Verse 33 - Living Self-Mastery

[Eva Libre]

33rd Verse

 

One who understands others has knowledge;

one who understands himself has wisdom.

Mastering others requires force;

 mastering the self needs strength.

 

If you realize that you have enough,

you are truly rich.

 

One who gives himself to his position

surely lives long.

One who gives himself to the Tao

surely lives forever.

 

 

Contemplation/Meditation Verse

 

I am replacing my desire for power over others,

         with my efforts to understand and master my self,

in any and all situations - the things we love,

         we have to learn, to leave alone.

 

 

Do The Tao Now

 

Today, practice experiencing the unfolding of the Tao with someone who usually causes you distress.  Consciously initiate a conversation with that in-law, ex-spouse, bullying co-worker, or family  member, inviting the Tao to flow freely.  Notice how, what, and where you feel; remain warmly and tolerantly in touch with the sensations within your body.  You've entered the space of self-mastery in this moment.

 

Here's what A Course in Miracles offers on this verse of the Tao Te Ching: "This is the only thing that you need to do for vision, happiness, release from pain . . . . Say only this, but mean it with no reservations . . . I am responsible for what I see.  I chose the feelings I experience . . . "

 

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

by Dr Wayne W Dyer

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Focus on understanding yourself

instead of blaming others.

 

Whenever you're anxious, in pain, or even mildly upset over the conduct of others, take the focus off those you're holding responsible for your inner distress.  Shift your mental energy to allowing yourself to be with whatever you're feeling -- let the Tao flow freely, without blaming others for your feelings.  And don't blame yourself either !  Just allow the Tao to unfold. . . . Tell yourself that no one has the power to make you uneasy without your consent, and that you're unwilling to grant that authority to this person right now.  But you are willing to freely experience your emotions without calling them "wrong" or needing to chase them away.    Flow in the Tao now !  In this way, with this simple exercise at the moment of your dis-ease, you've made a shift to self-mastery.

 

It's important to bypass blame and even your desire to understand the other person; instead, focus on understanding yourself.  By taking responsibility for how you choose to respond to anything or anyone, you're aligning yourself with the Tao.  Change the way you choose to perceive the power that others have over you and you will see a bright new world of unlimited potential for yourself. 

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Cultivate your desire for others to discover

the Tao in their lives.

 

Dismiss any desire to extend power over others through the forceful nature of your actions and your personality.  Ego believes that others are incapable of running their own lives and wants to control with force, so demonstrate your inner strength by abandoning such tactics.  Catch yourself as you're about to tell others how they "should" be.  Use the opportunity to practice allowing them to learn their own lessons without interference from you.  Notice how often you attempt to use verbal force to convince others to listen to you.  Remind yourself to remain quiet and send loving energy.  Practice this kind of self-mastery even though it's rare in today's world.  You are strong enough to trust the Tao.

 

When your judgments dominate, the flow of the Tao shows.  See how the world truly changes right before your eyes when you sincerely desire that others follow their own life paths, which will lead them to realize the greatness of the Tao.  All those formerly perceived as needing you to tell them what or how to live are also the same as you are in the Tao's wisdom and strength.

[Eva Libre]

From Tao Te Ching - The Definitive Edition by Jonathan Star

 

One who knows others is intelligent

One who knows himself is enlightened

 

One who conquers others is strong

One who conquers himself is all-powerful

 

One who approaches life with force

          surely gets something

One who remains content where he is

          surely gets everything

 

One who gives himself to his position

          surely lives long

One who gives himself to Tao

          surely lives forever

[Eva Libre]

From Richard Grossman - The Tao of Emerson

 

From James Legge - The Texts of Taoism, 1891

 

He who knows other men is discerning;

He who knows himself is intelligent.

He who overcomes others is strong;

He who overcomes himself is mighty.

 

He who is satisfied with his lot is rich;

He who goes on acting with energy has a firm will.

He who does not fail in the requirements of his position,

          continues long;

He who dies and yet does not perish, has longevity.

 

 

From the Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - "Self-Reliance"

 

He who knows that power is inborn,

That he is weak because he has looked

          for good out of him,

          and elsewhere,

And so perceiving, throws himself

          unhesitatingly on his thoughts,

Instantly rights himself, stands in

          the erect position,

Commands his limbs, works miracles,

Just as a man who stands on his feet

          is stronger than a man who stands on his head.

