Verse 60 - Living with Immunity to Evil

[Eva Libre]

60th Verse

 

Governing a large county,

is like frying a small fish.

You spoil it with too much poking.

 

Approach the universe with the Tao

and evil will have no power.

Not that evil is not powerful,

but its power will not be used to harm others.

Not only will it not do harm to others,

but the sage himself will also be protected.

 

If only the ruler and his people would 

refrain from harming each other,

all the benefits of life would accumulate

in the kingdom.

Contemplation/Meditation Verse

When I refrain from thoughts
            of harm, directed towards others,
All the benefits of life accumulate to me.

           
Do The Tao Now

The next time you think that you're the target of a harmful thought from a stranger, a family member, or a co-worker, make every effort to remember to respond from your inner nature, which is the Tao.  Send back a loving, kind response, and then retreat to a silent and peaceful knowing that you've begun the process of immunizing yourself from harm.  By practicing with even a seemingly innocuous statement, you'll witness how effective this is.  Approach the universe with the Tao in your heart rather than reacting defensively.

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

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

Bolster your immunity to negativity by controlling
yourself in the midst of noxious thinking.

Catch yourself when you have judgmental thoughts that could be considered harmful for yourself or others. For example, if you see yourself as unworthy of respect, that's a damaging thought directed at you. Change it to the following affirmation: I deserve and anticipate receiving only Divine love. This is what I attract. When you're confronted with any reports of hatred and evil on our planet, suspend your fantasies of revenge toward the perpetrators. Change your mental energy to something like: I send loving, kind thoughts to all and trust that this love will help them see the folly of their hatred. Be conscious of all of your thoughts, changing them midstream if necessary. Become one person who brings the benefits of the Tao to our world.

[Eva Libre]

Advice From Dr Dyer –

 

Declare yourself immune to injurious entreaties.

 

Visualize a protective shield all around you, guarding you against what's perceived as evil in the world. Your shield is permeable only to energy that harmonizes with the Tao. Love, kindness, and help can all get through - but if any harm comes near you, it will be repelled by your shield. This means you create a great sense of faith in the Tao. With this kind of inner trust, when evil rages around you, it won't be able to impact you directly. Become the sage, the leader who governs your life and the lives of those around you, and who can't be hurt. Declare it, practice it in your every thought, and walk freely in the midst of danger. This isn't having a false sense of security; instead, it's an awareness that you and the Tao are one.

[Eva Libre]

From Vimala McClure - The Tao of Motherhood

60
MIRROR

As much as possible, let your
children find their own way.
Mother them delicately,
like frying eggplant.

Negative states will arise,
express, and pass away.
Allow this to happen. Help the
child to become aware of this
process gently, without intrusion.
The wise parent does not
fight fire with fire.

Be a mirror. Let your child see
how cause and effect works in life.
Too much interference and advice
gives power to opposing forces.

[Eva Libre]

From Richard Grossman - The Tao of Emerson

From James Legge - The Texts of Taoism, 1891

Governing a great state is like cooking small fish.

Let the kingdom be governed according to the Tao,
And the manes of the departed will not manifest
their spiritual energy.
It is not that those manes have not that spiritual energy,
but it will not be employed to hurt men.
It is not that it could not hurt men,
but neither does the ruling sage hurt them.

When these two do not injuriously affect each other,
Their good influences converge in the virtue of the Tao.

From the Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - ”Character”, ”Politics”

Fear, Craft and Avarice
cannot rear a state;
The more reason, the less government.
In a sensible family, nobody hears
the words “shall” and “shan't”.
Nobody commands and nobody obeys
but all conspire and joyfully cooperate.
The wise know that foolish legislation
is a rope of sand
which perishes in the twisting.
The law is only a memorandum.

When the statehouse is the hearth,
the perfect state is come

[Eva Libre]

From Tao Te Ching - The Definitive Edition by Jonathan Star

Govern a nation as you would fry a small fish

When Tao is present in the empire
dark spirits lose their power
It's not that they have no power
it's that their power can't harm anyone
When Tao is present
the people enjoy the blessings of Heaven
They find unity
They find peace

What's this about spirits doing harm?
The Sage is approaching
and they are rushing in to sweep his path !

[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

 

60 (23)

 

          Ruling a big kingdom is like cooking a small fish.

          If one oversees all under heaven in accord with the Way,

                    demons have no spirit.

          It is not that the demons have no spirit,

                    but that their spirits do not harm people.

          It is not merely that their spirits do not harm people,

                    but that the sage also does not harm them.

Now,

          When neither harms the other,

                    integrity accrues to both.

[Eva Libre]

Lynn's - Daode jing of Laozi

 

Ruling a large state is like cooking a small fish.

