Verse 50 - Living as an Immortal

[Eva Libre]

50th Verse

 

Between birth and death,

three in ten are followers of life;

three in ten are followers of death.

And men just passing from birth to death

also number three in ten.

 

Why is this so ?

Because they clutch to life

and cling to this passing  world.

But there is one out of ten, they say, so sure of life

that tigers and wild bulls keep clear.

Weapons turn from him on the battlefield,

rhinoceroses have no place to horn him,

tigers find no place for claws,

and soldiers have no place to thrust their blades.

 

Why is this so ?

Because he dwells in that place

where death cannot enter.

Realize your essence

and you will witness the end without ending.

  

 

Contemplation/Meditation Verse

 

I am an immortal, spiritual being

         having a temporary human experience.

 

         

Do The Tao Now

 

This Tao exercise is an inner-vision quest in which you picture yourself as immune to harm.  Create your own imagined picture of danger, or draw on the 50th verse of the Tao Te Ching for threats to your life.  Tigers jump at you and miss, swords are thrust at you but do no damage, bombs explode but you're unscathed . . . . Keep this image of yourself as incapable of being harmed regardless of what goes on in your body.  Then use this "witness to your immortality" vision to help you activate dormant protective forces that will accommodate you in fulfilling what you've imagined.

 

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

by Dr Wayne W Dyer

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Create affirmations. 

 

Remind yourself, No one dies, including myself.  Affirm that you can never be harmed or destroyed, for you are not your body.  If you stay connected to this reality, you'll automatically deflect dangers that may have previously been able to invade your physical space.  For example, as the Indian saint Muktananda lay dying, his devotees are said to have surrounded him, pleading, "Please don't leave".  Muktananda replied, "Don't be silly - where could I go ?"  The great swami realized his true essence and knew that he was at an end without ending.

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Die while you're alive !  

 

In your imagination, contemplate the death of your physical shell: Visualize it lying there lifeless, and observe how you, the witness, aren't identified with this corpse.  Now bring that same attention to your body as it gets up and goes about its daily tasks.  Nothing could harm your human form when it was dead, and nothing can harm you now because you are not that body - you're the invisible witnessing essence.  Remain in this realization, knowing that you've experienced the death of your earthly container as your primary source of identification.  In this new awareness, you're impenetrable and free.  Here's how Leonardo da Vinci expressed the message of this verse of the Tao Te Ching: "While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die."  Do this now, while you're still alive.

[Eva Libre]

From Vimala McClure - The Tao of Motherhood

 

50

FEAR

 

When you have your first child,

suddenly life becomes precious.

So precious you can strangle it

with the tension of holding on.

 

What mother hasn't had fearful

fantasies of losing her child ?

This is the hardest time to accept

letting go as part of holding on.

 

Three mothers in ten grasp their

children with claws of steel

to protect them from harm.

 

Three mothers in ten allow their

children to wander into danger.

 

Three mothers in ten confuse their

children with endless admonitions

and worries, yet force them

to face pain before they are ready.

 

Only ten percent accept the wheel

of life as it is.  They are free from

fear, for they know that nothing

is ever lost.  They do not grasp

and cling or organize their lives

around a fantasy of what might 

happen.

 

For their children, fear cannot find

a place to lodge its blade.

[Eva Libre]

From Tao Te Ching - The Definitive Edition by Jonathan Star

 

Again and again

Men come in with birth

          and go out with death

One in three are followers of life

One in three are followers of death

And those just passing from life to death

          also number one in three

But they all die in the end

Why is this so ?

Because they clutch to life

          and cling to this passing world

 

I hear that one who lives by his own truth

          is not like this

He walks without making footprints in this world

Going about, he does not fear the rhinoceros or tiger

Entering a battlefield, he does not fear sharp weapons

For in him the rhino can find no place to pitch its horn

The tiger no place to fix its claw

The soldier no place to thrust his blade

Why is this so ?