[Eva Libre]

From Vimala McClure - The Tao of Motherhood

 

33

CONTENTMENT

 

You can know your children with

some intelligence.  Knowing

yourself requires enlightenment.

 

You can manage your children

with strength.  Mastering your

own life requires true power.

 

To accept what you are is to be

content, and contentment is the

greatest wealth.  To work with

patience is to gather power.

To surrender to the Eternal flow

is to be completely present.

[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

 

33 (77)

 

Understanding others is knowledge,

Understanding oneself is enlightenment;

Conquering others is power,

Conquering oneself is strength;

Contentment is wealth,

Forceful conduct is willfulness;

Not losing one's rightful place is to endure,

To die but not be forgotten is longevity.

[Eva Libre]

Lynn's - Daode jing of Laozi

 

One who knows others is wise, but one who knows himself is perspicacious.

 

Knowing others consists in nothing more than using intelligence [zhi], which falls short of knowing oneself, for this transcends intelligence. (1)

 

One who conquers others has strength, but one who conquers himself is powerful.

 

Conquering others consists in nothing more than using strength, which falls short of conquering oneself, for here there is no one else for whom one saps his strength.  Using one's intelligence on others falls short of using one's intelligence on oneself.  Using one's strength on others falls short of using one's strength on oneself.  If one's perspicacity [ming] is used to illustrate oneself, no one else will escape from it.  If one's strength is used on oneself, no one else will change places with him. (2)

 

One who knows contentment is rich.

 

One who knows contentment is himself not wanting for anything.  Thus he is rich.

 

One who acts with power has his goal fulfilled.

 

If one acts with diligence and ability, his goal will surely be realized.  Thus the text says: "One who acts with power has his goal fulfilled."

  

One who does not lose his place lasts long.

 

If one examines himself with perspicacity, acts in accordance with his strength, and does not lose his place, he is sure to enjoy a long reign [jiuchang]. (3)

 

One who die but is not destroyed has longevity.

 

Although one dies, thanks to the Dao by which he lives, he is not destroyed [buwang], and that is how he manages to enjoy longevity to the full.  The Dao still exists after one's person [shen] ceases to exist, so how more likely is it that the Dao will not cease while one's person does exists !  (4)

 

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. section 16, sixth passage.

 

(2)  "Change places with him" translates gai yan, that is, "usurp his throne/replace him as ruler", a reading that breaks with textual scholars such as Hattori Nankaku (1683-1759), Otsuki Joden (1845-1931), Hatano Taro, and Lou Yulie, who read gai as gong (attack), making this 'launch an attack on him". and those such as Momoi Hakuroku (1722-1801) who read gai as bai (defeat), which yields "inflict defeat on him".  See Hatano, Roshi Dotokukyo kenkyu, 226, and Lou, Wang Bi ji jiaoshi, 85n. 2.

 

(3)  Cf. Robber Zhi's reply to Confucius, who was trying to persuade him to give up banditry and become a proper ruler: "Now you tell me about this great walled state, this multitude of people, trying to sway me with offers of gain, to lead me by the nose like any common fool.  But how long [jiuchang] do you think I could keep possession of it ?" (Zhuangzi yinde, 81/29/26; cf.  Watson, Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, 326-27).

 

(4)  We should note that Wang's commentary cannot have been to the text as it appears in the two Mawangdui versions, both of which read: si er buwangzhe shou ye, "Dead yet not forgotten, this is longevity".  See Mawangdui Hanmu boshu, 123.  As for Wang's own reading of this passage, the syntax and wording of his commentary are ambiguous in places, and one has to rely to a great extent on the context of Wang's reading of the Laozi as a whole to interpret his argument, which I paraphrase here: Although one has to die, if he lives in accordance with the Dao, he can avoid the danger of rebellion within and conquest from without, reign long and thus enjoy longevity.  The Dao will not fail him.  Since the Dao will go on operating after he is gone, there is no doubt that it will do so while he is still alive.  Alan Chan also does a careful translation and thoughtful analysis of this passage of Wang's commentary (see Two visions of the Way, 163), but I have to disagree with his results.  Wang's reading of this passage, of course, also differs sharply form the many interpretations throughout the ages that find evidence in it for a belief in spiritual or physical immortality.  It also differs from those who interpret it in terms of identification with the eternal Dao, by which one transcends the dualism of life and death, as, for example, Su Che (1039-1112): "The change that life and death bring about is indeed great !  Yet his nature [xing] is so profound and tranquil that it doe not perish [buwang].  this is the perfect man [zhiren] of antiquity, one who can free himself from both life and death" (Daode zhenjing zhu [Commentary on the True Classic of the Way and Virtue], 2:21 [16101A]). 

