Verse 18 - Living Without Rules

[Eva Libre]

18th Verse

 

When the greatness of the Tao is present,

action arises from one's own heart.

 When the greatness of the Tao is absent;

action comes from the rules

of "kindness and justice".

 

If you need rules to be kind and just,

if you act virtuous,

this is a sure sign that virtue is absent.

Thus we see the great hypocrisy.

 

When kinship falls into discord,

piety and rites of devotion arise.

 When the country falls into chaos,

official loyalists will appear;

patriotism is born.

 

 

Contemplation/Meditation Verse

I act virtuously,

               I do not need rules,

to be kind and just.

 

Do The Tao Now

 

Emphasize why you're obeying human-made edicts today.  Spend some time connecting to the underlying reason for stopping at a red light, having a driver's license, wearing a seat belt, paying to enter a movie theater, or not drinking and driving.  See if your ego enjoys "breaking" rules for its purposes by listing all the rules and laws you obey or disobey in one day, and then identify your most important "heart rules".

 

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Let your actions arise from your Tao-centered heart.

 

When you're centered in the Tao, you don't need any rules, nor are you bound by what's declared to be legal or illegal.  Your reason for not stealing from others isn't because it's against the law; rather, you assume personal responsibility for your actions.  Your life isn't based on living by rules; your reason for not stealing is that you respect the rights of others to be free from pilfering because it resonates with the Tao.  In the Tao there is no stealing because everything belongs to everyone.  There is no ownership of land or property -- there is only the willingness to love and respect everyone and all things.  The laws making stealing, maiming, or fighting illegal arose because of disconnection from the Tao.  

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Don't act virtuous; be virtue.

 

Acting virtuous is not the same as being virtuous, so the Tao instructs you to be authentic in all of your interactions.  Be pious because your own heart feels the piety that is the great Tao.  Be spontaneously generous to others because your inner calling demands it, not because others in their code making have determined that this is how you should behave.  Don't wait for chaos to erupt before you are generous and kind to others.  A natural disaster may stimulate your desire to reach out and help your fellow humans - yet if you change the way you look at that natural disaster, you could also see it as a reminder to let the Tao be your guiding spirit at all times.  This would inspire your patriotism to be for all of humanity, rather than confined to the land where you happened to be born.

 

Again, I'd like to remind you of the similar sentiment expressed by Hafiz, the great Sufi poet:

 

Everyone

Is God speaking.

Why not be polite and

Listen to

Him ?

 

And everyone really means everyone, not just those who are subject to your rules and your laws.

[Eva Libre]

From Tao Te Ching - The Definitive Edition by Jonathan Star

 

When the greatness of Tao is present

          action arises from one's own heart

When the greatness of Tao is absent

          action comes from the rules

          of "kindness" and "justice"

If you need rules to be kind and just,

          if you act virtuous,

          this is a sure sign that virtue is absent

Thus we see the great hypocrisy

 

Only when the family loses its harmony

          do we hear of "dutiful sons"

Only when the state is in chaos

          do we hear of "loyal ministers"

[Eva Libre]

From Richard Grossman - The Tao of Emerson

From James Legge - The Texts of Taoism, 1891

 

When the great Tao ceased to be observed,

     benevolence and righteousness came into vogue.

Then appeared wisdom and shrewdness,

     and there ensued great hypocrisy.

 

When harmony no longer prevailed

     throughout the six kinships,

     filial sons found their manifestation;

When the states and clans fell into disorder,

     loyal minsters appeared.

 

From the Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - "New England Reformers", "Journals 1832" 

 

Society gains nothing whilst a man,

     not himself renovated,

Has become tediously good in one particular

     but negligent or narrow in the rest.

 

Hypocrisy is the attendant of false religion.

When people imagine that others

     can be their priest,

Whenever they understand that no religion

     can do them any more good than

     they actually taste,

They have done fearing hypocrisy.

