Verse 55 - Living by Letting Go

[Eva Libre]

55th Verse

  

He who is in harmony with the Tao

is like a newborn child.

Deadly insects will not sting him.

Wild beasts will not attack him.

Birds of prey will not strike him.

Bones are weak, muscles are soft,

yet his grasp is firm.

 

He has not experienced the union of man and woman,

but is whole.

His manhood is strong.

He screams all day without becoming hoarse.

This is perfect harmony.

 

To know harmony is to know the changeless;

to know the changeless is to have insight.

Things in harmony with the Tao remain;

things that are forced grow for a while,

but then wither away.

This is not the Tao.

And whatever is against the Tao soon ceases to be.

 

 

Contemplation/Meditation Verse

 

I attract the cooperative power of the Tao

         when I release the need to control anyone's life

including my own.

          

 

Do The Tao Now

 

Dedicate a week to charting incidents of "things working out" without your having to control or "make" them happen.  This will mean consciously choosing situations where you curb your automatic impulse to control the outcome.  Relax when you want to tense up, and trust in as many situations as you can.  At the end of the week, notice how changing the way you think has changed your life.

 

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

by Dr Wayne W Dyer

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Visualize yourself as indestructible.

 

Activate an inner picture that will carry you through perceived dangers.  In this visualization, remove the image of your physical body and instead see the part of you that's as constant as a spirit or a thought.  This is your essence, and it's incapable of being harmed in any way.  From this perspective, you're not threatened by anything, from criminals to cancer, from a common cold to a wild beast.  When you live in harmony with the enduring part of yourself, it will contribute to an overall sense of being indestructible.  Declare yourself to be that lucky person who goes through life unscathed by freeing yourself from trying to control your perception of looming danger.

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Change the way you look at your potential

for becoming a lucky person.

 

Rather than telling yourself: With my luck, things aren't going to work out for me, affirm: I am open to allowing what needs to happen.  I trust luck to guide me.  This change in your thinking will serve you by guiding you to live in the flow with the Tao.  Peace will replace stress, harmony will replace effort, acceptance will replace interference and force, and good luck will replace fear.  You'll become what you think about, so even things that you previously believed were evidence of bad luck will now be viewed as what helps you move toward greater harmony.

 

Living by letting go will allow you to appreciate Lin Yutang's wry observation in The Importance of Living: "If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live".

[Eva Libre]

From Richard Grossman - The Tao of Emerson

 

From James Legge - The Texts of Taoism, 1891

 

He who has in himself abundantly

          the attributes of the Tao is like an infant.

Poisonous insects will not sting him;

Fierce beasts will not seize him;

Birds of prey will not strike him.

 

The infant's bones are weak

And its sinews soft, but yet its grasp is firm.

It knows not yet the union of male and female,

And yet its virile member may be excited -

         showing the perfection of its physical essence.

All day long it will cry out without becoming hoarse -

         showing the harmony in its constitution.

 

To him by whom this harmony is known,

The secret of the unchanging Tao is shown,

And in the knowledge wisdom finds its throne.

All life-increasing arts to evil turn;

Where the mind makes the vital breath to burn,

False is the strength, and o'er it we should mourn.

 

When things have become strong,

They then become old,

Which may be said to be contrary to the Tao.

Whatever is contrary to the Tao soon ends.

 

 

From the Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - "Character" (address) 

 

The will constitutes the man.

He has his life in nature, like a beast,

But choice is born in him;

He chooses as the rest of creation does not.

 

But will, pure and perceiving, is not willfulness.

 

The high, contemplative, all-commanding vision,

          the sense of Right and Wrong, is alike in all.

Its attributes are self-existence, eternity,

          intuition, and command.

It is the mind of the mind.

We belong to it, not it to us.

 

Whilst a man seek good ends,

He is strong by the whole strength of nature.

Insofar as he roves from these ends,

He bereaves himself of power,

He becomes less and less.

[Eva Libre]

From Vimala McClure - The Tao of Motherhood

 

55

ATTUNEMENT

 

The energy that comes from the

Infinite moves through you and

enlightens your being.

 

When you have released your fear

and found your Self, you can

be in harmony with your child

because you are attuned to

the same energy.

 

In this space you are relaxed and

soft, bendable.  Things don't bother

you, energy flows.  You can

walk the baby all night long;

her cries do not challenge you.

 

Your power is in place

without exerting it.