[Eva Libre]

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

 

Knowing others is intelligence;

knowing yourself is true wisdom.

Mastering others is strength;

mastering yourself is true power.

 

If you realize that you have enough,

you are truly rich.

If you stay in the center

and embrace death with your whole heart,

you will endure forever.

 

 

From Byron Katie - A Thousand Names For Joy

- Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are

 

If you stay in the center

and embrace death with your whole heart,

you will endure forever.

 

A doctor once took a sample of my blood and came back to me with a long face.  He said he was bringing bad news; he was very sorry, but I had cancer.  Bad news ?  I couldn't help laughing.  When I looked at him, I saw that he was quite taken aback.  Not everyone understands this kind of laughter.  Later, it turned out that I didn't have cancer, and that was good news too.

 

The truth is that until we love cancer, we can't love God.  It doesn't matter what symbols we use -- poverty, loneliness, loss -- it's the concepts of good and bad that we attach to them that make us suffer.  I was sitting once with a friend who had a huge tumor, and the doctors had given her just a few weeks to live.  As I was leaving her bedside, she said, "I love you", and I said, "No, you don't.  You can't love me until you love your tumor.  Every concept that you put onto that tumor, you'll eventually put onto me.  The first time I don't give you what you want, or threaten what you believe, you'll put that concept onto me."  This might sound harsh, but my friend had asked me to always tell her the truth.  The tears in her eyes were tears of gratitude, she said.

 

No one knows what's good and what's bad.  No one knows what death is.  Maybe it's not a something; maybe it's not even a nothing.  It's the pure unknown, and I love that.  We imagine that death is a state of being or a state of nothingness, and we frighten ourselves with our own concepts.  I'm a lover of what is: I love sickness and health, coming and going, life and death.  I see life and death as equal.  Reality is good; so death must be good, whatever it is, if it's anything at all.

 

A few months ago I was visiting Needles, the small desert town in southern California where my daughter Roxann, lives.  I was at the grocery store with her when some old friends of the family whom I hadn't seen for decades spotted me.  "Katie !" they called out, and they came up to me, beaming.  They hugged me, they asked how I was, I told them, and then they asked, "And how is your dear mother doing ?"  I said, "She's wonderful.  She's dead."  Silence.  Suddenly the smiles were gone.  I saw that they were having a problem, but I didn't know what it was.  When Roxann and I were outside the store, she turned to me and said, "Mom, when you talk to people like that, they can't handle it."  That hadn't occurred to me.  I was just telling the truth.

 

Until you experience death as a gift, you work's not done.  So if you're afraid of it, that shows you what to question next.  There's nothing else to do; you're either believing these childish stories, or you're questioning them -- there's no other choice.  What's not okay about dying ?  You close your eyes every night, and you go to sleep.  People look forward to it; some people actually prefer that part.  And that's as bad as it gets, except for your belief that says there's something else.  Before a thought, there's no one, nothing -- only peace that doesn't even recognize itself as peace.

 

What I know about dying is that when there's no escape, when you know that no one is coming to save you, there's no fear.  You just don't bother.  The worst thing that can happen on your deathbed is a belief.  Nothing worse than that has ever happened.  So if you are lying on your deathbed and the doctor says it's all over for you and you believe him, all the confusion stops.  You no longer have anything to lose.  And in that peace, there is only you.

 

People who know there's no hope are free; decisions are out of their hands.  It has always been that way, but some people have to die bodily to find out.  No wonder they smile on their deathbeds.  Dying is everything they were looking for in life: they've given up the delusion of being in charge.  When there's no choice, there's no fear.  They begin to realize that nothing was ever born but a dream and nothing ever dies but a dream.