Because he dwells in that place

          where death cannot enter

[Eva Libre]

From Richard Grossman - The Tao of Emerson

 

From James Legge - The Texts of Taoism, 1891

 

Men come forth and live; they enter again and die.

Of every ten, three are ministers of life;

And three are ministers of death.

There are also three in every ten

          whose aim is to live,

          but whose movements tend to the land of death.

And for what reason ?

Because of their excessive endeavors to perpetuate life.

But I have heard that he who is skillful

          at managing the life entrusted to him

For a time travels on the land

          without having to shun rhinoceros or tiger,

And enters a host without having to avoid

          buff coat or sharp weapon.

The rhinoceros finds no place in him

          into which to thrust its horn,

Nor the tiger a place in which to fix its claws,

Nor the weapon a place to admit its point.

And for what reason ?

Because there is in him no place of death.

 

 

From the Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - "Immortality" and "Perpetual Forces"

 

The name of death was never terrible

          to him that knew to live.

A man of thought is willing to die,

          willing to live.

 

The world is delivered into your hand,

          but on two conditions -

Not for property, but for use,

Use according to the noble nature of the gift,

          not for toys, and not for self-indulgence.

Things work to their ends, not yours.

And will certainly defeat any adventurer

          who fights against this ordination.

 

On the borders of the grave, the wise man

          looks forward with elasticity of mind, or hope.

[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

 

50 (13)

 

          A person comes forth to life and enters into death.

          Three out of ten are partners of life,

          Three out of ten are partners of death,

          And the people whose every movement leads them to the

                    land of death because they cling to life

          Are also three out of ten.

 

Now,

          What is the reason for this ?

          It is because they cling to life.

 

Indeed,

I have heard that

          One who is good at preserving life

                    does not avoid tigers and rhinoceroses

                              when he walks in the hills;

                    nor does he put on armor and take up weapons

                              when he enters a battle.

          The rhinoceros has no place to jab its horn,

          The tiger has no place to fasten its claws,

          Weapons have no place to admit their blades.

 

Now,

          What is the reason for this ?

          Because on him there are no mortal spots.

[janice wilson]

wow

so true

i experience this in my life

having had someone threaten to kill me

i went inside to the peace of my being

also once had 2 at my throat with knives

grace of life has been with me

I am most grateful

humbled

*****

[Eva Libre]

Lynn's - Daode jing of Laozi

 

We emerge into life, enter into death.

 

This refers to how we emerge into the land of life and enter into the land of death.

 

Three out of ten are adherents of life; three out of ten are adherents of death; and there are three out of ten whose way of life also leads them to death.  Why is this so ?  It is due to placing too much emphasis on life. (1)  For I have heard that one good at preserving life, when traveling by land, does not encounter the wild buffalo and, when entering the army, suffers no wound from weapons.  The wild water buffalo has no way to strike at him with horn, the tiger has no way to strike at him with claw, and weapons of war have no way to use point or edge against him.  Why is this so ?  It is due to the fact that he stays free of the land of death. (2) 

 

1.  "Three out of ten" is like saying "three parts of ten parts".  Those who take the road to life and do everything to live as long as possible amount to three out of ten people.  Those who take the road to death and do everything to die as soon as possible also amount to three out of ten people.  When people place too much emphasis on life, it turns into the land of death for them.  One good at preserving life does not use life for the sake of living, and this is why he stays free of the land of death.  

 

2.  There are no instruments more harmful than weapons of war.  There are no beasts more harmful than the wild buffalo and the tiger.  Yet if one can ensure that weapons have no way to use point or edge against him or tigers and wild buffaloes have no way to strike him with claw or horn, such a one truly does not let his person be hampered by desire, so how could any land of death exist for him ?  Bottom creatures deem the lowest depths shallow and burrow into them.  Eagles and ospreys deem mountains low and build their nests on top of them.  Because harpoon arrows cannot reach them or nets get at them, it can be said that where they locate themselves in land free of death.  But, after all, there are those that for the sake of some sweet bait enter land where there is no life for them.  Is this not due to placing too much emphasis on life ?