[Eva Libre]

From Tao Te Ching - The Definitive Edition by Jonathan Star

 

One who embraces Tao

          will become pure and innocent

          like a newborn babe

Deadly insects will not sting him

Wild beasts will not attack him

Birds of prey will not strike him

He is oblivious to the union of male and female

          yet his vitality is full

          his inner spirit is complete

He can cry all day without straining

          so perfect is his harmony

          so magically does he blend with this world

 

Know this harmony - it brings the Eternal

Know the Eternal - it brings enlightenment

 

A full life - this is your blessing

A gentle heart - this is your strength

 

Things in harmony with Tao remain

Things that are forced, grow for a while

          but then wither away

This is not Tao

Whatever is not Tao

          comes to an early end

[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

 

55 (18)

 

He who embodies the fullness of integrity

          is like a ruddy infant.

 

Wasps, spiders, scorpions, and snakes

          will not sting or bite him;

Rapacious birds and fierce beasts

          will not seize him.

 

His bones are weak and his sinews soft,

          yet his grip is tight.

He knows not the joining of male and female,

          yet his penis is aroused.

His essence has reached a peak.

 

He screams the whole day without becoming hoarse;

His harmony has reached perfection.

 

Harmony implies constancy;

Constancy requires insight.

 

Striving to increase one's life is ominous;

To control the vital breath with one's mind entails force.

 

Something that grows old while still in its prime

         is said to be not in accord with the Way;

Not being in accord with the Way

         leads to an early demise.

[Eva Libre]

Lynn's - Daode jing of Laozi

 

One who has profoundly internalized virtue is comparable to the infant.  Wasps, scorpions, adders, and vipers do not sting or bite him.  Fierce animals do not attack him.  Birds of prey do not seize him.

 

The infant is free from craving or desire and so commits no offense against the myriad things.  As a result, no poisonous creature commits offense against him.  It is because one who has profoundly internalized virtue does not commit offense against others that others do not try to make him lose his wholeness [quan].

 

His bones are soft and sinews pliant, but his grip is firm.

 

It is because of his softness and pliancy that his grip can be so perfectly firm.

 

That he is ignorant of the union of male and female yet completely erect

 

Zuo [engage, manifest] means zhang [erect].  Because there is nothing to make him suffer bodily loss, he is able to stay completely erect [quanzhang].  In other words, when it comes to one who has profoundly internalized virtue [de] as such, no one can cause him to lose his virtue or dilute his authenticity [zhen].  The soft and pliable do not content and so never get broken, and this always happens exactly like this. (1)

 

Is because his semen is at the full.  That he can cry all day long yet never grow hoarse

 

His heart/mind is free of contention and desire, thus he can sound forth all day long yet never grow hoarse.

 

Is because his bodily balance is perfect.  To know how to maintain balance is called "constancy".

 

People achieve constancy [chang] through balance [he].  Thus, if one knows how to maintain balance, he will achieve constancy.

 

To understand constancy is called "perspicacity".

 

Neither bright nor dark, neither warm nor cold, this indicates constancy. (2)  Such a one remains formless, so what he is cannot be seen. (3)  Thus the text says: "To understand constancy is called 'perspicacity'." (4)

 

To extend life beyond its natural span is called "inauspicious".

 

Life must not be extended, for if one tries to extend it, he will suffer an early death. (5) 

 

For the heart/mind to control the vital force is called "forcing strength".

 

The heart/mind [xin] should consist of nothingness [wuyou].  If it controls the vital force [qi], this is called "forcing strength" [qiang]. (6) 

 

Once a thing reaches its prime, it grows old.  We say it goes against the Dao, and what is against the Dao comes to an early end. (7)

 

 

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)  Wang interprets the text metaphorically: one who has profoundly internalized virtue (de) is like the male infant who has erections but does not ejaculate and thus continually internalizes his semen, the jing of the next line.  Jing (semen) is the essence of male virility and identified with de, "virtue", in the sense of potency or power.  The man of virtue similarly does not "spend" his virtue on others but harbors it within himself.  The metaphor extends to the "soft and pliable" of the last sentence, which is a metaphoric reference to the male member, as the symbolic epitome of yang, male hardness and stiffness, which here, significantly, is "soft and pliable".  In other words, the man of perfect virtue does not contend with others and employ hard, aggressive behavior and policies (yang and male), thus he never "gets broken" and so preserves his wholeness intact.

 

(2)  Cf. Wang's commentary to section 35, first passage.

 

(3)  Cf. Wang's commentary to section 15, second passage.

 

(4)  Cf. section 16, sixth passage.

