Verse 28 - Living Virtuously

[Eva Libre]

28th Verse

 

Know the strength of man,

but keep a woman's care !

Be a valley under heaven;

if you do, the constant virtue

will not fade away.

One will become like a child again.

 

Know the white,

keep to the black,

and be the pattern of the world.

To be the pattern of the world is

to move constantly in the path of virtue

without erring a single step,

and to return again to the infinite.

 

One who understands splendor

while holding to humility

acts in accord with eternal power.

To be the fountain of the world is

to live the abundant life of virtue.

 

When the unformed is formed into objects,

its original qualities are lost.

If you preserve your original qualities,

you can govern anything.

Truly, the best governor governs least.

 

 

Contemplation/Meditation Verse

As I preserve my original qualities,

          I can do or govern anything.

I live with radical humility.

         

 

Do The Tao Now

 

Be childlike at least once a day.  Deliberately select a typically stressful situation and become a valley of heaven.  Play rather than work, even while you're at your job !  Giggle rather than maintaining a solemn air.  Be in awe for a moment or two.  For example, find a spiderweb and just gaze at the miracle before you: a tiny little creature spinning a perfect net bigger than it is in order to catch airborne bugs for dinner . . . wow !

 

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

by Dr Wayne W Dyer

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Entertain the exact opposite of what you've

been conditioned to believe.

Instead of striving to see yourself as superior to others, perhaps choose the self-image of a valley.  From this grounded, fertile, and receptive position, be willing to hear and receive.  Listen intently when you're inclined to offer advice.  Be humble earth source rather than a lofty ego-inspired person.  In the last line of the 28th verse, Lao-tzu is clear on this:  "Truly, the best governor governs least."  This isn't advice to lower your opinion of yourself, but rather to see yourself as so strongly connected to your Source of being that you know and trust that you're a piece of it.

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Replace all negativity with love.

Kahlil Gibran, the spiritual Lebanese poet, once advised that "if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy".  Actively begin the process of preserving your original qualities by being an instrument of Spirit, particularly in places where you find it easy to forget your own true virtuous self.

[Eva Libre]

From Richard Grossman - The Tao of Emerson

 

From James Legge - The Texts of Taoism, 1891

 

Who knows his manhood's strength,

Yet still his female feebleness maintains;

As to one channel flow the many drains,

All come to him, yea, all beneath the sky.

Thus he the constant excellence retains --

The simple child again, free from all stains.

 

Who knows how white attracts:

Yet always keeps himself within black's shade,

The pattern of humility displayed,

Displayed in view of all beneath the sky;

He in the unchanging excellence arrayed,

Endless return to man's first state has made.

 

Who knows how glory shines,

Yet loves disgrace, nor e'er for it is pale;

Behold his presence in a spacious vale,

To which men come from all beneath the sky,

The unchanging excellence completes its tale;

The simple infant man in him we hail.

 

 

From the Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - "Journals 1839", "Nominalist and Realist", "Illusions" and "Education"

 

Men of genius are said to partake of

          the masculine and feminine traits.

As much as a man is a whole,

          so is he also a part.

Speak as you think, be what you are,

Look upon the simple and childish virtues

          of veracity and honesty

          as the root of all that is sublime in character.

A multitude of trifles impede the mind's eye

          from the great search

          of that fine horizon-line that truth keeps.

The way to knowledge and power

          is not through plenty and superfluity,

But by denial and renunciation

          into solitude and privation.

Let us apply to this subject the same torch

          by which we have looked at all

          the phenomena of the time,

The infinitude, namely, of every man.

Everything teaches that.

[Eva Libre]

From Vimala McClure - The Tao of Motherhood

 

28

HEALING

 

A mother must know how to

assert her warrior side, how to

wield power and make decisions,

how to inspire discipline and set

boundaries.  But she must hold to

the feminine to be truly effective.

 

The most powerful mothers are

healers.  Their surgeon's knives

cut but do not sever.  They nourish

and listen.

 

A wise mother knows the One

Consciousness works through her.

