Verse 69 - Living Without Enemies

[Eva Libre]

69th Verse

 

There is a saying among soldiers:

I dare not make the first move

but would rather play the guest;

I dare not advance an inch

but would rather withdraw a foot.

 

This is called

going forward without advancing,

pushing back without using weapons.

 

There is no greater misfortune

than feeling “I have an enemy”;

for when “I” and “enemy” exist together,

there is no room left for my treasure.

 

Thus, when two opponents meet,

the one without an enemy

will surely triumph.

 

When armies are evenly matched,

the one with compassion wins.

 

Contemplation/Meditation Verse

There is no greater misfortune
          than feeling I have an enemy,
For when I and enemy exist together
          there is no room for God.
          
           
Do The Tao Now

Reproduce these words found in Anne Frank's diary, written as she was being hunted by the Nazis: “… in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart … I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right.”

Post this for everyone in your family to see.

Source - Change Your Thoughts - Change Your Life (Living the Wisdom of the Tao) 
by Dr Wayne W Dyer 

[Eva Libre]

Advice From Dr Dyer -

 

Refuse to think of anyone as your adversary.

 

Reread the most important line in this verse: ”[W]hen ' I ' and ' enemy ' exist together, there is no room left for my treasure.” Your treasure is your peace of mind and your Tao connection, so your competitors in business, your opponents in an athletic match, and the members of a competing political party are not your foes. And those people who a government declares are your enemies are most assuredly not.

Affirm:

I have no enemies. There are people with whom I have strong disagreements. I may even be required to defend myself and my way of life, but I will not think of them as adversaries.

Recall Lao-tzu's statement that the person “without an enemy will surely triumph”. Be that individual now.

[Eva Libre]

Advice From Dr Dyer -

 

Vow to never start a fight.

 

Stay on the defensive side of disputes, aligning with Lao-tzu's advice to “play the guest” rather than make the first move. See colleagues where you once saw combatants by finding yourself in them. Convey compassion and caring toward your perceived adversaries, who are actually representing a part of you. Refuse to start a fight, reminding yourself that you'd be battling with yourself. Find a way to see oneness in a holy encounter, since all of us are of the Tao.

[Eva Libre]

From  Tao Te Ching - The Definitive Edition by Jonathan Star

The great warriors have a saying,
“I dare not act as host
but would rather be a guest
I dare not advance an inch
but would rather retreat a foot”

So advance but do not use your feet
Seize but do not use your arms
Cut but do not use your sword
Fight but do not use your own power

There is no greater misfortune than feeling
“I have an enemy”
For when “I” and “enemy” exist together
there is no room left for my treasure

Thus, when two opponents meet
the one without an enemy
will surely triumph

[Eva Libre]

From Richard Grossman - The Tao of Emerson

From James Legge - The Texts of Taoism, 1891

A master of the art of war has said,
“I do not dare to be the host (to commence the war);
I prefer to be the guest (to act on the defensive).
I do not dare to advance an inch;
I prefer to retire a foot.”
This is called marshaling the ranks
when there are no ranks;
Baring the arms to fight
when there is no weapon to grasp;
Advancing against the enemy when there is no enemy.

There is no calamity greater than lightly engaging in war.
To do that is near losing the gentleness
which is so precious
Thus it is that when opposing weapons
are actually crossed,
he who deplores the situation conquers.

From the Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - “War” (address)

He who loves the bristle of bayonets
only sees in their glitter
what beforehand he feels in his heart.

The least change in the man will change
his circumstances;
The least enlargement of his ideas,
The least mitigation of his feelings
in respect to other men.
If, for example, he could be inspired
with a tender kindness to the souls of men,
And should come to feel that every man was another self,
with whom he might come to join -
Every degree of the ascendancy of this feeling
would cause the most striking of changes
of external things.

[Eva Libre]

From The Tao of Motherhood by Vimala McClure

69
BATTLES

When your children push
against their limits and your
boundaries, consider the advice of
the ancient strategists: do not
allow yourself to be baited into
fighting fire with fire. Keep your
center. Calmly and clearly show
them their choices.

This is winning the battle without
showing your sword.

If you try to overpower your
children you will discover a simple
truth: their power is greater
than yours ! Thus you surrender
your treasure and respect is lost.

In a battle of wills, loving kindness
is the only weapon that conquers.

[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

 

68 (34)

 

The strategists have a saying:

     "I dare not be host,

          but would rather be guest;

     I advance not an inch,

          but instead retreat a foot."