[Eva Libre]

From Vimala McClure - The Tao of Motherhood

18

HYPOCRISY

 

When you forget that you and

your children are instruments of

the One, dogma takes over.

 

You begin to think in judgments

of yourself and others:

 

"All mothers should (stay home,

have a career, be involved with

school, help with homework, keep

a spotless home . . .), therefore I'm

not a good mother if I don't."

 

Or, "All children should (be polite,

respect their elders, help at home,

get good grades, win in sports, be

popular, appreciate good music,

Read great books . . .), therefore my

children are bad if they don't."

 

When truth is forgotten,

acceptance, tolerance, compassion,

and flexibility give way to

judgment, intolerance,

meanness, and rigidity.

Hypocrisy follows.

 

Children who are closer to their

birth and thus to the experience of

Oneness, rightly reject hypocrisy.

[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

 

18
(62)

 

Therefore,

          When the great Way was forsaken,

                   there was humaneness and righteousness;

          When cunning and wit appeared,

                   there was great falsity;

          When the six family relationships lacked harmony,

                   there were filial piety and parental kindness;

          When the state and royal house were in disarray,

                   there were upright ministers.

[Eva Libre]

Lynn's - Daode jing of Laozi

 

It is when the great Dao is forsaken that benevolence and righteousness appear,

 

When one gives up on tending to matters without conscious effort and replaces it with the practice of mercy [hui] (1) and the establishment of goodness [shan], it means that the Dao has been invested in things [dao jin wu ye]. (2) 

 

When wisdom and intelligence emerge that great falsehood occurs,

 

When one employs methods and uses intelligence to uncover treachery and falsehood, his intentions become obvious, and the form they take visible, so the people will know how to evade them. (3)  This is why "when wisdom and intelligence emerge . . . great falsehood occurs".

 

When the six relations exist in disharmony that the obedient and the kind appear, and when the state is in disorder that loyal ministers arise.

 

The most praiseworthy of names are generated by the greatest censure, for what we know as praise [mei] and censure [e] come from the same gate. (4)  "The six relations" are father and son, older and younger brother, and husband and wife.  when the six relations exist in harmony and the state maintains good order all by itself, no one knows where the obedient[xiao] [child, younger brother, wife] and the kind [ci] [parent, older brother, husband] and loyal ministers are to be found.  It is when fish forget the Dao of rivers and lakes that the virtuous act of  moistening each other occurs. (5)

 

 

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)  "Practice of mercy" translates shi hui, reading hui (wisdom) as hui (mercy).  See Lou,Wang Bi ji jiaoshi, 44 n.  I.

 

(2)  "It means that the Dao has been invested in things" is glossed by Lou Yulie as: "It means that once the chunpu [pristine simplicity or "the uncontaminated uncarved block"] of the Dao is lost, the Dao is invested in you xing zhi wu [tangible entities, such as "mercy" and "goodness"]"  (Wang Bi ji jiaoshi, 44 n. 2). Cf. section 28, penultimate passage ("When the uncarved block [pu] fragments, it turns into implements [qi]"); and section 38 ("One resorts to virtue [de] only after losing the Dao").

 

(3)  Cf. Wang's commentaries to section 15, second passage; section 17, last passage; and section 65, third passage.

 

(4)  Cf. Wang's commentary to section 2, first passage.

 

