Verse 7 - Living Beyond Ego

[Eva Libre]

7th Verse

 

Heaven is eternal - the earth endures.

Why do heaven and earth last forever ?

They do not live for themselves only.

This is the secret of their durability.

 

For this reason the sage puts himself last

and so ends up ahead.

He stays a witness to life,

so he endures.

 

Serve the needs of others,

and all your own needs will be fulfilled.

Through selfless action, fulfillment is attained.

 

 

Contemplation/Meditation Verse

It is through selfless action,

     I will experience my own fulfillment.

Do The Tao Now

 

Be on the lookout for ego demands for an entire day.  Decide to defuse as many of them as you can comfortably, perhaps by assigning them an "intensity grade".  Living beyond ego situations that are easy to accomplish get a low number, while those requests that are difficult to quell get a higher number.

 

For example, let's say that your spouse is driving a car in which you are a passenger.  You see the perfect parking space, but your mate drives right on by; or you watch him or her take a different route than you ordinarily do.  Silently witness the degree of discomfort with your decision not to say anything.  Did ego let you know its preference ?

 

Or if you have a conversational opportunity to display your specialized knowledge or describe a situation wherein you were the recipient of honor or success, note how uncomfortable your decision to remain quiet felt.  Again, did ego let you know its preference ?  As Lao-tzu says in this verse, "Through selfless action, fulfillment is attained".  By holding back ego's demands, even for a few moments, you will feel more and more fulfilled.

 

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 an attempt to reverse ego's hold on you

by practicing the Tao's teaching to

"serve the needs of others, and all your own

need will be fulfilled."

 

Generously thinking of and serving others will lead to matching your behaviors with the perpetual rhythm of the Tao - then its power will flow freely, leading to a fulfilling life.  Ego wants the opposite, however, as it tells you to think of yourself first and "get yours" before someone else beats you to it.  The main problem with listening to ego is that you're always caught in the trap of striving and never arriving.  Thus, you can never feel complete.

 

As you reach out in thoughts and behaviors, you activate loving energy, which is synonymous with giving.  Put others ahead of you in as many ways as possible by affirming:

 

I see the sacred invisible Source of all

in its eternal state of giving

and asking nothing in return.  

I vow to be this, too, in my thoughts and behaviors.

 

When you're tempted to focus on your personal successes and defeats, shift your attention in that very moment to a less fortunate individual.  You'll feel more connected to life, as well as more satisfied than when you're dwelling on your own circumstances.  Imagine what it would be like if you dismissed ego's hold on you.  Serve others and watch how all that you give returns to you tenfold.

 

The poet Hafiz expresses this attitude perfectly:

 

Everyone

Is God speaking.

Why not be polite and

Listen to 

Him ?

 

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Stop the chase and be a witness.

 

The more you pursue desires, the more they'll elude you.  Try letting life come to you and begin to notice the clues that what you crave is on its way.  You're in a constant state of receiving because of the ceaseless generosity of the eternal Tao.  The air you breathe, the water you drink, the food you eat, the sunshine that warms you, the nutrients that keep your body alive, and even the thoughts that fill your mind are all gifts from the eternal Tao.  Stay appreciative of all that you receive, knowing that it flows from an all-providing Source.  Stop the chase and become a witness - soothe your demanding habits by refusing to continue running after more.  By letting go, you let God; and even more significantly, you become more like God and less like the ego, with its lifetime practice of edging God out.

[Eva Libre]

From Richard Grossman - The Tao of Emerson

From James Legge - The Texts of Taoism, 1891

 

Heaven is long enduring and earth continues long.

The reason why heaven and earth are able to endure and continue thus long

Is because they do not live of, or for, themselves.

This is how they are able to continue and endure.

 

Therefore the sage puts his own person last,

And yet it is found in the foremost place;

He treats his person as if it were foreign to him,

And yet that person is preserved.

Is it not because he has no personal and private ends,

that therefore such ends are realized ?

 

From the Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - "The Transcendentalist", "The Over-Soul"

 

The universe is represented in an atom

     in a moment of time.