[Eva Libre]

From Tao Te Ching - The Definitive Edition by Jonathan Star

Hold your male side with your female side

Hold your bright side with your dull side

Hold your high side with your low side

Then you will be able to hold the whole world

 

When the opposing forces unite within

           there comes a power abundant in its giving

           and unerring in its effect

Flowing through everything

           It returns one to the First Breath

Guiding everything

           It returns one to No Limits

Embracing everything

           It returns one to the Uncarved block

 

When the Block is divided

           it becomes something useful

           and leaders rule with a few pieces of it

But the Sage holds the Block complete

Holding all things within himself

           he preserves the Great Unity

           which cannot be ruled or divided

[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

 

28 (72)

          Know masculinity,

          Maintain femininity,

                    and be a ravine for all under heaven.

          By being a ravine for all under heaven,

          Eternal integrity will never desert you.

          If eternal integrity never deserts you,

          You will return to the state of infancy.

 

          Know you are innocent,

          Remain steadfast when insulted,

                    and be a valley for all under heaven.

          By being a valley for all under heaven,

          Eternal integrity will suffice..

          If eternal integrity suffices,

          You will return to the simplicity of the unhewn log.

 

          Know whiteness,

          Maintain blackness,

                    and be a model for all under heaven.

          By being a model for all under heaven,

          Eternal integrity will not err.

          If eternal integrity does not err,

          You will return to infinity.

 

          When the unhewn log is sawn apart,

                    it is made into tools;

          When the sage is put to use,

                    he becomes the chief of officials.

 

For

           Great carving does no cutting.

[Eva Libre]

Lynn's - Daode jing of Laozi

He who knows the male yet sustains the female will be a river valley for all under Heaven. (1)  He who is a river valley for all under Heaven never separates himself from constant virtue and always reverts to the infant.

 

The male belongs to that category of being that is in front; the female belongs to that category of being that is in the rear.  One who knows that he is foremost among all  under Heaven must put himself in the rear.  "As such, the sage places himself in the rear yet finds himself in front." (2)  The river valley does not solicit anything, yet things come to it as a matter of course.  The infant does not use any knowledge of its own, yet it communes with the knowledge of nature. 

 

He who knows the white yet sustains the black will be a model for all under Heaven. (3)

 

Shi [model] means a mo [mold].

 

He who is a model for all under Heaven never deviates from constant virtue.

 

Te [deviate] means cha [differ].

 

And always reverts to the infinite.

 

This means the inexhaustible.

 

He who knows glory yet sustains disgrace will be a valley for all under Heaven. (4)  He who is a valley for all under Heaven is filled completely by constant virtue, for he always reverts to the uncarved block.

 

These three state that it is only with constant reversion to such end [to the infant, the infinite, and the uncarved block (pu)] that virtue completely fills him in whom it resides.  A later section says, "Reversion is the action of the Dao". (5)  Efficacy is not something that one can seize, for it always resides with the mother. (6)

 

When the uncarved block fragments, it turns into implements.  As the sage would make use of them, he stands as chief of officials over them.

 

The uncarved block [pu] is authenticity [zhen].  When authenticity fragments, many different kinds of behavior emerge, and many different types of people appear, just like a variety of implements.  Because they are so fragmented, the sage stands as chief of officials over them.  He employs good men as teachers for those who are not good, and those who are not good become material to be worked on. (7)  By his reformation of customs and transformation of habits, he brings about a reversion to the One.

 

Thus the great carver never cuts.

Because "the great carver" [dazhi] takes the heart/mind [xin] of all under Heaven as his heart/mind, he never cuts. (8)

 

 

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)  This might be paraphrased as "A ruler who knows how to behave as a male yet can sustain female behavior and treatment will . . . ."  Cf. section 32, last passage, section 61, first passage, and section 66.

 

(2)  Section 7, second passage. Cf. section 66.

 

(3)  This might be paraphrased as "A ruler who knows he is innocent yet can bear being treated as if he were guilty will . . . ."  Cf. Wang's commentary to section 41, seventh passage.

 

(4)  This might be paraphrased as "A ruler who knows glory yet can bear disgrace will . . . ."  Cf. section 78, second passage.

 

(5)  Section 40, first passage.

