Verse 34 - Living the Great Way

[Eva Libre]

34th Verse

 

The Great Way is universal;

it can apply to the left or the right.

All beings depend on it for life;

 even so, it does not take possession of them.

 

It accomplishes its purpose,

but makes no claim for itself.

 It covers all creatures like the sky,

but does not dominate them.

 

All things return to it as to their home,

but it does not lord it over them;

thus, it may be called "great".

 

The sage imitates this conduct?

By not claiming greatness,

the sage achieves greatness.

 

 

Contemplation/Meditation Verse

 

By not claiming greatness,

         I will achieve greatness.

 

 

Do The Tao Now

 

Make a decision to spend a day seeking out several people who fit the model of this verse of the Tao Te Ching.  Silently convey to them that you sense their greatness as an unfolding of the Tao.  Then notice how your interactions with them differ when you're not making judgments based on their age, sex, title, conduct, manner of dress, height, weight, skin color, religious affiliation, or political beliefs.

 

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

by Dr Wayne W Dyer

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Discontinue deciding what anyone else

should or shouldn't be doing.

 

Avoid thoughts and activities that involve telling people who are perfectly capable of making their own choices what to do.  In your family, remember that you do not own anyone.  The poet Kahlil Gibran reminds you:

 

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you . . .

 

This is always true.  In fact, disregard any inclination to dominate in all of your relationships.  Listen rather than expound.  Pay attention to yourself when you're having judgmental opinions and see where self-attention takes you.  When you replace an ownership mentality with one of allowing, you'll begin to see the true unfolding of the Tao in yourself and other people.  From that moment on, you'll be free of frustration with those who don't behave according to your ego-dominated expectations.

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Discover a new definition of greatness

 

Offer yourself a definition that doesn't use any standards of appearance or traditional external measures of success.  Notice those who give much, boast little, nurture others, and decline recognition or credit, and put them in your greatness file.  Encourage yourself to practice these same kinds of behaviors.  Begin noticing how the Tao is always flowing in an all-providing, no-boasting, nondemanding, nonpossessing manner.  Can you see how great that truly is ?  There are many people in your daily life doing just that.  Seek them out and acknowledge them, while quietly emulating what they do.  Remember that a great sage never claims ownership of greatness, so when you change your definition, you'll see that quality cropping up everywhere, especially within yourself.

[Eva Libre]

From Richard Grossman - The Tao of Emerson

 

From James Legge - The Texts of Taoism, 1891

 

All-pervading is the great Tao !

It may be found on the left hand

          and on the right.

All things depend on it for their production,

Which it gives to them, not one refusing obedience to it.

When its work is accomplished,

          it does not claim the name of having done it.

It clothes all things as with a garment,

And makes no assumption of being their lord --

It may be named in the smallest things

All things return to their root and disappear,

And do no know that it is it which presides

          over their doing so --

It may be named in the greatest things.

 

Hence the sage is able in the same way

          to accomplish his great achievements.

It is through his not making himself great

          that he can accomplish them.

 

 

From the Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - "Nature" and "The Over-Soul"

 

For wisdom is infused into every form;

The divine circulations never rest or linger.

The dance of the hours goes forward still;

          like an odor of incense, like a strain of music,

          like sleep,

It is inexact and boundless.

 

This energy comes to the lowly and simple.

It comes to whomever will put off

          what is foreign and proud;

It comes as insight; it comes as serenity

          and grandeur.

[Eva Libre]

From Vimala McClure - The Tao of Motherhood

 

34

THE ETERNAL SOURCE

 

Eternal Consciousness is

everywhere, in everything.

Everything depends on it and it

guides all things.

 

Though it is the source of every

atom of the universe, nothing can

affect it.  No one can own it.

It lives in every blade of grass

and every human being, without

discrimination.

 

A wise mother is like the

Eternal One.  She shines in her

children's eyes.

[Eva Libre]

From Tao Te Ching - The Definitive Edition by Jonathan Star

 

The great Tao flows everywhere

It fills everything to the left

          and to the right

All things owe their existence to it

          and it cannot deny any one of them

 

Tao is eternal

It does not favor one over the other

It brings all things to completion

          without their even knowing it

 

Tao nourishes and protects all creatures

          yet does not claim lordship over them

So we class it with the most humble

Tao is the home to which all things return

          yet it wants nothing in return

So we call it "The Greatest"

 

The Sage is the same way --

          He does not claim greatness over anything

          He's not even aware of his own greatness

Tell me, what could be greater than this ?

[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

 

34 (69)

 

     Rippling is the Way, flowing left and right !

     Its tasks completed, its affairs finished,

     Still it does not claim them for its own.

     The myriad creatures return to it,

     But it does not act as their ruler.

 

     Eternally without desire,

     It may be named among the small;

     The myriad creatures return to it,

     But it does not act as their ruler;

     It may be named among the great.

 

For these reasons,

     The sage can achieve greatness,

     Because he does not act great.

Therefore,

     He can achieve greatness.

[Eva Libre]

Lynn's - Daode jing of Laozi

 

The way the great Dao floods, oh, it can go left or right.

