught up in the pursuit of happiness, behave as if feasting at a great sacrifice or ascending a springtime terrace.

 

Common people, befuddled by praise and advancement and excited by honor and reward, let their desires advance and their hearts/minds contend. (9)

 

I alone am quiet and indifferent, oh, in an entirely premanifest state [weizhao], (10) just like an infant who has not yet smiled,

 

In other words, I, in my solitude, have no form that can be named and provide no hint that can be detected, just like an infant who is yet unable to smile. (11)

 

Utterly aimless, oh, just as if I had no place to go home.

 

I seem to have no place to live.

 

Common people all have more than enough, but I alone seem to have lost all.

 

Without exception, common people have longings and ambitions, which fill their breasts to overflowing.  Thus the text says "all have more than enough".  In solitude, I alone engage in no conscious effort and have no desires, as if I had lost all capacity for them.

 

Mine is really the heart/mind of a stupid man ! 

 

The heart/mind [xin] of a completely stupid man are innocent of distinctions, and his thoughts are free of any considerations of good and bad.  As such, my tendencies [qing]cannot be discerned. (12)  Utterly compliant, I am just like him.

 

Absolutely amorphous, oh !

 

Innocent of distinctions, I cannot be named.

 

Common people are clearly obvious.

 

They make their brilliance shine.

 

But I alone am cryptically obscure.

Common people are meticulously discriminating,

 

They discriminate between each and every thing.

 

But I alone muddle everything together.

Floating indifferently, oh, as it out on the sea,

 

My tendencies [qing] cannot be discerned.

 

Blown about by the wind, oh, I seem to have no place to stop.

 

I have no ties to anything.

 

Common people all would have purpose.

 

Yi [use] means yong [purpose].  Everyone wishes to have the chance to fulfill some purpose.

But I alone am doltish and rustic. (13)

 

I have nothing that I want to do.  I am so muddled and oafish that I appear to know nothing at all.  Thus the text says, "doltish and rustic".

 

I alone wish to be different from others. (14) and so value drawing sustenance from the mother. 

 

"Drawing sustenance from the mother" refers to the root of life [the Dao].  Everyone forsakes the roots from which the common folk draw sustenance and instead values the blossoms [hua] decorating the branch tips [superficial frivolity].  Thus the text says, "I alone wish to be different from others".

 

 

Text, in Italics above, is Wang Bi's commentary.

The notes below, are from the translator, Richard John Lynn -

(deb's note - "section" is used for verse in these notes.)

 

(1)  The base text has shan (goodness) instead of mei (praise), but both the text as paraphrased in Wang's commentary and as it appears in the two versions of the Laozirecovered from Mawangdui read not shan but mei, "praise".  See Lou, Wang Bi ji jiaoshi, 50 n. 9; Mawangdui Hanmu boshu, 119; and Wagner, "The Wang Bi Recension of the Laozi:, 50.

 

(2)   The base text reads ren zhi suowei buke buwei, "what people fear one cannot but fear", but Wang's commentary, ren zhi suowei wu yi wei yan, "feared by others, I also should be afraid of them", supports the Mawangdui B text reading of this passage: ren zhi suowei yi buke yi buwei ren, "one feared by others must also fear others accordingly".  See Mawangdui Hanmu boshu, 119.

 

(3)  Section 48, first and second passages.

 

(4)  Cf. section 64, penultimate passage.

 

(5)  Cf. Wang's commentary to section 2, first passage.

 

(6)  Cf. Wang's commentary to the Tuanzhuan (Commentary on the Judgments) to Hexagram 41, Sun (Diminution), in the Yijing (Classic of changes): "The natural subtance of things in each case determines the measure of the thing involved.  'The short as such cannot be taken for insufficiency', and 'the long as such cannot be taken for excess' " (Lynn, The Classic of Changes, 388; see Lou, Wang Bi ji jiaoshi, 421). Both commentaries allude to a passage in the Zhuangzi: "The long as such cannot be taken for excess, and the short as such cannot be taken for insufficiency.  This is why, although the duck's legs are short, to lengthen them would cause it grief, and, although the crane's legs are long, to cut them down would cause it distress.  Therefore what is by nature long is not something that should be cut down, and what is by nature short is not something that should be lengthened" (Zhuangzi yinde, 21/8/8; cf. Watson, Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, 99-100).