 

(5)  "Early death" translates yao, which most commentators, including Lou Yulie, gloss asbuxiang (inauspicious), but this is to miss the irony of Wang's observation: anyone who tries to live longer than he should will never feel he has lived long enough and so will always "suffer an early death".  The text of the Laozi reads xiang, usually "auspicious", but ancient text attest that xiang sometimes means buxiang, "inauspicious".  See Lou,Wang Bi ji jiaoshi, 147n. 7.

 

(6)  "Conscious effort" means forced effort, and, while forced effort may "prime" one's strength, as the next passage tells us, once one's prime is reached aging and decline follow.  Forcing one's strength just brings about early decline, because it "is against the Dao".

 

(7)  Cf. section 30, last passage.

[Eva Libre]

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

 

He who is in harmony with the Tao

is like a newborn child.

Its bones are soft, its muscles are weak,

but its grip is powerful.

It doesn't know about the union

of male and female,

yet its penis can stand erect,

so intense is its vital power.

It can scream its head off all day,

yet it never becomes hoarse,

so complete is its harmony.

 

The Master's power is like this.

He lets all things come and go

effortlessly, without desire.

He never expects results;

thus he is never disappointed.

He is never disappointed;

thus his spirit never grows old.

 

 

From Byron Katie - A Thousand Names For Joy

- Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are

 

She lets all things come and go

effortlessly, without desire.

 

Anyone in harmony with what is has no past to project as a future, so there's nothing she expects.  Whatever appears is always fresh, brilliant, surprising, obvious, and exactly what she needs.  She sees that it's a gift she has done nothing to deserve.  She marvels at the way of it.  She doesn't make a distinction between sound and no sound, speaking of it or living it, seeing it or being it, touching it or feeling it touch her.  She experiences it as constant lovemaking.  Life is her own love story.

 

For her, everything is new.  She has never seen it before.  She has no belief that would detract from what it really is.  In the innocence of not-knowing, in the wisdom of not needing to know, she can see that everything as it appears in the moment is always benevolent.

 

She lets all things come because here they come anyway; it's not as if she had a choice.  She lets all things go because there they go, with or without her consent.  She delights in the coming and the going.  Nothing comes until she needs it, nothing goes until it's no longer needed.  She is very clear about this.  Nothing is wasted; there's never too much or too little.

 

She doesn't expect results, because she has no future.  She realizes the efficiency, the necessity of the way of it, how full it is, how rich, beyond any concept she could have of what it should be.  In that realization her life is always renewed.  She herself is the way of it, always opening to what comes, always contented.

[Eva Libre]

Dr Dyer's Essay for Verse 55 –

 

Perhaps you've observed people who seem to get all the breaks, appearing to be impervious to the onslaughts that wreak havoc in many lives.  For example, do you know someone who seldom if ever gets sick, in spite of spending the flu season in close contact with people who are coughing and sneezing ?  How about those who emerge unscathed in the middle of a crime spree ?  You might say that these lucky few seem to have guardian angels that protect them from the provocations of the symbolic "deadly insects", "wild beasts", and "birds of prey" mentioned in the opening lines of this passage.  But Lao-tzu knows that these men and women are simply in harmony with the Tao, just as some individuals appear to have the right people show up in their lives at the right time, while others seem to have a knack for making money materialize just when it's needed most.

 

Lao-tzu says that we should look to infants, who haven't yet taken on the ego belief that they're separate from their originating Source.  Consequently, they have what could be considered "magical" powers: They can scream all day and never lose their voice like a screeching adult would.  Even with undeveloped muscles, they can fashion a firm grip.  Furthermore, babies are pliable and virtually immune to harm from a fall that would break the bones of a grown-up.  All of this is called "perfect harmony" by Lao-tzu.

 

Verse 55 of the Tao Te Ching invites you to realize that what you call luck isn't something that randomly happens - it's yours for life when you decide to live by letting go.  You attract the cooperative power of the Tao when you release the need to control your life.  So change your thoughts and see how your life changes to a very fortunate one indeed.

 

Let go and exist in harmony with the Tao in order to build up your immune system and be "lucky" about resisting disease and illness.  I know that letting go for protection sounds paradoxical, and I suppose you could think of it like that.  But try seeing it as a way of allowing life's natural rhythm to flow unimpeded through you.  Living by letting go means releasing worry, stress, and fear.  When you promote your sense of well-being in the face of what appears as danger to others, your alignment with your Source frees you from pushing yourself to act in a forceful manner.  Lao-tzu reminds you here that "things that are forced grow for a while, but then wither away".