Verse 10 - Living Oneness

[Eva Libre]

10th Verse

 

Carrying body and soul

and embracing the one,

can you avoid separation ?

 

Can you let your body become 

as supple as a newborn child's ?

In the opening and shutting of heaven's gate,

can you play the feminine part ?

 

Can you love your people

and govern your domain

without self-importance ?

 

Giving birth and nourishing;

having, yet not possessing;

working, yet not taking credit;

leading without controlling or dominating.

 

One who heeds this power 

brings the Tao to this very earth.

This is the primal virtue.

 

 

Contemplation/Meditation Verse

I suspend my belief in opposites

          by seeing myself in All.

Do The Tao Now

 

Today, practice seeing oneness where you've previously seen "twoness" (separation).  Feel the invisible energy that beats your heart, and then notice it beating the heart of every living creature all at once.  Now feel the invisible energy that allows you to think, and sense it doing the same for every being currently alive.

 

Contemplate these words from the Gospel of Thomas: "His disciples said to him, 'When will the Kingdom come ?' Jesus said, 'It will not come by looking outward.  It will not say "Behold, this side" or "Behold, that one".  Rather, the Kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it'."  Today, know that practicing oneness thinking will help you see that Kingdom.

 

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

by Dr Wayne W Dyer

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Embrace oneness by seeing yourself 

in everyone you encounter. 

 

Rather than having judgmental thoughts about those whom you regard as separate or different, view others as an extension of yourself.  This will diminish self-importance and unite you with what Lao-tzu calls "the primal virtue".  Letting go of ego-dominated thoughts lets you sense the oneness that you share with others; thus, you give yourself the opportunity to feel a part of the all-embracing Tao.

 

Practice inner awareness whenever you feel yourself about to criticize anyone or any group.  News reports designed to encourage your sense of separateness or superiority in relation to others can be a perfect time to do this: Find yourself as one of them.  In situations where you're expected to hate an assumed enemy, stop yourself from these judgments and walk an imaginary mile (or two) in their shoes.  Do so with all forms of life, even the plant world.  See yourself in everyone and all creations, noting the Tao in this simple observation: We are the world.

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Take pleasure from what you possess without 

being attached to these things.

 

Let go of your identification with your stuff and with your accomplishments.  Try instead to enjoy what you do and all that flows into your life simply for the pleasure of doing and observing the flow itself.  You literally own nothing and no one: All that is composed will decompose; all that is yours will leave and become someone else's.  So step back a bit and allow yourself to be an observer of this world of form.  Becoming a detached witness will put you into a state of bliss, while loosening your tight grip on all of your possessions.  It is in this releasing process that you'll gain the freedom  to live out what the Tao is always teaching by example.

[Eva Libre]

From Richard Grossman - The Tao of Emerson

From James Legge - The Texts of Taoism, 1891

 

When the intelligent and animal souls are held together

           in one embrace,

They can be kept from separating.

When one gives undivided attention to the vital breath,

           and brings it to the utmost degree of pliancy,

He can become as a tender babe.

When he has cleansed away the most mysterious sights

           of  his imagination,

He can become without a flaw.

 

In loving the people and ruling the state,

           cannot he proceed without any purposeful action ?

In the opening and shutting of his gates of heaven,

           cannot he do so as a female bird ?

While his intelligence reaches in every direction,

           Cannot he appear to be without knowledge ?

 

The Tao produces all things and nourishes them;

It produces them and does not claim them as its own.

It does all, and yet does not boast of it;

It presides over all, and yet does not control them.

This is what is called the Mysterious Quality of the Tao.

 

From the Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - "Threnody" (poem), "Musketaquid" (poem), "The Over-Soul", "Education"

 

By yielding to the spirit which is innate

          in every man,

Canst thou silent lie ?

Canst thou, thy pride forgot, like nature

          pass into the winter night's

          extinguished mood ?

Canst thou shine now, then darkle ?

And being latent feel thyself no less ?

Wilt thou not open thy heart to know

What rainbows teach and sunsets show ?

But you must have the believing and prophetic eye.

 

Respect the child.

Be not too much his parent.

Trespass not on his solitude.

Have the self-command you wish to inspire.

 

[Eva Libre]

From Vimala McClure - The Tao of Motherhood

10

CLARITY

 

Strive for clarity in your own life. 

What motivates your feelings ?

We often live out the past over

and over in our relationships.

We sometimes fail to see

the real child, for we have

superimposed our own pain

upon our children.