This is called

     Marching without ranks,

     Bearing nonexistent arms,

     Flourishing nonexistent weapons,

     Driving back nonexistent enemies.

     There is no greater misfortune

          than not having a worthy foe;

     Once I believe there are no worthy fores,

          I have well-nigh forfeited my treasures.

Therefore,

     When opposing forces are evenly matched,

     The one who is saddened will be victorious.

[Eva Libre]

Lynn's - Daode jing of Laozi

 

Military specialists have a saying: "I dare not play the host but instead play the guest.  I dare not advance an inch but instead retreat a foot."  In other words, campaign in such a way that there is no campaign,

 

The other side then will not stop you.

 

Push up your sleeve so that no arm is exposed; wield weapons in such a way that no weapons are involved, and lead in such a way that you face no opponent. (1)

 

"Campaign" [xing] means display troops".  In other words, because of his humility, deference, pity, and kindness, one dares not commit his people first [to battle].  When he uses troops, it seems that he "campaign[s] in such a way that there is no campaign; push[es] up [his] sleeve so that no arm is exposed, wield[s] weapons in such a way that no weapons are involved; and leads in such a way that [he] face[s] no opponent."  This means that there is no one there to grapple with.

 

There is no greater disaster than having no viable opponent.  If one has no viable opponent, (2) he will soon lose my [the Laozi's] treasures.

 

In other words, because of pity, kindness, humility, and deference, one should not wish to seize such power that he will have no viable opponent among all under Heaven.  If one cannot stop but finishes up by having no viable opponent, however, I consider this to be the greatest disaster of all.  "Treasures" refers to the "three treasures". (3)  Thus the text says, "he will soon lose my treasures".

Thus, when they raise armies that are equally matched, he who feels pity will be the victor.

 

Kang [grapple with, oppose] means "raise".  Ruo [like] means dang [equally matched].  The one who feels pity, sure to exercise mercy, will not pursue advantage but do everything to avoid harm.  Thus he will surely be the victor.

 

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)  The order of this passage has been altered to correspond to that of Wang's commentary.  See Lou, Wang Bi ji jjiaoshi, 175 n. 4; and Wagner, "The Wang Bi Recension of the Laozi", 52.

(2) "No viable opponent" translates wu di.  Although the base text reads qing di, which would result in: "There is no greater disaster than underestimating one's opponent.  If one underestimates his opponent, he will soon lose my treasures", both Mawangdui texts and Fu Yi's composite edition have wu di.  See Mawangdui Hanmu boshu, 110.  Since Wang's commentary follows the reading wu di, I have altered the base text accordingly.  It is likely that qing di (underestimate one's opponent) was, at some early time, substituted for wu di by a scribe who read wu di as the positive "think one has no opponent", but this is to misunderstand the argument involved.  Once all viable opponents are eliminated by force, one would, to be sure, control all under Heaven, but such control, built entirely on force, would be the greatest possible disaster.

(3)  Cf. section 67, second passage.  The "three treasures" are "kindness", "frugality", and "no presumption that [one] is first among all under Heaven".

[Eva Libre]

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

The generals have a saying:
“Rather than make the first move
it is better to wait and see.
Rather than advance an inch
it is better to retreat a yard.”

This is called
going forward without advancing,
pushing back without using weapons.

There is no greater misfortune
than underestimating your enemy.
Underestimating your enemy
means thinking that he is evil.
Thus you destroy your three treasures
and become an enemy yourself.

When two great forces oppose each other,
the victory will go
to the one that knows how to yield.

From Byron Katie - A Thousand Names For Joy - Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are

When two great forces oppose each other,
the victory will go
to the one that knows how to yield.

 

It's not possible for something to be against you. There's no such thing as an enemy; no person, no belief, not even the ego is an enemy. It's just a misunderstanding: we perceive something as an enemy, when all we need to do is be present with it. It's just love arising in a form that we haven't understood yet. And questioning the mind allows beliefs to simply arise. The quiet mind realizes that no belief is true, it is immovable in that, so there's no belief it can attach to. It's comfortable with them all.

Your enemy is the teacher who shows you what you haven't healed yet. Any place you defend is where you're still suffering. There's nothing out there than can oppose you. There is just fluid motion, like the wind. You attach a story to what you perceive, and that story is your suffering. I am everything that I have ever called other people; they were me all along. Everything I ever called my enemy was me. Projection would have us see reality as a them and a me, but reality is much kinder. All enemies are your kind teachers, just waiting for you to realize it. (And that doesn't mean you have to invite them to dinner.) No one can be my enemy until I perceive him as threatening what I believe. If there's anything I'm afraid of losing, I have created a world where enemies are possible, and in such a world there's no way to understand that whatever I lose I am better off without.