 

(6)  Cf. section 20, last passage; and Wang's commentary to section 38, paragraph 5.

 

(7)  Cf. Wang's commentary to section 27, seventh passage.

 

(8)  "Cuts" translates ge.  I suggest that Wang understood "cut" in the way the merely good cook did his cutting, which required him to change his knife once a year, as described in the Zhuangzi, in the parable of Cook Ding (Pao Ding), who, completely in step with the Dao, never has to change his knife: "I go along with the natural makeup [natural patterns (tianli)], strike in the big hollows, guide the knife through the big openings, and follow things as they are.  So I never touch the smalled ligament or tendon, much less a main joint.  A good cook changes his knife once a year -- because he cuts [ge].  A mediocre cook changes his knife once a month -- because he hacks" (Zhuangzi yinde, 7/3/7, as translated in Watson, Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, 51).  Other occasions of ge, "cut", in Wang's commentary (section 41, passages 5 and 11; and section 58, passage 7), also suggest that "cut" always has the sense of "cut wrong", "cut unnaturally", or simply "harm" or "damage"; cf. the English "cut against the grain".  For "takes the heart/mind [xin] of all under Heaven as his heart/mind", see section 48, first passage.  Cf. the "great carpenter" in section 74, second passage.

 

[Eva Libre]

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

 

Know the male,

yet keep to the female:

receive the world in your arms.

If you receive the world,

the Tao will never leave you

and you will be like a little child.

 

Know the white,

yet keep to the black:

be a pattern for the world.

If you are a pattern for the world,

the Tao will be strong inside you

and there will be nothing you can't do.

 

Know the personal,

yet keep to the impersonal:

accept the world as it is.

If you accept the world,

the Tao will be luminous inside you

and you will return to your primal self.

 

The world is formed from the void,

like utensils from a block of wood.

The Master knows the utensils,

yet keeps to the block:

thus she can use all things.

 

 

From Byron Katie - A Thousand Names For Joy

- Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are

 

Know the male,

yet keep to the female:

receive the world in your arms.

 

Without a story, I'm neither personal nor impersonal, neither male nor female.  There's no word for what I am.  To call it nothing is as untrue as to call it something.  Who needs a name for it, in the middle of life and death ?  It does what it does: it eats, sleeps, cooks, cleans, talks to a friend, and goes its own way, delighted.

 

I love what I think, and I'm never tempted to believe it.  Thoughts are like the wind or the leaves on the trees or the raindrops falling.  They're not personal, they don't belong to us, they just come and go.  When they're met with understanding, they're friends.  I love my stories.  I love being a woman, even though I'm not.  I love the way my sixty-three -year-old body flows and opens.  I love the feminine symbols, the beautiful clothes and textures, the earrings, how they flash and dangle, the necklaces, the colors, the fragrance of the perfumes, the feel of the shampoos and soaps.  I love the softness and smoothness of my skin.  (Sometimes I'll be stroking Stephen's hand for ten minutes before I discover that it's my hand).  I love how generous the skin is, how efficiently my organs work, the elegance of my legs.  Sometimes, as I raise my arm reaching for a sweater, I happen to see my breasts, and the delight that I experience is immense.  How is it possible to project such a gorgeous body ?  I think.  How beautiful and strange !

 

When Stephen touches me, it's shock and surprise, over and over.  I don't interrupt it by thinking about its end, I give myself no internal explanation of what is happening, what the touch means -- I just feel its power and warmth, the inner strength with each wave of feeling.  It's the experience of opening to the beloved; it's everything; it's the unknown, the uncensored, the unending, the not-to-be-survived, opening fearlessly to the next wave and the next.  Each response that appears in reaction to the touch, in touching the other, is a mystery.  And just when I think that it can't open any more, it opens again.  I don't know what it is or what I'm touching or what is touching me; I only know that it's always new and good beyond explanation, and I love the textures, shapes, softnesses, smells, flavors, the natural fit and flow of each part, the other's reaction to it, his strength to receive; it's all one intensity, and body becomes like a wire filled with electricity, a live electrical cord without conduit to hold it in place, and I never know or care where the body -- my body, his -- will go or what is happening or what will happen; awareness is always alive, awake in the stillness, unaffected, ever-present, noticing, focusing, watching, as that timeless change, as its own miracle.