 

(7)  Cf. Wang's commentary to section 2, first passage.

 

(8)  "Rely on such things as reasons for action" translates shi zhi yi wei yong, which might also be rendered "[try to] achieve functionality through such things".  Cf. lai wu yiwei yong, "[that what is there can be of benefit always] depends on its achievement of functionality through what is not there", from Wang's commentary to section 11, second passage. 

 

(9)  Cf. Wang's commentary to section 70, first passage.

 

(10) Cf. section 64, first passage.

 

(11) Cf. Wang's commentary to section 15, second passage.

 

(12) Cf. Wang's commentary to section 15, second passage.

 

(13) "Doltish and rustic" translates wan qie bi, but the base text reads wan si bi, "doltish as a rustic".  Wang's commentary indicates that it should be "doltish and rustic", a reading supported by Fu Yi's (554-639) edition of the Laozi, based on several old manuscripts,Daode jing gubenpian (An edition compiled from old manuscripts of the Classic of the Way and Virtue), 1:6a, in which the text has qie instead of si.  Fu Yi's text is also included inMawangdui Hanmu boshu, 119.

 

(14) The base text reads "I alone am different from others", but Wang's commentary indicates that it should be "I alone wish to be different from others", a reading that also appears in Fu Yi's composite edition.  The two versions of the Laozi recovered from Mawangdui read "I alone wish to be different from others"; see Lou, Wang Bi ji jiaoshi, 52 n. 27, and Mawngdui Hanmu boshu, 119.

[Eva Libre]

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

 

Stop thinking, and end your problems.

What difference between yes and no ?

What difference between success and failure ?

Must you value what others value,

avoid what others avoid ?

How ridiculous !

 

Other people are excited,

as though they were at a parade.

I alone don't care,

I alone am expressionless,

like an infant before it can smile.

 

Other people have what they need;

I alone possess nothing.

I alone drift about,

like someone without a home.

I am like an idiot, my mind is so empty.

 

Other people are bright;

I alone am dark.

Other people are sharp;

I alone am dull.

Other people have a purpose;

I alone don't know.

I drift like a wave on the ocean,

I blow as aimless as the wind.

 

I am different from ordinary people.

I drink from the Great Mother's breasts.

 

 

From Byron Katie - A Thousand Names For Joy 

- Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are

 

 

I alone possess nothing.

 

You can't have an up without a down.  You can't have a left without a right.  This is duality.  If you have a problem, you must already have the solution.  The question is, Do you really want the solution, or do you want to perpetuate the problem ?  The solution is always there.  The Work can help you find it.  Write down the problem, question it, turn it around, and you have the solution.

 

Every thought is already over.  That's grace.  No thought: no problem.  It's not possible to have a problem without believing a prior thought.  To notice this simple truth is the beginning of peace.

 

I also notice that I possess nothing.  Stephen slips the wedding ring onto my finger and whispers, "Try to keep it for one month."  It's his little joke.  He's had the experience of giving me a gift, an expensive one, that was gone the next day, because someone admired it and I knew it was theirs.  He realizes that what the ring symbolizes is mine forever and that the ring itself can never belong to me, that I simply wear it until it's gone.  Two years ago, I gave it to a dear, unmarried man whom we both love, but he gave it right back.  So here it is, still on my left ring finger, five years later: an unexpected miracle, in Stephen's view.  How can I possess anything ?  Things come to me only when I need them and only for as long as I need them, and the way I know I need them is that I have them.

 

When something's over, it's over.  We all know when that point comes, and we can honor it or ignore it.  When my hand reaches out for a cup of tea, I lavish myself on the whole cup of tea, though I don't know if I'm going to have one sip, three sips, ten sips, or the whole cup.  When a friend gives me a gift, the gift is in the receiving.  In that, it's over, and then I notice that I give the object away or keep it for awhile.