 

3.  Thus it is for people: if they neither allow craving to separate them from their roots nor let desire compromise their authenticity, even if they enter the army, they will suffer no harm, and, when traveling on land, they will be invulnerable.  That one must emulate the infant and hold it in the highest esteem is perfectly true ! (3)

 

 

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)  Cf. Wang's commentary to section 13, second passage; and section 75.

 

(2)  Cf. section 76, first passage.

 

(3)  A somewhat different translation of this lengthy passage, together with a discussion and comparison with the Heshang Gong commentary to section 50, appears in Alan Chan, Two Visions of the Way, 184-88.

[Eva Libre]

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

 

The Master gives himself up

to whatever the moment brings.

He knows that he is going to die,

and he has nothing left to hold on to:

no illusions in his mind,

no resistances in his body.

He doesn't think about his actions;

they flow from the core of his being.

He holds nothing back from life;

therefore he is ready for death,

as a man is ready for sleep

after a good day's work.

 

 

From Byron Katie - A Thousand Names For Joy

- Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are

 

She holds nothing back from life;

therefore she is ready for death.

 

How can anyone describe the indescribable, or bring into existence what is just a mirror image of reality ?  There are names for it: arm, leg, sun, moon, ground, salt, water, shirt, hair – names that can only reflect the unseeable, the unknowable.  There are many names for what can never be named.  When you oppose it, when you experience anything as separate or unacceptable, the result is suffering, and inquiry can bring you back to the peace you felt before you believed that thought.  It can bring you back to the world prior to any problems.  When there is no opposition, the colors no longer clash, music becomes beautiful again, no dance is out of step, and every word is poetry.

 

Reality is always-stable, never-disappointing base of experience.  When I look at what really is, I can’t find a me.  As I have no identity, there’s no one to resist death.  Death is everything that has ever been dreamed, including the dream of myself, so at every moment I die of what has been and am continually born as awareness in the moment, and I die of that, and am born of it again.  The thought of death excites me.  Everyone loves a good novel and looks forward to how it will end.  It’s not personal.  After the death of the body, what identification will mind take on ?  The dream is over, I was absolute perfection, I could not have had a better life.  And whatever I am is born in this moment as everything good that has ever lived.

 

I know that there is never anything to lose, so it’s easy for me to hold nothing back from life.  And because I give it everything I have, my life is complete in every moment.  There is never anything undone.  There is no moment in my life when I’m not complete.

 

When I see only what’s real, how can any experience be frustrating ?  Even when I apparently fail, even when I’m apparently defeated, there is a constant appreciation and joy going on inside me.  How fascinating to see me baffled by technology, for example.  I’m in an apartment in Amsterdam and have been on the road for almost three months, living in hotel rooms.  Finally, an apartment, for six whole days in a row !  It’s near the park, and it has a kitchen and a big living room overlooking a quiet square.  And, heaven of heavens, a washing machine !  It can’t get any better than this.  Hmm.  With Fuchs’ dystrophy, sometimes I can see and sometimes I can’t, and it has been a few days now since I could see clearly.  And I absolutely cannot read the dial on the washing machine.  So I wait, thinking that maybe in a couple of hours my eyes will clear up.  Later I notice, excitedly, that I can read the dial well enough to see words.  Of course, the words are in Dutch.  I call a Dutch friend, and she translates for me.  I guess at what bin to put the soap in.  Who needs fabric softener anyway ?  And, by the way, I hope this really is soap, and if it is, I hope it’s for washing machines.  I was given a detailed lesson in how to run this machine yesterday, so I have an idea of what to do, but I’ve forgotten some essential instructions.  Oh, well.  I start the machine, and I’m thrilled.  Clean clothes !