 

When you're clear about death, you can be totally present with someone who's dying, and no matter what kind of pain she appears to be experiencing, it doesn't affect your happiness.  You're free to just love her, to hold her and care for her, because it's your nature to do that.  To come to that person in fear is to teach fear: she looks into your eyes and gets the message that she is in deep trouble.  But if you come in peace, fearlessly, she looks into your eyes and see that whatever is happening is good.

 

Dying is just like living.  It has its own way, and you can't control it.  People think, I want to be conscious when I die.  That's hopeless.  Even wanting to be conscious ten minutes from now is hopeless.  You can only be conscious now.  Everything you want is here in this moment.

 

I like to tell a story about a friend of mine who was waiting for a revelation just before he died, saving his energy, trying to be completely conscious.  Finally his eyes widened, he gasped, and he said, "Katie, we are larvae."  Profound awareness on his deathbed.  I said, "Sweetheart, is that true ?"  And the laughter simply poured out of him.  The revelation was that there was no revelation.  Things are fine just as they are; only a concept can take that away from us.  A few days later he died, with a smile on his face.

 

I had another friend who was dying and felt sure he knew when his last moment was coming.  But we die at exactly the right time -- not an instant too soon or too late.  This man was intent on doing the Tibetan Book of the Dead thing, and his friends had promised to come to his bedside and do the rituals from the book.  When he called them, they all came, and they went through the rituals, and then he didn't die.  They went home, and a few days later, once again, he was sure he knew when his last moment was coming; the friends showed up, they did all the rituals again, and again he didn't die.  The same thing happened two or three more times, and finally everyone was thinking, When is this guy going to do it ?  They had been called so many times !  It was like the boy who cried wolf.  He asked me if I would be there on such-and-such a day for so many hours, and I said, "If I can get there, I will".  But as he was dying, finally, the people he left in charge didn't even bother to call me.  It wasn't the way he'd planned; it was perfect instead.

 

Oh, stories -- I love them !  What else is there ?

[Eva Libre]

Dr Dyer's Essay for Verse 33 -

 

In our contemporary world, an educated person is generally thought of as someone with several diplomas who's in a position to intelligently discuss all manner of topics, particularly in the academic field.  In addition to amassing scholastic credits, highly learned people often understand and reach out to help others.  In fact, they seem to possess the ability to effectively "read" other people.  These individual's power and status tends to increase in proportion to the number of men and women they oversee, such as with the president of a university, a CEO of a business, or a general of an army.

 

In this 33rd verse of the Tao Te Ching, Lao-tzu is asking you to change the way you look at these twin ideas of knowledge and power.  You're invited to evaluate your level of self-mastery by turning your gaze inward and seeing the world, and your place in it, in a new light.  A Tao-oriented life focuses on understanding yourself, rather than on the thinking and behaviors of others.  You shift from the acquisition of information and the pursuit of status symbols to understanding and mastering yourself in any and all situations.  Power over others is replaced with an inner strength that empowers you to behave from a wisdom that is inherently the Tao.

 

As you modify your thinking, your world will undergo pleasantly dramatic changes.  For example, as you realize that you are responsible for your reactions in any given moment, others will cease to have any power or control over you.  Rather than worrying, Why is that person behaving that way and making me feel so upset ? you can see the situation as an invitation to explore yourself from a new attitude of self-mastery.  Your inward exploration allows you to permit the flow of inner responses, examining them with tolerance directed toward yourself.  By seeking your stream of thoughts and simply going with them, the conduct of that other person instantly loses its potency.  You begin seeing your world suffused with the harmony of the Tao eternally (and internally !) flowing through you.

 

In any situation -- whether it is under the heading of "family", "work", or "social"; or even just seeing the atrocities reported on the evening news -- you'll become aware that there's no "they" who have power over you.  By refusing to turn the controls of your existence over to anyone or any set of circumstances, you're exercising personal strength instead of force.  You are indeed experiencing self-mastery, and this new state of internal control has come about because you've elected to live in accordance with the Tao.  You don't need the approval of others or another possession in order to be happy -- you must merely understand yourself as a Divine piece of the eternal Tao, always connected to that infinite essence.

 

Lao-Tzu equates the ability to look within for the Source of enlightenment and strength with eternal life.  He reminds you that while externals such as knowledge and the power over others may provide a long life, shifting to being in charge of yourself offers imperishable wisdom and a ticket to immortality.