Verse 53 - Living Honorably

[Eva Libre]

53rd Verse

  

If I have even just a little sense,

I should walk in the Great Way,

and my only fear would be straying.

 

The Great Way is very smooth and straight,

and yet the people prefer devious paths.

That is why the court is corrupt,

the fields lie in waste,

the granaries are empty.

 

Dressing magnificently,

wearing a sharp sword,

stuffing oneself with food and drink,

amassing wealth to the extent of not knowing

what to do with it,

is being like a robber.

 

I say this pomp at the expense of others

is like the boasting of thieves after a looting.

This is not the Tao.

 

 

Contemplation/Meditation Verse

 

If I had even a little sense

         I should walk in the Great Way

and my only fear would be straying.

         I live honorably,

I see myself in all others.

 

 

Do The Tao Now

 

Make a daily practice of opening your heart in compassion when you see someone less fortunate than yourself.  Give him or her a silent blessing rather than a thought of scorn, ridicule, blame, or indifference.  Do the same when you learn how many of "them" were killed in any skirmish - rather than rejoicing about the dead enemies, say a silent prayer of love and compassion.

Live honorably; it "just [takes] a little sense".

 

 

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

by Dr Wayne W Dyer

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Make compassion the essential foundation

of your personal philosophy

 

Feeling guilty about what you've amassed or wallowing in sadness over the plight of the starving won't change things, but making compassion the essential foundation of your philosophy will.  This is one of the most significant ways of initiating the growth of a critical mass.  As that mass grows, kind hearts and actions will realign our planet: Like-minded leaders will emerge, and gross inconsistencies will be reduced and eventually eliminated.  Mother Teresa was an outstanding example of how one person's way of seeing the world can change the world itself: "[I]n each [person I see]," she said, "I see the face of Christ in one of his more distressing disguises."

 

"Walk in the Great Way" by doing charity work or supporting candidates for public office who embody compassionate action.  And vow to make a difference on a daily basis throughout your life, which might be as simple as refusing to join in denouncing others or categorizing them as "evil" or "defective".  After all, so many of the wars that currently rage on our planet are rooted in religious hatred that perpetuates the imbalances pointed out in this verse of the Tao Te Ching.

 

In the following excerpt from the Koran, the great prophet Mohammed tells the followers of Islam to practice compassionate action.  You can use his teaching to make a daily difference during your own life:

 

Behave beneficently toward the neighbor

that is a kinsman and the neighbor that is

a stranger and the companion by your side.

He who behaves ill toward his neighbor is not

a believer, nor can ever be one.

One who eats his fill while his neighbor

is hungry by his side is not a believer.

[Eva Libre]

From Vimala McClure - The Tao of Motherhood

 

53

CONSUMPTION

 

A wise mother keeps her child's 

life simple.  She gives away ten

thousand toys and keeps only that

which is useful.

 

She lets her baby gaze into her

face and at the wondrous colors

of nature.

 

She gives her child household

things and tells stories the same

way over and over.

 

Feeling that you must have

every toy, every device, every

piece of equipment merely places

objects between you and your

child.  You have to work that

much harder to provide them;

work which robs your child of his

most important stimulation -

your company.

 

Those who become trapped in

the cycle of getting and having

spend their children's lives in a

kind of fog.  The best moments

are lost forever.

 

Ask the question: Who really

benefits from all this

consumption ?

[Eva Libre]

From Tao Te Ching - The Definitive Edition by Jonathan Star

 

If I had the least bit of wisdom

          I could follow the path of Tao quite well

My only fear would be trying to go my own way

The Great Path is simple and direct

          yet people love to take the side-routes

 

See how magnificent the courts have become

The women dress in colorful gowns

The men carry well-crafted swords

Food and drink overflow

Wealth and finery abound

Yet in the shadow of all this splendor

          the fields grow barren

          the granaries are all but empty

 

I say this pomp at the expense of others

           is like the boasting of thieves after a looting

Surely it is contrary to Tao

Surely it cuts against the grain of the whole empire

 

[Eva Libre]

From Richard Grossman - The Tao of Emerson

 

From James Legge - The Texts of Taoism, 1891

 

If I were suddenly to become known,

And put in a position to conduct

          a government according to the great Tao,

What I should be most afraid of

         would be a boastful display.

 

The great Tao is very level and easy;

          But people love the byways.

 

Their courtyards and buildings shall be well kept,

But their fields shall be ill cultivated,

          and their granaries very empty.