 

Three hours later, I take a peek.  The machine is still going through cycles, and I have lost my vision again.  Until the clothes spin and the correct cycle completes, the door on the washing machine won’t open.  So now I’m turning the dial by sound, with my ear close to it, listening to the clicks, like a safecracker.  After the cycle ends, the door still doesn’t open.  I can’t see the dial, I can’t figure out the machine, I don’t know what more to do, I call Stephen in and he doesn’t know what to do, there’s a load of wet clothes in the washing machine, the door won’t open, I’m not sure if it was soap I put in or if it was the right dispenser or if the wet clothes are even clean.   And I notice that I’m feeling calm – tickled actually, always watching mind and the way of it.  There’s nothing wrong, everything is right.  The thought that the machine should work or that the clothes should get clean never even occurs to me.  I’m just watching where reality goes next.  It’s fascinating.  Is the goal to wash the clothes ?  Is the goal to wash the clothes in this machine ?  You never know.  In another hour or two we may be headed for an adventure at the Laundromat up the street.

 

Then suddenly I remember that the landlord told me there’s a little quirk to the washing machine: you have to turn the dial to a certain place to complete the cycle before the door will open.  I turn it, the door opens, and finally, after five hours, voila ! the laundry is done.

[Eva Libre]

Dr Dyer's Essay on Verse 50 –

 

In this passage, Lao-tzu asks you to change the way you look at your mortality.  The Tao teaches that death is an insignificant detail that doesn't need to be consciously struggled with or dreaded.  As this verse of the Tao Te Ching informs you, there's a "place where death cannot enter".  Talk about your life changing when you change your thoughts !  This is the ultimate, since the fear of death tops virtually everyone's list of anxieties.

 

If you see yourself solely as a physical mortal, then you're part of the 90 percent of the population that this passage refers to as "followers of life", "followers of death", or "just passing from birth to death".  Here you're being encouraged to aspire to be part of the remaining 10 percent, for whom thoughts of mortality don't invade the heart space or life in general.  By altering the way you see death, you'll be in that select group.  You'll experience life on the active side of infinity, knowing yourself first and foremost as a spiritual being having a temporary human experience, rather than the other way around.

 

In this realm, you'll be gracefully adept at moving along free of the fear of life-threatening events.  You'll have a knowing about yourself and your connection to the Tao that simply allows you to ride with life like a fearless downhill skier who's at one with the snow-covered mountain.  Without resorting to judgment, you'll notice others who are perpetually victimized by scams, bureaucracies, indifference, natural disaster, criminals, or meddling relatives.

 

With an intimate awareness of your infinite essence that's centered in the Tao, you'll most likely escape from victimization yourself, and you'll lightly deal with situations that others tend to get stuck in.  In other words, when you know your own endless nature and live each day with this awareness directing you, there will simply be no space within you for mortality to call the shots.  If harm ever does make an attempt to inflict damage or death on you, it won't find a place to sink its hooks into.

 

Change how you think about death by seeing your essential spiritual beingness, and you'll be able to enjoy this world without the dread caused by believing your are of it.  When you know your immortality through the flow of the Tao, you won't even need to assign it a worldly concept or formal religion.  And when the time comes for you to remove the worn-out coat you call your body, Lao-tzu says that "you will witness the end without ending".

 

Contemplate the teachings of the Tao Te Ching and realize that you can never really be killed or even harmed.  With this view of life, you'll be able to clear your inner battlefield of the army of beliefs that continually try to march on your essential self.  Fear and dread are weapons that can't hurt or threaten you.  Even the natural elements symbolized by rhino's horns and tiger's claws can't inflict damage because they butt against and tear at a space that has no solidity for them to inflict pain.  You dwell in a place that's impenetrable to death - no longer are you clutching at the 10,000 things and treating your short journey from cradle to grave as your one and only ultimate life experience.  Now you are the infinite Tao, living your real essence.