I return home after a trip, I open the door, and the house has been cleaned out. The burglars have taken my money, my jewelry, the television, the stereo, my CD collection, appliances, computers; they've left just the furniture and some clothing. The house has a clean Zen look. I go through the rooms and see that this possession is gone, that one is gone. There's no sense of loss or violation. On the contrary, I picture the recipients and feel what joy these items will bring them. Maybe they'll give the jewelry to their wives or lovers, maybe they'll sell it at a pawn shop and feed their kids with the proceeds. I am filled with gratitude. My gratitude comes from the obvious lack of need for each item. How do I know I don't need it ? It's gone. Why is my life better without it ? That's easy: my life is simpler now. The items now belong to the burglars, they obviously needed the items more than I did; that's how the universe works. I feel such joy for them, even as I fill out the police report. I find it odd that the way of the world is to try to retrieve what is no longer ours, and yet I understand it. Filling out the police report is also the way of it. If the items are found, I'm ready to welcome them back. And because they are never found, I understand that the shift in ownership is the best thing for the world, for me, and for the burglars. I need only what I have at any given time, never more, and never less. We can never have a problem with possessions; the only problem is our thoughts about what we do or don't possess. What other suffering is possible ?

The simply truth of it is that what happens is the best thing that can happen. People who can't see this are simply believing their own thoughts, and have to stay stuck in the illusion of a limited world, lost in the war with what is. It's a war they'll always lose, because it argues with reality, and reality is always benevolent. What actually happens is the best that can happen, whether you understand it or not. And until you understand it, there is no peace.

Reality is always kinder than the story we tell ourselves about it. If I were to tell the story of reality, it would have to be a love story. The story would be told as life lives itself out, always kinder and kinder, with twists and turns that cannot be projected into the distance. For example, if my daughter dies, I realize that there is no self to be affected. It's not about me. This is about her life, my child's life, and I celebrate her freedom, because I know the freedom of unidentified mind - the unceasing bodiless mind that is finally awake to itself, the mind that never existed as a her, and the her that can never die. In this we are never separated. And that's just a beginning; it gets even kinder. I get to see what my child's children grow into because she was not there to teach them differently. Whenever I lose something, I've been spared. Every loss has to be a gain, unless the loss is being judged by a confused mind. I come to see what fills that space in my life because she isn't there. And because she lives in my heart, the kindness in my world cannot decrease, because something else enters the space that I held her in. Just when you think that life is so good that it can't get any better, it has to. That's a law.

I look at the leaf that has withered and gone crisp in its apparent lifelessness. The tree has had to let go of it as if it were nothing. It falls to the ground and begins to do its job, a different job now. It naturally does it, becomes mulch, becomes water and air. Eventually it becomes every element, it nourishes and becomes part of what makes the mother tree strong, substance and water and air and fire, everything doing its job in the moment it appears to be that. And again and again it lives the story of mind, the evolution of mind and what it projects as disservice in absolute service.

[Eva Libre]

Dr Dyer's Essay for Verse 69 -

Imagine a world with a common heritage that bonded all beings on the planet - a world that didn't know the word enemy, where everyone happily agreed that we're all one people, originating from the same Source of nonbeing. Picture a world that understood that harming anyone would be analogous to harming oneself. Unfortunately, while there's never been such a state of affairs among humans during the entire written history of civilization, this is the vision of Lao-tzu in the 69th verse of the Tao Te Ching. And it's my vision for what's possible when we work at being Tao-centered people, with Tao-centered leadership.

This grand vision begins right here, right now, with you ! Remove the concept of “enemy” from your life, and model this behavior for those around you. Ultimately, the ripple effect will move everyone around the globe toward an “enemy-less” world.

Recently, a deranged man armed with guns and ammunition barricaded himself in an Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where he proceeded to murder several girls. As the peaceful, Tao-centered, Christian members of this close-knit community grieved over their unspeakably horrific losses, they invited the family of the killer to mourn with them at the mass funeral and prayed for the killer as well.

As the Amish leader said, “We have no enemies; we are all God's children, and forgiveness is at the very core of our Christian faith. If we can't forgive those who are lost and would do harm to us, then our faith would be meaningless”. These beautiful words are so similar in feeling to what Lao-tzu wrote in this verse: “There is no greater misfortune than feeling 'I have an enemy',” and “when two opponents meet, the one without an enemy will surely triumph”.