(5)  Wang paraphrases the Dazongshi (The great master teacher) section of the Zhuangzi: "When sources dry up, fish, finding themselves stranded together on the ground, moisten each other with spit and wet each other with foam, but it would be better if they could forget each other in the rivers and lakes" (Zhuangzi yinde, 16/6/22; cf. Watson, Complete Works of Change Tzu, 80.  Traditional commentators, however, do not read yu xiangwang yu jianghu zhi dao as "it is when fish forget [are rendered forgetful of] the Dao of rivers and lakes" but insist that xiangwang yu jianghu be read as it occurs in the Zhuangzi: "forget each other in the rivers and lakes".  With such a reading, Wang's passage does not make as it stands, which has led to various attempts to amend his text, including: "Fish forget each other in the rivers and lakes, but when this Dao of forgetting each other is lost, the virtuous act of moistening each other occurs" (Tao Hongqing); "While the Dao of the fish forgetting each other in the rivers and lakes endures, no one knows where the virtue of wetting each other can be found" (Lou Yulie); "It is when fish do not forget each other in the rivers and lakes that the virtuous act of moistening each other occurs" (Momoi Hakuroku); and "It is when fish forget each other in the rivers and lakes that the virtuous act of moistening each other vanishes" (Tojo Ichido [1778-1857]).  See Lou, Wang Biji jiaoshi, 45 n. 8, and Hatano, Roshi Dotokukyo kenkyu, 130.

[Eva Libre]

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

 

When the great Tao is forgotten,

goodness and piety appear.

When the body's intelligence declines,

cleverness and knowledge step forth.

When there is no peace in the family,

filial piety begins.

When the country falls into chaos,

patriotism is born.

 

 

From Byron Katie - A Thousand Names For Joy 

- Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are

 

 

When the great Tao is forgotten, 

goodness and piety appear.

 

The reason I love rules and plans and religions is that people feel safe in them for a while.  And, personally, I don't have any rules.  I don't need them.  There's a sense of order that goes on all the time as things move and change, and I am that harmony, and so are you.  Not knowing is the only way to understand.  That's how I discover where I'm to go next, my direction, as life lived.  Why would I resist the spontaneously beautiful by trying to impose an artificial order onto it ?

 

Meanings, rules, the whole world of right and wrong, are secondary at best.  I understand how some people think they need to live by rules.  Without them, they think, there's no control; if there were no rules, they think, everybody might turn out to be a murderer.  And, to my eyes, rigidly pious people are doing the best they can.  It's very frightening for them to watch the world unfolding in apparent chaos and not realize that the chaos itself is God in his infinite intelligence.  They think that the world, the mind, needs to be encased in a structure. And I love that the structure works for them (if it does).

 

I used to spend a lot of time in the desert.  I would just walk, with no destination.  I would walk straight, even if  the path turned right or left, because I understood that there was no way to be lost.  I often didn't know where I was or how to get back to familiar ground.  But I was living with the certainty that wherever I was, that's where I was supposed to be at the moment.  This is not a theory; it's the literal truth.  If I think that I'm supposed to be doing anything but what I'm doing now, I'm insane.

 

One day, while I was walking in the desert with some friends, we came upon a Mojave green rattlesnake, which was very rare where we were.  He was coiled in front and to the right of us -- big, fat, and gorgeous.  And all he said was "Look: I am".  I remember pointing to him and telling my friends, "Let's walk around this one". They reacted with terror, because they were stuck in a story, and they missed the beauty.  The snake wisely got away from us as quickly as he could.  He could have been the sand, the desert holly, the hidden waters.  The earth is like a mother: quiet, unmoving, unrelenting in her honesty and kindness.

 

To be in the desert alone is to understand the absoluteness of solitude, the positive nature of emptiness.  During the day, no sound -- just mile after mile of sameness.  Imagination has no contest for the vastness of the desert when you're in it alone.  And at night, in the moonless world, amid the smells and the silence, you lie down and have no idea what you're lying on.  Is it a snake ?  A cactus ?  So you lie and wait, look up at the stars,  and receive the ground, the coolness of the sand, giving up the idea that mind could grasp the lumps under your leg or your shoulder.  And then the thought of time.  Is it midnight ?  Is it five days later, five years later ?  And what am I who wonder what I am ?  And the smile that comes from knowing that you can't know and don't really care, that the answer to that would shrivel in the delight of this moment.  Nothing of life imagined can compete with the beauty of nothingness, the vastness of it, the unfathomable darkness.