 

In other words, the Dao floods in such a way that there is no place that it does not go.  It functions [yong] with the ability of operating everywhere, left, right, up, or down, thus there is no place it does not reach. (1)

 

The myriad folk rely on it for life, but it does not tell them to do so. (2)  It achieves success but enjoys no reputation for doing so.  It clothes and feeds the myriad folk but does not become their master.  It is always without desire and so can be named among the small.

 

The myriad things all derive life from the Dao, but, having life, they do not know where it came from.  Therefore, when all under Heaven are without desire, each of the myriad folk will obtain his proper place, and it will be as if the Dao had done nothing for them.  Thus it is named among the small.

 

The myriad things return to it, but it does not become their master, so it can be named among the great.

 

All the myriad things return to it for life, but it assiduously ensures that they do not know where they come from, which is no small matter.  Thus one can again name it among the great.

 

Therefore it is because he himself never tries to be great that he fulfills his greatness. (3)

 

"Plan for the difficult while it is still easy; work at the great while it is still small." (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. Zhuangzi, which reads: "Master Tung-kuo [Dongguo] asked Chang Tzu [Zhuangzi], 'This thing called the Way [Dao], where does it exist ?'  Chang Tzu said, 'There's no place it doesn't exist'." (Zhuangzi yinde, 59/22/43; cf. Watson, Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, 240).

 

(2)  The base text (diben) reads buci, "does not tell [them to do so]," as it does in a similar line in section 2, third passage.  It is possible, however, that buci, "does not tell [them to do so]," should read bushi, "does not start [them to do so]."  See note 3 in section 2.

 

(3)  Cf. section 63, third passage: "Therefore it is because the sage never tries to be great that he fulfills his greatness."

 

(4)  Section 63, third passage.

[Eva Libre]

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

 

The great Tao flows everywhere.

All things are born from it,

yet it doesn't create them.

It pours itself into its work,

yet it makes no claim.

It nourishes infinite worlds,

yet it doesn't hold on to them.

Since it is merged with all things

and hidden in their hearts,

it can be called humble.

Since all things vanish into it

and it alone endures,

it can be called great.

It isn't aware of its greatness;

thus it is truly great.

 

 

From Byron Katie - A Thousand Names For Joy

- Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are

 

The great Tao flows everywhere.

 

Mind appears to flow everywhere, but it is the unmoving, the never-having-moved.  It appears as everything.  Eventually it sees that nowhere is where it is.

 

The unceasing work is self-realization.  It feels humble, because it sees that what hasn't been created can't be claimed.  The splendor of humility is all that it's left with.  It's left in a state of gratitude for everything: for itself.

 

As mind realizes one world after another, it realizes non-existence, and thus it can't hold on to anything.  There's nothing to hold on to, and that is its freedom.  It constantly begins again, in the unlimited un-worlds of the self-ordinary, balanced, centered, the beginning, the end.

[Eva Libre]

Dr Dyer's Essay for Verse 34 -

In this verse, Lao-tzu asks you to reevaluate your perception of greatness. Typical definitions tend to center around the amount of fame and fortune that an individual accumulates in his or her lifetime. As the previous verse emphasized, the power to dominate and control others can also be used as a benchmark of this quality: Commanders of huge armies and heads of state who attract worldwide attention are considered great. Yet great men or women are often thought of as having been instrumental in affecting the course of human events in a positive way, making the world a better place on either a local or global level. Greatness, then, is a claim made by or for individuals who stand out from the crowd.

Verse 34 of the Tao Te Ching describes greatness in an entirely different manner: Such a quality is the Tao, which is so all-encompassing that every plant, creature, and human originates and lives because of it, yet it doesn't seek to dominate anyone or anything. The Tao doesn't ask for recognition of any kind, for it has no interest in fame or being thanked for all that it provides. It is this indifference toward notoriety that makes true greatness.

When you change the way you think about this quality, you'll see your world in an entirely new way: You'll no longer be gauging appearances and accumulations, and you won't notice how much power you or anyone else uses to exact dominance or control over others. Rather, your new way of thinking will allow you to look for the unfolding of the Tao in everyone you see. Perhaps for the very first time, you'll notice greatness in others, as well as yourself, in terms of the Tao that includes all. You'll be able to look at the sky and see its grandness, which demands absolutely nothing in return.

As you change your enculturated view of greatness, you'll begin seeing a different world. You'll see the importance of everyone, including those individuals you've previously identified as difficult or unreasonable. You'll begin to see that the holiness that ferments the galaxies is working in you, in me, and in everyone. You'll begin to trust that greatness is every person's heritage. The Tao is everywhere; therefore, this quality will be visible in all things and people.

[Nada Jung]

When You become Wise, Balance becomes Everything....

There is not left, without seeing right, to balance.

There is not right, without seeing left, to balance.

-

So then in going left, you balance it with right.

so then, in going right, you balance it with left.

-

You are not one thing, but many things.

There is not one truth, but many truths, all in balance.

-

For this balance, see the color wheel.

-

You are at the center, balancing all the colors,

choosing what is appropriate for that time,

and balancing it out, later.

-

Trust in your desire, in choosing where to move.

Your desire, will not mislead You.

This is where You need to be.

-

And Yet,, seek later to balance where you are,

by the opposite colors of your current truth.

For there is not one truth, but many truths.