It calls the light its own, and feels

     that the grass grows and the stone falls,

Yet takes no thought for the morrow.

 

Genius and virtue predict in man

     the same absence of private ends,

     and of condescension to circumstance,

United with every trait and talent

     of beauty and power.

The path which the hero travels alone

     is the highway of health and benefit to mankind.

What is the privilege and nobility of our nature

     but its persistency,

Through its power to attach itself

     to what is permanent ?

 

[Eva Libre]

From Vimala McClure - The Tao of Motherhood

7

SELFLESSNESS

 

Everything which endures can

only do so because Eternal

Consciousness gives it sentience.

 

A mother who gives herself 

completely to her infant meets 

herself in the dark and finds

fulfillment.

 

In the hours between midnight

and dawn, she crosses the

threshold of self-concern and

discovers a Self that has no limits.

A wise mother meets this

Presence with humility and steps

through time into selflessness.

 

Infants know when their mothers

have done this, and they

become peaceful.

 

Who, then, is the doer ?  Is it the

infant who brings its mother

through the veil of self-concern

into limitlessness ?  Is it the

mother, who chooses to hold

sacred her infant's needs and

surrender herself ?  Or is it the

One, which weaves them both

through a spiraling path

toward wholeness ?

 

You can sit and meditate while

your baby cries himself to sleep.

Or you can go to him and share

his tears, and find your Self.

 

[Eva Libre]

From Tao Te Ching - The Definitive Edition by Jonathan Star

 

Heaven is ancient

Earth is long-lasting

Why is this so ? -

          Because they have no claims to life

By having no claims to life

          they cannot be claimed by death

 

The Sage puts his own views behind

          so ends up ahead

He stays a witness to life

          so he endures

What could he grab for

          that he does not already have ?

What could he do for himself

          that the universe itself has not already done ?

[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

7
(51)

 

          Heaven is long and earth is lasting.

          Heaven and earth can be long and lasting.

                because they do not live for themselves.

Therefore,

          They can be long-lived.

 

For this reason,

          The sage

                withdraws himself

                    but comes to the fore,

               alienates himself

                    but is always present.

 

          Is this not because he is free of private interests ?

Therefore,

          He can accomplish his private interests.

 

[Eva Libre]

Lynn's - Daode jing of Laozi

 

Heaven is everlasting, and Earth endless.  That they can last forever and go on without end is because they do not try to exist for themselves.

 

If one exists for oneself, he will contend with others, but if he does not exist for himself, others will come to him in submission.

 

Thus they can exist forever.  As such, the sage places himself in the rear yet finds himself in front.  He puts aside his person, yet his person is preserved. (1)  Is this not because he is utterly free of self-interest ?  This is how he can achieve self-fulfillment.

 

To be utterly free of self-interest [wusi] means to make no conscious effort for one's own sake.  Such a person will always find himself in front and his self preserved.  Thus the text says, "he can achieve self-fulfillment."

 

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 66; and section 67, fourth section.

 

[Eva Libre]

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

 

The Tao is infinite, eternal.

Why is it eternal ?

It was never born;

thus is can never die.

Why is it infinite ?

It has no desires for itself;

thus it is present for all beings.

 

The Master stays behind;

that is why she is ahead.

She is detached from all things;

that is why she is one with them.

Because she has let go of herself,

she is perfectly fulfilled.

 

From Byron Katie - A Thousand Names For Joy 

- Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are

 

 

It was never born;

thus it can never die.

 

What is death ?  How can you die ?  Who says that you were ever born ?  There is only the life of an unquestioned thought.  There is only mind, if anything.  After you think the thought "I'm going to die", where did that thought go ?  Isn't another thought your only proof that it's true ?  Who would you be without your story ?  That's how the world begins.  "I".  "I am".  "I am a woman."  "I am a woman who is getting up to brush her teeth and go to work."  And on and on, until the world becomes denser and denser.  "I am" - question that.  That is where the world ends, until what's left comes back to explore the next concept.  Do you continue after death ?  If you question your mind deeply enough, you'll see that what you are is beyond life and death.