 

Clear yourself.  Find the child

within you, heal her, and set her

free.  As long as the child in you

weeps and cringes, your power

as a mother will remain confused.

 

Polish the mirror of the self

and your child will see herself

more clearly.

[Eva Libre]

From Tao Te Ching - The Definitive Edition by Jonathan Star

 

Hold fast to the Power of the One

It will unify the body

          and merge it with the spirit

It will cleanse the vision

          and reveal the world as flawless

It will focus the life-force

          and make one supple as a newborn

 

As you love the people and rule the state

          can you be free of self-interest ?

As the gates of Heaven open and close

          can you remain steadfast as a mother bird

          who sits with her nest ?

As you wisdom reaches the four corners of the world

          can you keep the innocence of a beginner ?

 

Know this Primal Power

          that guides without forcing

          that serves without seeking

          that brings forth and sustains life

                    yet does not own or possess it

 

One who holds this Power

          brings Tao to this very Earth

He can triumph over a raging fire

          or the freeze of winter weather

Yet when he comes to rule the world

          it's with the gentleness of a feather

[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

10
(54)

 

While you

          Cultivate the soul and embrace unity,

               can you keep them from separating ?

          Focus your vital breath until it is supremely soft,

               can you be like a baby ?

          Cleanse the mirror of mysteries,

               can you make it free of blemish ?

          Love the people and enliven the state,

               can you do so without cunning ?

          Open and close the gate of heaven,

               can you play the part of the female ?

          Reach out with clarity in all directions,

               can you refrain from action ?

 

          It gives birth to them and nurtures them,

          It gives birth to them but does not possess them,

          It rears them but does not control them.

                This is called "mysterious integrity". 

[Eva Libre]

Lynn's - Daode jing of Laozi

 

Stay where your earthbound soul is protected, and embrace integrity: can you do this with never a deviation ?

 

Zai {usually "uphold"] means something like "stay in" [chu].  "where your earthbound soul is protected" [yingpo] is where one permanently dwells. (1)  "Integrity" [yi] is a person's authenticity [zhen]. (2)  In other words, the text says: "Can you stay in the dwelling in which you permanently live, embrace integrity with a pure spirit, and do this with never a deviation ?  If so,the myriad folk will subject themselves to you spontaneously."

 

Rely exclusively on your vital force, and become perfectly soft: can you play the infant ?

 

Zhuan [rely exclusively on] is the same as ren [trust entirely to], and zhi [become perfectly] is the same as ji [extend/attain to the utmost].  In other words, the text says: "Can you trust entirely to the vital force endowed by nature [ziran zhi qi], attain the harmony characteristic of perfect softness [zhirou zhi he], and, like the infant, be utterly without conscious desire [yu] ?" (3)  If so, people will achieve their proper span of life and fully realize their natures [wu quan er xing de].

 

Cleanse your vision into the mystery of things: can you make it spotless ?

 

Xuan [mystery] means the ultimate extent and subtlety of things [ji].  In other words, the text says: "Can you cleanse away the misleading and the specious and so attain vision capable of grasping the ultimate and the subtle, not allow things to get in the way of its brightness or flaw its numinous power [shen] ?"  If so, it will be one with mystery from beginning to end.

 

Cherish the people and govern the state: can you do this without intelligence ?

 

Intelligence is concerned with seeking success by using arts and techniques or uncovering what is hidden by plumbing the workings of fate.  When vision into the mystery of things is without flaw, it is as if one had repudiated sagehood [sheng].  when one governs the state without intelligence, it is as if he had discarded wisdom. (4)  "Can you do this without intelligence ?"  If so, the people will not hide, and the state will be governed. (5)

 

The gateway of Heaven, whether it is to be open or shut: can you play the female ? (6)

 

"The gateway of Heaven" is a term for that through which all under Heaven passes, and "open or shut" refers to moments that decide good order or chaos.  Whether open or shut, the effect prevails equally throughout all under Heaven.  Thus the text says, "The gateway of Heaven, whether open or shut".  The female joins in but does not start the singing, responds but does not act. (7)  This is what is meant when the text says, "The gateway of Heaven, whether it is to be open or shut: can you play the female ?"  If so, things will subject themselves to you spontaneously, and your position will be secure as a matter of course.

 

Your bright understanding casts its light over the four quarters: can you stay free of conscious effort ?

