Verse 23 - Living Naturally

[Eva Libre]

23rd Verse

 

To talk little is natural:

Fierce winds do not blow all morning;

a downpour of rain does not last the day.

Who does this ?  Heaven and earth.

 

But these are exaggerated, forced effects,

and that is why they cannot be sustained.

If heaven and earth cannot sustain a forced action,

how much less is man able to do ?

 

Those who follow the Way

become one with the Way.

Those who follow goodness

become one with goodness.

Those who stray from the Way and goodness

become one with failure.

 

If you conform to the Way,

it's power flows through you.

Your actions become those of nature,

your ways those of heaven.

 

Open yourself to the Tao

and trust your natural responses . . .

then everything will fall into place.

 

 

Contemplation/Meditation Verse

In all of nature,

              no storm can last forever.

 

 

Do The Tao Now

 

Spend an entire day noticing nature and the countless instances that it cycles organically.  Seek at least three ways that you'd like to be more natural in your response to life.  The cat curling languidly in the sun might symbolize how you'd like to be.  Or perhaps it's the dawn slowly illuminating the dark without rushing.  Maybe you prefer to focus on the tide comfortably coming in and out, apparently without judgment.  Find your symbolic images, whatever they may be, and invite their counterparts in the Tao to blossom within you.

 

Source - Change Your Thoughts - Change Your Life (Living the Wisdom of the Tao) by Dr Wayne W Dyer

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

Change your life by actively observing nature's way.

See how thunderstorms or fierce winds are temporary conditions that pass, instead of thinking of them as destructive or inconvenient events.  When what seems like a forceful, uncomfortable situation arises, seek the natural cycle.

 

Affirm:

 

This is a temporary setback. 

I am going to release myself

from having to be the person in control.

 

Then observe what you're feeling, with openness to what is, in this moment.  Remember that this is nature's method.  Center your mind in a natural way, in perfect rapport with the patience of the universal Tao.

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

Change your life by trusting your ability to respond

naturally to the circumstances in your life.

At first this may involve observing yourself in a friendly way instead of responding immediately.  When you feel your inclination to make your opinion known, let this urge silently tell you what it truly wants.  Your body knows how to be at peace and wait out the storms of life, but you need to allow it to feel that you're welcoming its signals.  Be still and allow yourself to be in harmony with the creative Tao, opening yourself to its power.

 

T S Eliot evokes the natural cycle in his poem "Ash-Wednesday";

 

Because I know that time is always time

And place is always and only place

And what is actual is actual only for one time

and only for one place

I rejoice that things are as they are . . .

 

That's the idea: Rejoice in the stillness of the Tao.

[Eva Libre]

From Vimala McClure - The Tao of Motherhood

 

23

STOP

 

There is no natural pouring-forth

that lasts forever.  When it rains, it

stops.  The wind blows, and then it

ceases.

 

Learn to use your words wisely,

to communicate rather than to 

lecture.  Speak your truth, state

your feelings, then stop.  Your

actions, in silence, speak louder

and will be heard.

 

Teach your children this:

A human being is greater than

a human doing. 

[Eva Libre]

From Tao Te Ching - The Definitive Edition by Jonathan Star

 

Speak little

Hold to your own nature

A strong wind does not blow all morning

A cloudburst does not last all day

The wind and rain are from Heaven and Earth

          and even these do not last long

How much less so the efforts of man ?

 

One who lives in accordance with the Truth

          becomes the embodiment of Tao

His actions become those of Nature

          his ways those of Heaven

It is through such a one

          that Heaven rejoices

          that Earth rejoices

          that all of life rejoices

[Eva Libre]

From Richard Grossman - The Tao of Emerson

 

From James Legge - The Texts of Taoism, 1891

 

Abstaining from speech marks him who is obeying

          the spontaneity of his nature.

A violent wind does not last for a whole morning;

A sudden rain does not last for the whole day.

To whom is it that these two things are owing ?

To heaven and earth.

If heaven and earth cannot make such actions last long,

          how much less can man !

 

Therefore, when one is making the Tao his business,

Those who are also pursuing it, agree with him in it,

And those who are making the manifestation of its course

          their object agree with him in that;

While even those who are failing in both these things

          agree with them where they fail.

 

Hence, those with whom he agrees as to the Tao

          have the happiness of attaining to it;

Those with whom he agrees as to its manifestation

          have the happiness of attaining to it;

And those with whom he agrees in their failure

          have also the happiness of attaining to the Tao.

But when there is not faith sufficient on his part,

A want of faith in him ensues on the part of the others.

 

 

From the Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - "Nominalist and Realist", "History"

Silence is better than speech.

 

All things are in contact,

Every atom has a sphere of repulsion.

For nature, who abhors maneuvers,

          has set her heart on breaking up

          all styles and tricks.