 

The amazing desert earth has been my greatest teacher.  She doesn't budge from what she is.  I sit on her and there is no movement, no discussion, no complaint.  The earth just gives, without condition, unnoticed, and that's the proof of love.  She doesn't ever withhold.  She doesn't compromise.  The way she speaks is through the wind and the rain, the sand, the rocks, the sounds of her creatures.  She just sings her song without meaning, and she continues to give without any expectation of return.  She'll support you all your life, and if you throw a tin can onto her or dump poison into her bloodstream or drop a bomb on her, there is still total, unconditional love.  She keeps giving and giving.  She's me awake.  She's you. 

[Eva Libre]

Dr Dyer's Essay on Verse 18 -

 

Picture yourself in a world where rules and laws don't exist, where everyone lives peacefully and harmoniously.  There's no anarchy, thievery, hatred, or war; people simply live, work, love, and play without needing to be governed.  Can you imagine a planet where the need for codes of conduct and edicts to govern the populace are simply unnecessary ?  This is the sort of idealistic mental meandering that led Lao-tzu to create this 18th verse of the Tao Te Ching, in which he's clearly stating that you don't need rules to be kind and just.

 

I'm suggesting that when you change the way you look at the underlying reason for regulation, the organizations controlling society, politics, and the criminal-justice system will eventually change.  (Need I add "for the better"?)  When you alter your viewpoint to a Tao-oriented one, you cease to see your dominant reason for being and doing as being dictated by your nation, city, school, religion, or even your condominium association !  Laws or rules are seen by many as solely responsible for effective kindness, justice, and love -- but you can choose to live from your heart, viewing these virtues as individual responsibilities that you adhere to without a statute or convention telling you to.  This is what I mean by living without rules: You can choose to see yourself in harmony with the regulations and laws of your business, government, family, and religion rather than because of them.  I promise you that when you adjust rule-based thinking to a heart-based attitude, your life will change !

 

In the Tao orientation, unlimited joy, kindness, abundance, and well-being flow through all; seeing life in this way makes rules irrelevant.  You can act in accordance with this munificence and beneficence, which are the essence of the Tao.  Make love the bedrock of your family's motivation to be loving, rather than just feeling obligated to be kind to others.  This doesn't mean there isn't certain etiquette or behavior to follow -- it means that the reason to do so is so that love and kindness flow through all individuals.  And if there is any "crime", it's the stopping or hindering of that energy of the Tao.

 

You and your children can learn to change the way you look at edicts and laws.  When harmony is lost, a rule may seem to be helpful, but make sure everyone in the family realizes that you're inviting them to learn to live without it !  The existence of codes of conduct are proof that we aren't allowing the Tao to flow freely through our lives.  Learning that it is each individual's personal responsibility to live without governing will ultimately demonstrate that when you change your thoughts, you change your life.

 

This idea extends further: Ask yourself if laws create a healthy society, and if patriotism is valuable.  Or does it appear that when a country has fallen into chaos or some form of civil war, laws and codes concerning patriotism seem to need to be enforced ?  Rules are created to impose penalties to control or govern people who haven't learned their individual responsibility as a part of the wholeness of the group.  Yet a national sense of unity needn't regulate a universal sense, for the Tao oneness is greater than any group on Earth.

 

So here we have a summary of what takes place when the Great Way is deserted: The need for justice arises.  Falsity among the people creates a need for rules, and rulers are needed to restore order.  Political ministers appear to bring light to the disorder and darkness.  Knowing all this, I believe it's essential to get back to that picture I asked you to envision a few paragraphs ago and apply what Lao-tzu is saying in this profound verse of the Tao Te Ching.  

 

(Picture yourself in a world where rules and laws don't exist, where everyone lives peacefully and harmoniously.  There's no anarchy, thievery, hatred, or war; people simply live, work, love, and play without needing to be governed.  Can you imagine a planet where the need for codes of conduct and edicts to govern the populace are simply unnecessary ?)

 

[janice wilson]

wisdom