 

This is to say, one's perfect brightness might cast its light over the four quarters without delusion or doubt, yet can such a one refrain from making conscious effort ?  If so, nurture of the people [wuhua] will indeed take place !  This is what is meant when we say the Dao never engages in conscious effort.  If any lord or prince were able to hold to this, the myriad folk would be nurtured spontaneously [zihua]. (8)

 

He gives them life.

 

He does not block the source of their existence.

 

And nurtures them.

 

He places no stricture on their natures.

 

He gives them life, yet he possesses them not.  He acts, yet does not make them dependent.  He matures them, yet he is not their steward. (9)  This we call mysterious virtue. (10)

 

Do not block the source of their existence, and people will manage life on their own, so what merit is there to that ?  Place no stricture on their natures, and people will find their own relief [ji], so on whose actions do they depend ?  People march along with broad steps all by themselves, and this is not the result of one's stewardship.  To have virtue but not exercise mastery, if this is not mysterious, what is it ?  Whenever we speak of mysterious virtue, it always pertains to one who has virtue, but they [his people] are unaware of his being master, for it emerges from the secret and the dark. (11)

 

 

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)  In interpreting yingpo (where your earthbound soul is protected) as a place that provides long-term safety for one's earthly, physical existence, Wang's commentary differs markedly from that of Heshang Gong, which equates yingpo with hunpo (ethereal spirit and earthbound soul), which almost all later commentators and translators follow, usually taking zai (settle in) to mean "keep", "preserve", or "sustain": "Can you [or, "if you can"] preserve your ethereal spirit and earthbound soul [your spirit]" (Heshang Gong, "Heshang Gong zhu Laozi Daodejing" [The Heshang Gong commentary to Laozi's "Classic of the Way and Virtue"), 1:7 (15647A), and cf. Erkes, "Ho-shang Kung's Commentary on Lao-Tse", 25-26.  Erkes translates hunpo as "the spiritual and the animal souls".

 

(2)  Cf. Wang's commentary to section 32, first passage, which reads: "If one embraces the uncarved block, engages in no conscious effort [wuwei], neither lets his authenticity [zhen] be hampered by things nor lets his spirit [shen] be harmed by desire, then the people will submit to him spontaneously, and he shall attain the Dao as a matter of course."  Note that Wang equates yi (integrity), zhen (authenticity), and pu (simplicity). 

 

(3)  Cf. Wang's commentary to section 49, last passage.

 

(4)  Cf. section 19, which reads: "Repudiate sagehood and discard wisdom, and the people will benefit a hundredfold."

 

(5)  The base text reads "min bubi er guo zhi zhi ye" (the people will not hide, and the state will govern them), but one version of Wang's commentary preserved in the "Daode zhenjing jizhu" (Collected commentaries on the "True Classic of the Way and Virtue"), 2:13 (16957B) reads guo zhi ye (the state will be governed), which seems more likely.  However, Tao Hongquing thinks that the text ought to read "guo zi zhi" (the state will govern itself), which fits the context even better.  See Tao's "Du zhuzi zhaji", 6, and Lou, "Wang Bi ji jiaoshi", 25 n. 11.  A similar passage occurs in Wang's commentary in section 49, fifth passage, paragraph 4: "If there is nothing he [the ruler] investigates them for, what hiding must the common folk do ?"

 

(6)  The base text reads: neng wu ci hu, "can one not be the female" or "can this do without the female", both of which make sense as rhetorical questions, but many editions of the Laozi read neng wei ci hu, "can you play the female", which seems more straightforward and thus is preferred.  See Lou, "Wang Bi jiaoshi", 25 n. 14.

 

(7)  Cf. Wang's commentary to First Yin of Hexagram 6, Song (Contention), in the "Yijing" (Classic of changes), which reads "it is always yang [the male] that starts singing and yin [the female] that joins in.  Yin is never the one to take the lead" (Lynn, "The Classic of Changes", 172), and to Second Yin of Hexagram 49, Ge (Radical Change), which reads "The character of a yin is such that it is incapable of taking the lead and instead should be an obedient follower" (ibid., 446).  See Lou, "Wang Bi jiaoshi", 249 and 466.  Cf. also Wang's commentary to section 68, second passage.

 

(8)  Cf. section 32, first passage; and section 37, third passage.

 

(9) "Steward" translates zai. Cf. section 2, third passage; and Wang's commentary to section 17, first passage.

 

(10)  Cf. section 2, third passage; and section 51, penultimate and last passages.