Nature keeps herself whole,

          and her representation complete.

 

In splendid variety these changes come,

          all putting questions to the human spirit.

Those men who cannot answer by a superior wisdom

          these facts or questions of time, serve them.

Facts encumber them, tyrannize over them,

          and make the men of routine the men of sense,

In whom a literal obedience to fact

          has extinguished every spark of that light

          by which man is truly man.

 

But if the man is true to his better instincts

          or sentiments, and refuses the dominion of facts,

As one that comes of a higher race

          remains fast by the soul and sees the principle,

Then the facts fall aptly and supple

          into their places;

They know their master, and the meanest of them

          glorifies him.

[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

 

23 (68)

          To be sparing of speech is natural.

 

          A whirlwind does not last the whole morning,

          A downpour does not last the whole day.

          Who causes them ?

          If even heaven and earth cannot cause them to persist,

                    how much less can human beings ?

 

Therefore,

          In pursuing his affairs,

                    a man of the Way identifies with the Way,

                    a man of integrity identifies with integrity,

                    a man who fails identifies with failure.

 

          To him who identifies with integrity,

                    the Way awards integrity;

          To him who identifies with failure,

                    the Way awards failure.

[Eva Libre]

Lynn's - Daode jing of Laozi

 

The "inaudible" is a way of referring to the Natural.

     

"When we listen for it but hear it not, we call it the inaudible. " (1)  A later section says: "When the Dao is spoken of, how bland: it has no flavor at all !  We look for it, but not enough is there to see anything.  We listen for It, but not enough is there to hear anything."(2)  As that is so, such expressions as "no flavor at all" and "not enough there to hear anything" are actually the most appropriate ways of referring to the Natural.

 

Thus a whirlwind does not last an entire morning, and a rainstorm does not last an entire day.  (3)  What is it that causes them ?  It is Heaven and Earth.  If even Heaven and Earth cannot make them last long, how much less can man ?

 

In other words, praise arising all at once (4) does not last long.

 

Thus, to undertake things in accordance with the Dao, the man of Dao becomes one with the Dao.

 

Cong Shi [undertake things]  means managing affairs in accordance with the Dao.  The Dao completes [cheng] and benefits. [ji] the myriad things without form or conscious effort.  Thus one who undertakes things in accordance with the Dao "tends to matters without conscious effort and practices the teaching that is not expressed in words." (5)  On and on, he has only apparent existence, yet through him the people achieve authenticity. (6)  He is an embodiment of the Dao. (7)  Thus the text says, "becomes one with the Dao" [tong yu dao].

 

The man of virtue becomes one with virtue.

 

Virtue/success [de] results from having little [shao].  "Having little gives one access [de]," (8) and this is why the text here refers to virtue/success [de, access].  If one practices virtue/success, such a one embodies virtue/success.  thus the text says that he "becomes one with virtue." (9)

 

The man of failure becomes one with failure.

 

Failure [shi] results from being entangled in having much [duo].  If one is entangled in having much, he fails, and this is why the text refers to "failure".  If one practices failure, such a one embodies failure.  Thus the text says that he "becomes one with failure". 

He who becomes one with virtue, the Dao also endows with virtue; he who becomes one with failure, the Dao also endows with failure.  (10)

In other words, the Dao reacts to one's practices and so responds in kind.

If one fails to have trust, a corresponding lack of trust in him occurs. (11)

 

When one's faith in those below fails, "a corresponding lack of trust in him occurs."

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)  Section 14, first passage.

 

(2)  Section 35, third passage.

 

(3)  Cf. Wang's commentary to section 30, last passage.

 

(4)  "Praise arising all at once" translates meixing.  Cf. Wang's commentary to section 30, last passage: "A whirlwind does not last an entire morning, and a rainstorm does not las an entire day.  Thus a sudden rise [baoxing] surely goes against the Dao and will come to an early end".  Commentators have found meixing problematic, however.  Lou Yulie thinks the text is corrupt and, referring to the section 30 commentary, says that it should not read baoji meixing buchang (praise arising all at once does not last long) but baoxing buchang(sudden arisings do not last long); see Wang Bi ji jiaoshi, 59 n. 4.  Another possibility, suggested by Momoi Hakuroku, is the read xing (arising) as yu (reputation), which would yield "a fine reputation [meiyu] that occurs all at once does not last long"; see Hatano Roshi Dotokukyo kenkyu, 165.

 

(5)  Section 2, second and third passages.  Cf. Wang's commentary to section 17, first passage.  However, the text here reads yiwuwei wei jun, "reigns as sovereign without conscious effort".  Because the same phrasing, yi wuwei wei ju, occurs in Wang's commentary to section 63, it is likely that jun (sovereign) here should be read as ju (tend to matters), a suggestion made by Jijang Xichang in his notes to section 2 of the Laozi; seeLaozi jiaogu (Collations and glosses to Laozi), 14. Cf. Hatano, Roshi Datokukyo kenkyu, 166-167, and Lou, Wang Bi ji jiaoshi, 59 n. 5.