They shall wear elegant and ornamented robes,

          carry a sharp sword at their girdle,

          pamper themselves in eating and drinking,

          and have a superabundance of property and wealth

Such princes may be called robbers and boasters.

This is contrary to the Tao surely !

 

 

From the Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - "Spiritual Laws"

 

What a man does, that he has.

Let him regard no good as solid,

          but that which is in his nature.

The goods of fortune may come and go

          like summer leaves;

Let him scatter them on every wind

          as momentary signs.

 

Virtue is the adherence in action

          to the nature of things,

And the nature of things makes it prevalent.

It consists in a perpetual substitution 

          of being for seeming.

 

Why need you choose so painfully your place,

          and occupation, and association and

          modes of action ?

For you, there is a reality, a fit place

          and congenial duties.

[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

 

53 (16)

 

If I were possessed of the slightest knowledge,

           traveling on the great Way,

My only fear would be to go astray.

The great Way is quite level,

           but the people are much enamored of mountain trails.

 

The court is thoroughly deserted,

The fields are choked with weeds,

The granaries are altogether empty.

 

Still there are some who

          wear clothes with fancy designs and brilliant colors,

          sharp swords hanging at their sides,

          are sated with food,

          overflowing with possessions and wealth.

 

This is called "The brazenness of a bandit".

The brazenness of a bandit is surely not the Way !

[Eva Libre]

Lynn's - Daode jing of Laozi

 

If, with firm resolve, I had the knowledge to travel on the great Dao [Way], I need only fear that I might try to meddle with it.

 

In other words, if I could, with firm resolve [jieran], (1) have the knowledge to make the great Dao prevail among all under Heaven, my only fear should be that I might try to meddle with It [shiwei].

 

The great Dao [Way] might be very smooth, yet the common folk prefer byways.

 

In other words, although the great Dao [Way] endlessly stretches straight and smooth, the common folk nevertheless discard and do not follow it, preferring instead to travel the bypaths of deviancy [xie].  How much the more would this happen if I were to block the great Dao [Way] by meddling with it ?  Thus the text says "The great Dao [Way] might be very smooth, yet the common folk prefer byways." 

 

The court is kept in good order,

 

"The court" refers to the palace.  "In good order" means kept clean and pleasant.

 

But the fields are overgrown with weeds, the granaries empty.

 

To keep the court in excessive good order will result in fields being much overgrown with weeds and granaries being terribly empty.  This is to harm the lives of the many so that the one may be fulfilled.

 

Garbed in patterned and colorful clothes, wearing sharp swords, satiated with food and drink, and overflowing with wealth and goods: all this is stolen extravagance and nothing to do with the Dao !

 

If anything is obtained in violation of the Dao, it is always ill-gotten, and, being ill-gotten, it means that it is stolen.  Extravagance not obtained in accordance with the Dao [is stolen extravagance.  Noble status not obtained in accordance with the Dao] (2) is stolen status.  Thus the text cities this example of anti-Dao behavior in order to clarify what being anti-Dao means: to be anti-Dao always indicates stolen extravagance.

 

 

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)  For the argument that jieran should be rendered "having little", "in small measure", see Chan, Two Visions of the Way, 181-82, and Henricks, Lao-Tzu Te-Tao Ching, 269 n. 60.  This would result in: "If I had but little knowledge to travel on. . . ."  Although the context does not clarify which interpretation is the more likely, I favor the one that indicates firmness of purpose.  Lou Tulie, citing Lao Jian's Laozi guben kao, comes to the same conclusion; see Wang Bi ji jiaoshi, 142 n. 1.

 

(2)  The text in brackets occurs only in the Daode zhenjing jizhu (Collected commentaries on the True Classic of the Way and Virtue), 8:4 (17045A).  All other editions read:  "Extravagance not obtained in accordance with the Dao indicates stolen status."  See Hatano, Roshi Dotokukyo kenkyu, 347-48; and Lou, Wang Bi ji jiaoshi, 143 n. 9.

[Eva Libre]

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

 

The great Way is easy,

yet people prefer the side paths.

Be aware when things are out of balance.

Stay centered within the Tao.

 

When rich speculators prosper

while farmers lose their land;

when government officials spend money

on weapons instead of cures;

when the upper class is extravagant and irresponsible

while the poor have nowhere to turn -

all this is robbery and chaos.

It is not in keeping with the Tao.