 

The questioned mind, because it's no longer seeking, is free to travel limitlessly.  It understands that since it was never born, it can never die.  It's infinite, because it has no desires for itself.  It withholds nothing.  It's unconditional, unceasing, fearless, tireless, without reservations.  It has to give.  That's its nature.  Since all beings are its own dear reflected self, it's always receiving, giving itself back to itself.

 

A stuck mind is the only death - death by torture.  The unquestioned mind, believing what it thinks, lives in dead ends - frustrated, hopeless, forever trying to find a way out, only to experience another dead end.  And each time the problem is solved, another problem pops up.  That's how the unquestioned mind has to live.  It's stuck in the oldest stories, like a dinosaur still chewing on the same old grass.

 

When I woke up to reality in 1986, I noticed stories arising inside me that had been troubling mankind forever.  I felt absolutely committed to undoing every stressful story that had ever been told.  I was the mind of the world, and each time one of the stories was seen for what it really was and thus undone in me, it was undone in the whole world, because there is only one thinker.

 

The Master stays behind, in the student's position, always watching, noticing, experiencing, realizing, and enveloped in reality, in the way of it.  That's how she stays ahead of any problem.  There's nothing wasted, nothing unabsorbed.  She wouldn't leave anything out.

 

She is detached from all things in the sense that when they come, that's what she wants, and when they go, that's what she wants.  It's all fine with her.  She is in love with it as it comes and goes.  She is one with it all.  The branch sways in the breeze; as she watches, she sees that it's not true, and in that lack of separation, she becomes the branch in the breeze.  She hears the sound of the garbage truck, she becomes the sound, and she tingles with gratitude that she is that.  What self is there to let go of ?  The world begins with her, and it ends with her, right now.

 

[Eva Libre]

Dr Dyer's Essay for Verse 7 -

 

The opening line of this 7th verse of the Tao Te Ching is a reminder that the Tao, the Source of heaven and earth, is eternal.  By extension, the original nature of life is everlasting and enduring.  There is a quality that supports this durability, however, and that quality responds when we live from our Tao center, rather than from our worldly ego center.  Identifying exclusively with the physicality of life -- and basing our existence on acquiring and achieving things -- disregards our infinite nature and limits our awareness of Taoness.  In such a finite system, it therefore seems logical to strive for possessions and accomplishments.

 

Being civilized in most cultures primarily constitutes being consumed with attaining "success" in the acquisition of power and things, which supposedly will provide happiness and prevent unhappiness.  The primary idea is of a self who's a separate being in a separate body, with a name, and with cultural and biological data that are similar in values and patriotism to others.  The Tao, particularly in this 7th verse, is suggesting that we update those notions and choose to exist for more than ourselves or our tribe -- that is, to radically change our thoughts in order to change our lives.

 

Lao-tzu says the secret of the ineffable nature of the eternal Tao is that it isn't identified with possessions or in asking anything of its endless creations.  The Tao is a giving machine that never runs out of gifts to offer, yet it asks nothing in return.  Because of this natural tendency to live for others, the Tao teaches that it can never die.  Giving and immortality then go hand in hand.

 

The sage who grasps the everlasting nature of the Tao has gone beyond false identification with the ego, and instead has a living connection to the Tao.  This person puts others first, asks nothing in return, and wholeheartedly serves.  In this way, the sage lives the ultimate paradox of the Tao -- by giving without asking, he attracts everything that he's capable of handling or needing.  By putting himself last, the sage ends up ahead.  By putting others before himself, he endures just like the Tao.  The sage emulates the natural philanthropy of the Tao, and all of his needs are fulfilled in the process.

 

The ego is a demanding force that's never satisfied: It constantly requires that we seek more money, power, acquisitions, glory, and prestige to provide the fuel it thinks it must have.  Living a Tao-centered life rather than an ego-centered one removes us from  that rat race, as it offers inner peace and satisfying fulfillment.