So how can you have an opponent without an enemy ? In her illuminating book The Tao of Inner Peace, Diane Dreher offers a response to that question. Keep this in mind as you apply the 69th verse of the Tao Te Ching to your life: “The old perception of conflict as combat only narrows our vision, limits our choices, pulls us into endless struggles between competing polarities”. She then adds, “Making enemies gives away our power, keeps us from taking responsibility for our lives. Instead of resolving conflict, we focus our attention on fearing, hating, and lashing out at perceived 'enemies'.”

The lesson from Diane's brilliant book, as well as this verse of the Tao Te Ching and that statement of the Amish community leader, is that conflict doesn't have to mean combat. In other words, someone with a contrary point of view doesn't have to be the enemy. Imagine if every general took these words of the Tao Te Ching to heart and practiced them: “I dare not make the first move …” There's no way war could exist.

Lao-tzu advised that if war ever does become inevitable, one should practice defense rather than offense. One should never initiate hostilities, but recognize in the heat of battle that the battle itself is something to grieve about. With no concept of “enemy”, and a heart that's filled with compassion, one stays harmonized with the Tao. The presence of combat, whether verbal or physical, is an indication that contact with the Tao has been lost. There should be no celebration, and every war and battleground conflict should be treated as a funeral, with compassion ruling the day.

As I sit here contemplating the visage of Lao-tzu, he seems to say that a world free from foes isn't as impossible as you may believe.

(image courtesy of Bill Coleman)

[Eva Libre]

Deborah Hart Yemm writes:

Some info about the West Nickle Mines School incident -
See Amish School Shooting for the story of what happened here on Oct. 2, 2006.

Those who died from the Amish School shooting on Oct. 2, 2006 include:

Naomi Rose Ebersole (7 years old)
Anna Mae Stoltzfus (12)
Marian Fisher (13)
Mary Liz Miller (8)
Mary's sister Lena Miller (7)

Five other children, including Anna Mae Stoltzfus' sister, were hospitalized.

(Eleven months later, one of them is still semi-comatose.)

Also dead is the killer, Charles Carl Roberts IV.


The West Nickel Mines Amish school building has been torn down.

At 4:30 am on October 12, while about 25 Amish and others watched, wrecking crews tore down and hauled away the Amish school where the girls were shot. Also torn down were the outhouses, the fence, and the baseball backstop. Originally built in 1976, the site of the West Nickel Mines School is now just an open field. “It was something we had to do,” an Amishman said. A new Amish school was later built at a different location.

On October 13, 2006 the family of Charles Roberts released the following statement thanking their Amish neighbors and the Lancaster community:

From the Roberts family:

To our Amish
friends, neighbors, and local community:

Our family wants each of you to know that we are overwhelmed by the forgiveness, grace, and mercy that you’ve extended to us. Your love for our family has helped to provide the healing we so desperately need. The prayers, flowers, cards, and gifts you’ve given have touched our hearts in a way no words can describe. Your compassion has reached beyond our family, beyond our community, and is changing our world, and for this we sincerely thank you.

Please know that our hearts have been broken by all that has happened. We are filled with sorrow for all of our Amish neighbors whom we have loved and continue to love. We know that there are many hard days ahead for all the families who lost loved ones, and so we will continue to put our hope and trust in the God of all comfort, as we all seek to rebuild our lives.

The following information is provided for those who wish to send letters of condolences or who wish to donate funds to support the families of the victims, including the Roberts family:

Cards and letters of condolences can be sent to Bart Twp. Fire Company, P.O. Box 72, 11 Furnace Road,
Bart, PA 17503.

Donations for the Nickel Mines Children's Funds and the Roberts Family Fund can be sent to Coatesville Savings Bank, 1082 Georgetown Road, Paradise, PA 17562.

The Nickel Mines School Victims Fund has been established by Hometown Heritage Bank. Contributions can be sent to the bank at 100 Historic Drive, P.O. Box 337, Strasburg, PA 17579.

Mennonite Central Committee and Mennonite Disaster Service has established the Amish School Recovery Fund to help the Amish community with medical care, transportation, and support. Donations can be made by calling MCC at 717-859-1151 or MDS at 717-859-2210. You can donate online at mcc.org or mds.mennonite.net or mail to Mennonite Central Committee, 21 S. 12th St., P.O. Box 500, Akron, PA 17501 or Mennonite Disaster Service, 1018 Main St., Akron, PA 17501.