[Eva Libre]

Dr Dyer's Essay for Verse 28 -

 

In this verse, the word virtue is synonymous with "nature" or "the Tao".  By being one with nature, the sage is in concert with the Tao and is a virtuous person in daily life.  Here, Lao-tzu speaks about your personal path, and also a Tao-oriented way of governing others.  These others could be your family members, fellow employees, business associates, friends, and even the entire process of government if you're in a political position.  In fact, much of the Tao Te Ching is focused on teaching all of us how to create an administration that is in accord with these highest principles of the Tao.  It is my most fervent intention to spread these teachings throughout the world in such a way as to facilitate a transformation of all those who call themselves "leaders" and are destined for, or presently in, positions of power.

 

Every person has the inherent capacity to spark massive changes that can lead to the tranquility, harmony, and peace that are our heritage.  Lao-tzu calls this preserving our "original qualities".  Such qualities require the least amount of government, so it seems natural to see that we rule best by allowing our Tao nature, which rules the least, to flourish !

 

Living virtuously is what you do when you're permitting the Tao to guide you.  The advice Lao-tzu gives for doing this is contained in four distinct images in this verse:

 

(1)  "Be a valley under heaven" is number one.  Let the river of life flow through you.  As a valley beneath heaven, you're a fertile place of grace where everything is received and allowed.  You might see it as the lowest area in the spectrum of the 10,000 things, or as the point where you can see all things flowing above you.  In this place of humility, the constant virtue of the Tao will never fade away.  for me, this means living from radical humility.  So get down (if you can) to the eye level of a small child.  Looking up, see if "original qualities" are more visible.  Be like the valley under heaven, ready to embrace and tend the seeds that blow your way.

 

(2)  "Be the pattern of the world" is the second image that invites you to live virtuously.  See nature unspoiled by culture, as in the perfection of the uncarved block of wood.  The pattern of the world, untouched by humans, is a design of the Tao.  So rather than insisting on changing or resisting, you're encouraged to row your boat, and your life, gently down the stream.  Trust the perfection of the Tao to take you merrily back to your perfect place of origination.  Lao-tzu is basically saying  to let go and let the Tao.  Dismiss ego, which you've created, and allow yourself to be in the world by changing how you look at the world.

 

(3)  "[Act] in accord with eternal power" is the third image for living virtuously.  Just contemplate for a moment the idea of a fountain of the world, which never fades, never ends, and is there beyond the comings and goings of the 10,000 things.  This kind of power is the one to create and then retreat, to form and then to render formless.  It is always there, an endless geyser gushing forth the abundant life of virtue.

 

You are in accord with eternal power when you suspend your ego and become conscious of the Tao flowing in this fountain of you.  Picture yourself pouring forth, not from your ideas of self-importance and your need for external power over others, but from a ceaseless Source of good and virtue that's in harmony with your infinite nature.  change the image of yourself to a being who's in accord with eternal power, and the virtuous life you want to see will be visible.

 

(4)  "Preserve your original qualities" is the fourth image of living virtuously, and one that I happen to love.  Your original qualities are those that were you before there was a you !  This is what Jesus meant by "And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began" (John 17:5).  Imagine if you can what is meant by "before the world began".  The original qualities Lao-tzu speaks of are the love, kindness, and beauty that defined your essence before you were formed into a particle and then a human being.  In other words, living virtuously has nothing to do with obeying laws, being a good citizen, or fulfilling some externally inspired idea of who you're meant to become.

 

This insightful verse of the Tao Te Ching tells you how to live virtuously.  Be a valley under heaven by being humble and allowing seeming opposites to flow through you.  Be the pattern of the world by seeing the pattern of your world and living in harmony without imposing ego on others.  In accord with eternal power, be a fountain of the planet by consciously pouring forth from the endless ocean of goodness and virtue that's your birthright.  Preserve your original qualities by reclaiming and reacquainting yourself with the Tao's essence, which preceded your birth into form and is your original quality.