 

(6)  Cf. Wang's commentary to section 6, first passage, and section 14, second passage.

 

(7)  "Is an embodiment of the Dao" translates yu dao tong ti, literally, "shares the same body with the Dao", which should be understood metaphorically.  It is unlikely that ti here should be thought of as the abstract, metaphysical "substance" of the later Neo-Confucians.  This is Alan K. L. Chan's conclusion in Two Visions of the Way, 66-67, where he draws attention to the syntax as it occurs identically in each of the next two passages of Wang's commentary -- yu de tong ti (is an embodiment of success) and yu shi tong ti  (is an embodiment of failure) -- where the metaphorical dimension is more obvious.  Cf. also Wang's commentary to section 6.

 

(8)  Section 22, fifth passage.

(9)  Wang identifies de (virtue) with de (success) and associates de (success) with the expression de qiben, "have access to one's roots", ie, be successful in getting at them.  One's "roots" are one's essentials, his "authenticity" (zhen), that which is pure embodiment of the Dao.  Creative, spontaneous, and natural, one's roots compare to the "root of Heaven and Earth".  Cf. section 6.

 

(10)  This translates the sixth passage of section 23 as it is found in the Mawangdui Laozi B text; see Mawangdui Hanmu boshu, 120.  The base text reads: "He who becomes one with the Dao, the Dao also gladly endows with virtue/success; he who becomes one with virtue/success, virtue/success also gladly endows with virtue/success; he who becomes one with failure, failure also gladly endows with failure".  Wang's commentary contains no reference to the odd expression "gladly" (le), so it is unlikely that this is the text he knew.  Even before the Mawangdui discovery, commentators have suspected that Wang's commentary did not fit the base text there; however, the Heshang Gong commentary is obviously written to it.  See Heshang Gong, 2:6 (15653B); Hatano, Roshi Dotokukyo kenkyu, 168-69; and Lou, Wang Bi ji jiaoshi, 60 n. 8.

 

(11)  Identical to section 17, fifth passage.

[Eva Libre]

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

 

Express yourself completely,

then keep quiet.

Be like the forces of nature:

when it blows, there is only wind;

when it rains, there is only rain;

when the clouds pass, the sun shines through.

 

If you open yourself to the Tao,

you are at one with the Tao

and you can embody it completely.

If you open yourself to insight,

you are at one with insight

and you can use it completely.

If you open yourself to loss,

you are at one with loss

and you can accept it completely.

 

Open yourself to the Tao,

then trust your natural responses;

and everything will fall into place.

 

 

From Byron Katie - A Thousand Names For Joy

- Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are

 

Open yourself to the Tao,

then trust your natural responses;

and everything will fall into place.

 

I didn't have a spiritual teacher.  Of course, I've had many teachers, from my mother to my ex-husbands to my children to the stranger in rags on a corner in Santa Monica.  But the privilege of not having an official teacher is that there's no tradition, so there's nothing to aspire or be loyal to.  This one that I happen to be doesn't have to look like anything but what it is.  It can afford to be a fool -- it doesn't know anything but love.  It's God delighted.  It comes to take the mystery and importance out of everything.  It takes the push and the time out of it.

 

I watch my granddaughter Marley, eleven months old, as I sing along with her musical toy -- "one two three four five six seven eight nine ten".  She looks at me with amazed delight and then begins to dance.  The dance happens beyond her control, her little diapered rear end wiggles, and she pops up and down, and her arms fly into the air.  I am watching dance being invented.  It's in its pristine state, it's happening for the very first time, and I can't help joining her.  She, too, is my teacher.  We're dancing together at the beginning of the human race, as if this were the first dance ever danced in the history of the world.  She's not trying to do it right or to impress anyone.  She is pure nature.  And I am the same, beyond control, I begin to move in the same way, I pop up and down and my arms fly into the air.  The laughter is pouring out of me.  I feel so thrilled, it's the thrill of natural dance, coming from her, from me, from her.  The song stops, she looks up at me, then down at the musical toy.  She presses the button to begin the song again.  It doesn't happen.  She is figuring out how to reproduce the miracle.  I watch as she presses the same button two, three times, and finally with enough force to make the music exist.  At the sound of the first note she looks at me, her face lights up, her body begins to move, and the dance begins again.