 

This means no stirring.  Action results in much harm, but quietude results in the fulfillment of authenticity [zhen].  Thus the larger the state, the more its ruler should practice quietude, for only then can he widely obtain the hearts/minds of the mass of common folk. (1)

 

If one uses the Dao to oversee all under Heaven, the malign spirits there will lose their numinous power.

 

If one governs a large state, he should do so as if he were cooking a small fish.  "If one uses the Dao to oversee all under Heaven, the malign spirits there will lose their numinous powers."

 

It is not that these malign spirits have no numinous power, it is just that they will do no harm to the people.

 

Numinous powers [shen] do not harm the Natural [ziran].  If people hold on to their naturalness, numinous powers will have no way to impose on them.  As numinous powers have no way to impose on them, there is no way to know that numinous powers are numinous.

 

It is not these numinous powers that do not harm the people but the sage, in fact, who does not harm the people.

 

If they unite with the Dao, numinous powers will not harm the people.  As numinous powers do not harm the people, they are unaware that the numinous powers are numinous powers.  If he unites with the Dao, the sage also will not harm the people.  As the sage does not harm the people, they are also unaware that the sage is a sage.  In other words, not only are they unaware that numinous powers are numinous powers, they are also unaware that the sage is a sage.  Relying on a network of power to control the people will bring about the demise of government, but if one allows the people to become unaware of numinous powers and sageliness, it will bring about the ultimate realizations of the Dao.

 

It is because neither of these two cause any harm that they unite their virtues and revert to it.

 

Numinous powers do not harm people, and the sage does not harm people either.  The sage does not harm people, and numinous powers do not harm people either.  Thus the text says: "neither of these two cause any harm."  Because numinous powers and the sage share the same Dao, [the text says that] they unite and revert to it.

 

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)  Alan Chan discusses section 60 and provides a translation of it and Wang's commentary (somewhat different from mine) in Two Visions of the Way, 86-88.

[Eva Libre]

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

Governing a large country
is like frying a small fish.
You spoil it with too much poking.

Center your country in the Tao
and evil will have no power.
Not that it isn't there,
but you'll be able to step out of its way.

Give evil nothing to oppose
and it will disappear by itself.

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

Give evil nothing to oppose
and it will disappear by itself.

Life is simple. Everything happens for you, not to you. Everything happens at exactly the right moment, neither too soon nor too late. You don't have to like it - it's just easier if you do. If you have a problem, it can only be because of your unquestioned thinking. How do you react when you believe that the past should have been different? You scare yourself stuck, because what you resist persists. You get to keep your stressful world, a world that doesn't exist except in your imagination; you get to stay in the nightmare. It hurts to oppose reality, because in opposing reality, you are opposing your very self.

When you know how to question your thoughts, there's no resistance. You look forward to your worst nightmare, because it turns out to be nothing but an illusion, and the four questions of The Work provide you with the technology to go inside and realize that. You don't have to grope in the dark to find your way to freedom. You can just sit down and give it to yourself, anything you want.

Nineteen years ago a doctor removed a large tumor from my face. I had found inquiry - inquiry had found me - so I didn't have a problem with the tumor. On the contrary: I was happy to see it come, and I was happy to see it go. It was actually quite a sight, and before it was removed I loved being out there in public. People would look at it and pretend not to be looking, and that tickled me. Maybe a little girl would stare at it, then her parents would whisper to her and yank her away. Did they think they would hurt my feelings, or that I was some sort of freak? I didn't feel like one. That tumor on my face was normal for me; it was reality. Sometimes I would catch someone looking at it, then he would look away, then after a while he would look again, then look away, look again, look away. And finally our eyes would meet, and we would both laugh. Because I saw the tumor without a story, eventually he could see it that way, too, and it was just funny.

Everything turns out to be a gift - that's the point. Everything that you saw as a handicap turns out to be the extreme opposite. But you can only know this by staying in your integrity, by going inside and finding out what your own truth is - not the world's truth. And then it is all revealed to you. There isn't anything you have to do. The only thing you're responsible for is your own truth in the moment, and inquiry brings you to that.

I once did The Work with a woman who was ashamed of her fingers. She had developed rheumatoid arthritis when she was seventeen, and she believed that her fingers were deformed. They weren't normal, she thought, and she suffered a lot from that belief; she was embarrassed even to let people see them. But her fingers were normal; they were normal for her. They were the fingers she had woken up with every morning since she was seventeen. For twenty-seven years they were her normal fingers. She just hadn't noticed.