 

(11)  Cf. Wang's commentary to section 51, last passage; and section 2 of Wang Bi's Outline Introduction.

[Eva Libre]

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

 

Can you coax your mind from its wandering

and keep to the original oneness ?

Can you let your body become 

supple as a newborn child's ?

Can you clean your inner vision

until you see nothing but the light ?

Can you love people and lead them

without imposing your will ?

Can you deal with the most vital matters

by letting events take their course ?

Can you step back from your own mind

and thus understand all things ?

 

Giving birth and nourishing,

having without possessing,

acting with no expectations,

leading and not trying to control:

this is the supreme virtue.

 

From Byron Katie - A Thousand Names For Joy 

- Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are

 

 

Can you coax your mind from its wandering

and keep to the original oneness ?

 

When you don't believe your thoughts, what is it, what you are.  There's no separation in it.  You're everything.  Only the unquestioned mind would believe that you're an I living inside a body.

 

What is the original oneness ?  Chair-hand-cup-window-sky, before "chair", "hand", "cup", "window", "sky".  You don't need to return to it, since you've never left.  How could you leave it ?  Where else is there to go ?  The center of the universe is wherever you are, and it's everywhere.  It's the origin and the end point, the beauty of darkness, the exultation of nothing.  And only the center is real.  When you understand that, you realize that even oneness is unnecessary.

 

It's like falling in love with yourself.  There's nothing to do, no one to be, no responsibility, no meaning, no suffering, no death.  You no longer believe yourself into a separate, distant polarity, where you're identified as a tiny speck making grandiose efforts to prove that something is true.  Realizing that you've never left the original oneness means that you were never born and you can never die.

 

What suppleness this realization allows !  You're immune to anything the mind would superimpose onto reality: any disappointment or sorrow.  If I lose all my money, good.  If I get cancer, good.  If my husband leaves me, good.  If my husband stays, that's good, too.  Who wouldn't always say yes to reality if that's what you're in love with ?  What can happen that I wouldn't welcome with all my heart ?

 

I don't know what's best for me or you or the world.  I don't try to impose my will on you or on anyone else.  I don't want to change you or improve you or convert you or help you or heal you.  I just welcome things as they come and go.  That's true love.  The best way of leading people is to let them find their own way.

 

One day, a few years after I first found The Work inside me, my sons began to fight in our living room.  I was sitting on the couch, very close to them.  They were two grown men, in their twenties, and here they were on the floor, wrestling and pummeling each other and yelling, "Mom, Mom, make him stop !"  All I saw were two men trying to connect, not knowing another way.  I sat there just watching them, just loving them, and in that moment I didn't have the slightest thought of intervening.  There was no doing, no trickery to it.  And suddenly they noticed, and they stopped fighting.  I loved that they found their own solution.  That was the last time they ever fought. 

 

[Eva Libre]

Dr Dyer's Essay for Verse 10 -

 

This verse of the Tao Te Ching examines the paradoxical nature of life on Earth.  Lao-tzu encourages the attainment of comfort with the seemingly incompatible opposites of body and soul, which form the basis of our daily life.  We are connected to the power of the eternal Tao, while simultaneously being in a mortal physique.  As we take on this seemingly ambiguous stance, we begin to see the world revealed as flawless.  Everything that seems to be absolute is an opportunity to recognize its paradoxical reality.

 

This teaching takes the form of a series of questions:  Can an adult body with all of the conditions inherent in the aging process -- such as stiffness, soreness, limitations caused by aching joints, and so on -- be as supple as a newborn's ?  Is it possible to be someone who works and struggles and still be the feminine spirit, birthing creation ?  Can one succeed in these and similar ways and still be free of feelings of self-importance ?  Is it possible to stay true to the Tao without allowing ego to dominate, yet successfully function in an ego-dominated world ?

 

This 10th verse promotes a way of living that is guided by the power of "embracing the one" when the illusion of duality appears more powerful.  Read Hafiz's writing on this subject thousands of years after the Tao Te Ching was written:

 

Only

 

That Illumined

One

 

Who keeps

Seducing the formless into form

 

Had the charm to win my

Heart.

 

Only a Perfect One

 

Who is always

Laughing at the word

Two

 

Can make you know

 

Of

 

Love.

 

Our origin cannot be split, yet we're in a world that all too often seems to reject the perfect oneness that is the Tao.  We can personally live the Tao by suspending our belief in opposites and reactivating our awareness of its unity -- that is, we can surrender ego and be in this world, without being of it.