 

My dear old white German shepherd, Kennan, was another teacher of mine, one of my greatest teachers after I got a clue in 1986.  There were no conditions to her love.  Toward the end of her life, her hindquarters became crippled and she couldn't walk, so when people called her, she would just drag herself along the floor to meet them.  As she was dying, she began to bleed at the mouth.  I called all three of my children home, and I said, "If you can't find a reason why not, I'm going to put her down".  When they saw how far gone she was, they agreed that that was the best thing.  So we got her favorite food, and we gave her a big party with everything she loved, and we weren't careful with her.  The kids wrestled with her and called her, and she crawled to them with a puppy's smile n her face.  She dragged herself across the room, apparently delighted.  She didn't seem to know about pain.  She didn't know about anything but giving.

 

When the time came to take her to the vet, we all went -- nine or ten people, all her friends and family.  We stood around her, and my son Ross bent down to the table, eye to eye with her.  The doctor gave her the shot, a moment passed, she didn't move, and when Ross said, "She's gone", we all knew it.  She had been there and then she wasn't.  There was no "her" left.  There was no "her" to say good-bye to.  It was very sweet.

 

I've also learned from the trees, walking in the redwood forest, where the deer didn't run from me.  I saw trees that had fallen over from wind or lightning.  They appeared to be dead, and yet there was a whole world on them and in them: moss and insects and all sorts of hidden life.  Even in death, they were creating and giving what was left.

 

Nature withholds nothing from itself, until there is nothing to give.  It's like my white shepherd with the smile on her face and now when I called her she would come, dragging her hindquarters, blood dripping from her mouth.  That's what we're all doing, whether or not we realize it.  People have seen me crawl when the body is apparently exhausted.  I never have to do that or anything else, ever again.  I do it because it delights me.  I board an airplane and feel only freedom.  This awareness is my joy.  It may not appear that way, but it's an internal joy that I travel with, not the apparent exhaustion.  And I don't give more than anyone else.  The white shepherd didn't give more, nor does the redwood.  We all give equally.  Without our stories, all of us are pure love.

[Eva Libre]

Dr Dyer's Essay for Verse 23 -

 

Every thing that composes ultimately decomposes.  Notice that I put the emphasis on the word thing -- that's because all things on Earth are temporary and in a constant state of change.  Since you're on this planet, you too are a part of this always-changing and always-decomposing principle.  In this 23rd verse of the Tao Te Ching, you're asked to observe the ways of nature and then make the choice to live harmoniously with them.

 

Nature doesn't have to insist, push, or force anything; after all, storms don't last forever.  Winds blow hard, but then they subside.  The Tao creates form an eternal perspective, but everything is on its return trip home the moment it comes into being.  So Lao-tzu instructs that if you live harmoniously with this simple principle, you'll be in tune with nature.  Let go of a desire to force anyone or anything, and choose instead to consciously be part of the cyclical pattern of nature.  Lao-tzu reminds you that not even heaven can sustain a forced action.  In its inherent beingness, all action has a temporary existence and returns to a calmer state.  In contemporary language, we'd say that "everything blows over".

 

The teachings of this passage invite you to pause in the midst of strife or tension and remember that serenity and peace are on the way.  This verse emphatically points out that you always have a choice !  In every single situation, you can choose to observe exaggerated and forced energy.  It might be verbally attempting to control a situation or cursing how life's events are unfolding; regardless, these moments can be invitations to open to the Tao even while in the midst of chaos and angst.  this is how to "follow the Way":  Remember how nature blows hard and then returns to calm.  Follow the goodness of the Tao and you become goodness.  Stray from goodness and you become one with failure.

 

You are part of the law of form in time and space, composing and decomposing.  Everything in nature is returning to its Source . . . .  The question is, do you wish to participate consciously with this natural goodness, or would you rather spend your moments in anxiety and failure ?  The Tao response to this crucial question isn't within your ego, for it strongly believes in your ability to force things, to make things happen, or to be the person in charge.  The Tao points out that the Way is responsible for everything, with a naturalness about it that isn't forced.  It reminds you that what seems so devastating in the moment is benevolent perfection in another moment.  When you conform to the naturalness of the universe, you cooperate with this all-creating power that flows through you.  Suspend ego-driven plans and instead participate in the power that created you -- allow IT to be the guiding force in your life. 

[Eva Libre]

The lyrics of George Harrison's song "All Things Must Pass" is very reminiscent of this verse –

~ lyrics

Sunrise doesn't last all morning,
a cloudburst doesn't last all day
Seems my love is up
and has left you with no warning
But it's not always going
to be this grey

All things must pass,
all things must pass away

Sunset doesn't last all evening,
a mind can blow those clouds away
after all this my love is up
and must be leaving
It has not always
been this grey

All things must pass,
all things must pass away

All things must pass
none of life's dreams can last
So I must be on my way
and face another day

Now the darkness only stays at nighttime,
in the morning it will fade away
Daylight is good
at arriving at the right time
It's not always
going to be this grey

All things must pass,
all things must pass away
All things must pass,
all things must pass away