 

 

From Byron Katie - A Thousand Names For Joy

- Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are

 

The great Way is easy,

yet people prefer the side paths.

 

The great Way is easy.  It's what reveals itself right here, right now.  "Do the dishes."  "Answer the e-mail."  "Don't answer the e-mail."  It's the great Way because it's the only way.  Whatever you do or don't do is your contribution to reality.  Nothing could be easier.  Nothing else is required; you can't do it wrong.

 

The side paths are your judgments about what you're doing or not doing.  It makes life extremely difficult when you call what you're doing "wrong", "stupid", or "unnecessary" - when you belittle it after it has been done.  To compare what you've done to what you should have done, to think that you need to measure up to some external standard, is a difficult path.  What is is always the way it's supposed to be right now, and it's always the story of a past.  You can argue with the past all you want, and after you've come up with the best, most persuasive, most humane reasons in the world that it should have been different, the past is what it is.  Learn from the past, by all means, but if you feel any guilt or shame about it, you are just inflicting violence on yourself, and violence doesn't work.  The clear way, the great Way, is to begin now.

 

You can't change the projected world, but you can change mind, the projector.  Just notice when things are out of balance.  You don't have to figure it out.  There's a built-in signal that will always let you know: it's called stress.  Your unquestioned thoughts about life lead you to believe that there's something out of order, and that can never be true.  Stress allows you to know when to inquire.  Judge your neighbor, write it down, ask four questions, turn it around.  In itself, life is effortless.  If you think there's a problem, inquire, until you can see how perfect the way of it is.

[Eva Libre]

Dr Dyer's Essay for Verse 53 –

 

Imagine that you were able to view the world from a position of complete honor and oneness: Everywhere you looked you saw the Great Way . . . and saw all of it as you.  From this perspective, every person who's ever existed, or will ever exist, is a part of you, birthed by your Source.  All of life - the creatures, the land, the oceans, and the vegetation - are connected by the Tao.  From this perspective, your world would change dramatically.  If a critical mass of humanity had this same perspective, seeing the whole globe as part of ourselves would translate to the same respect for every form of life that we have for our individual bodies.  And this unity would make the scene that Lao-tzu is describing in this passage impossible.

 

Despite all of our technological advances, the words that the great Chinese master wrote 2,500 years ago still apply.  Unfortunately, we're far removed from walking the Great Way, for we continue to see great divisions rather than a sense of unified oneness.  As Lao-tzu admonishes at the end of this verse, "This is not the Tao". 

 

One of my favorite translations of this 53rd verse of the Tao Te Ching was written in 1944 by Witter Bynner.  He expresses it perfectly:

 

See how fine the palaces

And see how poor the farms,

How bare the peasants' granaries

While gentry wear embroideries

Hiding sharpened arms.

And the more they have the more they seize,

How can there be such men as these

Who never hunger, never thirst,

Yet eat and drink until they burst !

 

You can see that these conditions still exist today: Whole continents of people experience starvation, while a few in positions of power live in opulence and grandeur.  Weapons of destruction receive funding, while millions live in poverty.  Leaders sit down to overflowing plenitude, while the masses scrounge around for ways to feed their families and heat their homes.  We have a long way to go before traversing that smooth and straight Way of the Tao, for we still take "devious paths" and see the all-too-painful results of this choice every day.

 

But I'm not writing these words to try to change the world in one fell swoop; rather, I'm doing so to encourage you to change the way you see your world.  If you make that modification, others will gravitate toward living honorably as well.  When enough of us do this, we'll reach a critical mass that will eliminate "the boasting of thieves after a looting".

 

Begin by seeing yourself as the environment, rather than as an organism within it.  I've even coined a word to describe when life-forms are whole, rather than separate: environorganisms.  Understand that you can't survive apart from what it seems isn't part of you - for you absolutely are the air, the water, the plants, the animals, and everyone else on the planet.  Change your worldview to one that completely understands that when anyone else is starving or living in poverty, so are you.  See yourself in all others and you'll find the compassion, love, and willingness that replaces your belief in your uniqueness and differentness.

 

Lao-tzu was obviously distressed by the conditions of hard-heartedness and indifference that he observed in ancient China, so he appealed to all to live honorably through the emulation of the Tao rather than from the ego perspective of separateness.  And now he asks you to change the way you look at the blatant imbalances in your world, noting how your world changes to align with the Tao when you live honorably.