 

I once left my purse in a restaurant in New York.  I get very excited when things like that happen.  I thought of the purse, my very favorite, and I thought of someone finding the cash and the wallet and the business cards and the notebook and the hand cream and the pens and the lipstick and the dental floss and the eye drops and the wonderful new cell phone and the energy bar and the pictures of my grandchildren.  It's exciting to give a total stranger what you have, and to know that giving is equal to having, and that giving is also a kind of having.  (This doesn't mean that I didn't cancel my credit cards.)  But it was clear that the purse was supposed to belong to someone else.  How did I know that she needed it ?  She had it.  There are no accidents in my world.  When you're a lover of what is, your suffering is over.

 

[Eva Libre]

Dr Dyer's Essay for Verse 20 -

 

In this verse of the Tao Te Ching, you're encouraged to experience your life free of worldly striving.  Lao-tzu advises you to slow down your incessant demands for more, and to relax your efforts to fill up every moment in anticipation of being somewhere else.  You're invited to experience life in a way that can be summarized in the title of Ram Dass's book Be Here Now.

 

Be here in your mind as well as in your body, in a state of appreciation and an absence of longing.  Let go of wondering about doing the right thing.  Release the what-ifs and all of your goals for the future, replacing them with the power of this instant.  Be here, and remember to do it now, for thinking about being someplace else uses up your precious present moments.  The enlightened sage makes a practice of immersing himself completely in the current "nowness" of his life.

 

Being here now is accomplished by adopting an acceptance of life as it is presented by the great Mother, or the Tao.  It's a surrendering process, if you will -- simply allowing this great all-creating, all-nourishing Source to take you where it will.  You give up the idea of having to get more or to be in another place in the future, and instead see yourself as whole and complete just as you are.  This surrendering process allows you to bear witness to the unlimited abundance and eternal light that is always present.  You retrain yourself to give up your beliefs about lacks and shortages; you instead trust in the great Source to provide what you need, as it has always done for all beings.

 

Lao-tzu emphasizes that this wasn't a socially accepted standard even 2,500 years ago, as he refers to himself as an outsider who is unlike most people.  Striving for satisfaction was viewed at that time as a proper role in life, just as it is today.  The narrator of this verse admits that he is drifting, not knowing where he is, yet his tone is ironic.  It's as if he's saying, "No one really knows where they are in this endless universe with no beginning and no ending, so why not admit it and allow yourself to be moved by the Tao that brought you here from nowhere ?"

 

You're being encouraged to simplify your life by not seeking another thing.  Yes, others might judge you as unmotivated and call you an ignoramus, but your reward will be the strong sense of inner peace that comes from a direct knowing that you're here as a guest who's always being provided for.  Yes, you may seem to be missing something, but the something is really only an illusion.  You're no longer living inside of yourself with a desire to be someone else or to gain something that seems to be omnipresent in all of those around you -- you've traded in striving for arriving.

 

"I accept what is offered", says the narrator of this provocative verse in the Tao Te Ching.  He continues to express that this may seem foolish, perhaps echoing your thoughts as you contemplate letting go of striving.  Lao-tzu is telling you to change how you see what's here now in your life, for then it will become exactly what you need in order to be happy.  In other words, you can change how you look at striving and have contentment without anxiety and fear.

 

When you live by the tenets explained in this verse, you begin to have a worry-free existence.  Imagine that !  No concerns or fears -- only a sense of being connected to the Source of all, knowing that all will be handled for you by the same force that's always handling everything.  Lao-tzu is teaching you to free your mind from its persistent nagging.  The world and everything in it are already taken care of by the Tao . . . it has always done so and always will.

 

Your mind continually urges you to strive in spite of the all-providing perfection of the Tao; it prompts you to pursue fame, to look for a groove or purpose.  Lao-tzu encourages you to do precisely the opposite: Stay outside the rat race and let your mind be in peaceful harmony with the Tao rather than worrying and fighting.  The concluding line of this passage of the Tao Te Ching says it all, instructing you to change how you look at your life by "knowing to take sustenance from the great Mother !"