How do you react when you believe that what is isn't normal for you? Shame, sadness, despair. Who would you be without that thought? At ease with your condition and loving it, whatever it is, because you would realize that it is completely normal, for you. Even if 99 percent of other people look a different way, their normal isn't your normal: this is your normal. That dear woman's argument with reality was what caused her suffering, not her fingers.

Give us permission, through you, to have a flaw, because flaws are the norm. When you hide your flaws, you teach us to hide ours. I love to say that we are just waiting for one teacher, just one, to give us permission to be who we are now. You appear as this, big or small, straight or bent. That's such a gift to give. The pain is in withholding it. Who else is going to give us permission to be free, if not you? Do it for your own sake, and we'll follow. We're a reflection of your thinking, and when you free yourself, we all become free.

[Eva Libre]

Deborah Hart Yemm writes:

I think this Rumi illustrates something similar to what Byron Katie said in the last paragraph of her essay -

The Truest Devotion

Moses ran after the shepherd.
He followed the bewildered footprints,
in one place moving straight like a castle
across a chessboard.
Then sideways, like a bishop.
Now surging, like a wave cresting.
Now sliding down
like a fish, with always his feet
making geomancy
symbols in the sand,
recording his wandering state.

Moses finally caught up with him.
I was wrong. God has revealed to me
that there are no rules for worship.

Say whatever and however your loving tells you to.
Your sweet blasphemy is the truest devotion.
Through you a whole world is freed.

Loosen your tongue
and don't worry what comes out.
It is all the light of the spirit.


Source - A Year With Rumi by Coleman Barks for May 13th.

[Eva Libre]

Dr Dyer's Essay for Verse 60 -

Your assignment in this verse of the Tao Te Ching is to change the way you view the presence of evil in your personal world, as well as the entire planet. You can do so by acquiring an inner awareness that evil simply can't impact you if you're centered within the protective net of the Tao. If you live in accordance with the Great Way, refusing to have injurious thoughts directed either toward yourself or others, then the powers of wickedness and wrongdoing will be rendered impotent.

The Tao isn't about destruction or visiting harm on anyone; rather, it gives sustaining energy to everyone, without exception. When people violate this principle, they're only successful when others respond in kind. This is when war erupts and dissension becomes present in the family and the community. Negativity then begets more negativity, and the leader or ruler will ultimately be destroyed as the larger grouping falls into chaos.

Update your viewpoint on the presence of malevolence in the world to one that emphatically affirms: My loved ones and I cannot and will not be impacted by the presence of evil anywhere in the world. Your inner landscape will immediately begin to change as well. So when you see or hear reports of violent thinking and action, your immediate reaction must be, This is not about me. I choose not to have any thoughts of harm directed to anyone by me. I am a being of light and love, and therefore the only thoughts that can emerge from me are in harmony with the great loving Tao. In other words, whatever comes your way because of other people won't evoke a plan of revenge and hatred. That's because you've made yourself immune to negativity by being Tao centered.

Now you may think that this sounds too simplistic, but imagine if large numbers of people began thinking this way - and then imagine if rulers began to emerge from this kind of consciousness. As Lao-tzu says in this verse, “If only the ruler and his people would refrain from harming each other, all the benefits of life would accumulate in the kingdom”. Ultimately, our world must live by this principle or humanity will cease to exist … and it begins with you.

As Tao awareness grows one person, one family, one community, and one country at a time, priorities will shift. Our energies will go into building more environmentally sensitive vehicles and homes rather than instruments that reflect a belief that we can do whatever we want to the planet without repercussions. We'll find ways to destroy the stockpiles of unimaginably horrendous weapons of mass destruction. Cooperation will replace hatred and thoughts of harm. It will come about, as Lao-tzu states, when rulers and people change the way they think about harming each other.

As you reexamine this passage of the Tao Te Ching, see how it can impact your daily life. When negativity feels like it's directed right at you, retreat to that place of kindness and love within and deflect that energy. Remember, it's impossible to pick a fight with someone who refuses to fight ! So your refusal to enter into battle is your most potent weapon against evil. You can change an angry person's attempt to inflict harm by refusing to lower yourself to the level of their abusive thinking. From an enraged motorist's curse to the harsh words of a disgruntled clerk or upset family member, these outbursts are easily shifted when you stay centered inwardly. Become immune to such harmful thinking and action by knowing that none of this is about you.

As he dictated this 60th verse some 2,500 years ago, Lao-tzu was thinking about all of humanity. He knew that hurtful behavior could be rendered impotent if enough people were willing to live in ways that encourage cooperation and a spirit of love in place of competition and revenge. Now he asks you to implement the wisdom of this verse by making the changes (deb's note - in the “Advice from Dr Dyer” posts in this thread) in the way you think about evil and its potential impact on you and the world.