Verse 67 - Living by the Three Treasures

[Eva Libre]

67th Verse

 

All the world talks about my Tao

with such familiarity -

what folly !

The Tao is not something found at the marketplace

or passed on from father to son.

 It is not something gained by knowing

or lost by forgetting.

If the Tao were like this,

it would have been lost and forgotten long ago.

 

I have three treasures, which I hold fast

and watch closely.

The first is mercy.

The second is frugality.

The third is humility.

 

From mercy comes courage.

From frugality comes generosity.

From humility comes leadership.

Now if one were bold but had no mercy,

if one were broad but were not frugal,

if one went ahead without humility,

one would die.

 

Love vanquishes all attackers,

it is impregnable in defense.

When heaven wants to protect someone,

does it send an army ?

No, it protects him with love.

Contemplation/Meditation Verse

I live the 3 treasures of
          mercy, frugality and humility;
in all of my dealings with others.
          
           
Do The Tao Now

Choose a conversation in which you can practice the three treasures by using an economy of words.  While attempting to make a point in conversation, for instance, stop yourself after a moment or so and use your talking time to listen.  You'll be employing all three of Lao-tzu's treasures at one time:  You'll have mercy for the person with whom you're conversing by being frugal with your words and humbly refusing to be ahead of or above your conversational partner.


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

[Eva Libre]

Advice From Dr Dyer -

 

Live in harmony with the
myriad manifestations of the Tao.

 

The key to living in harmony is compassion and mercy. You're not in competition with anyone, so don't feel as if you must defeat another person or compare yourself on any level. Extend mercy and compassion toward every form of life, including yourself ! When you radiate love and respect for all, you'll be aligned with the Tao, which will protect you as if you were a baby in the arms of a loving mother.

[Eva Libre]

Advice From Dr Dyer -

 

See the hidden strengths of simplicity
and humility in those
whom you may have previously judged to be
weak or ineffective leaders.

 

 

Those who practice frugality and refuse to hoard or engage in conspicuous consumption deserve to be viewed as strong examples of how to guide others - whereas those who speak and act forcefully while stockpiling more and more goods are not in harmony with the Tao. Moreover, such individual's actions tend to contribute to more dissension, and as Lao-tzu reminds us here, those who go ahead with boldness and without deference will die (and, I hasten to add, will lead others to their deaths as well). As you notice examples of simplicity and humility in those who are in positions to lead, make every effort to emulate the same qualities in your own daily interactions.

[Eva Libre]

From Richard Grossman - The Tao of Emerson

From James Legge - The Texts of Taoism, 1891

All the world says that, while my Tao is great,
It yet appears to be inferior to other systems of teaching.
Now it is just its greatness that
makes it seem to be inferior.
If it were like any other system,
for long would its smallness have been known !

With gentleness I can be bold;
With economy I can be liberal;
Shrinking from taking precedence of others,
I can become a vessel of the highest honor.
Nowadays they give up gentleness
and are all for being bold;
Economy, and are all for being liberal;
The hindmost place, and seek only to be foremost;
of all which the end is death.

Gentleness is sure to be victorious even in battle,
and firmly to maintain its ground.
Heaven will save it possessor,
by his very gentleness protecting him.

From the Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - ”Success”

Self-trust is the first secret of success.
I fear the popular notion of success
stands in direct opposition on all points
to the real and wholesome success.
One adores public opinion, the other private opinion,
one fame, the other desert;
one feats, the other humility;
one lucre, the other love.

What is especially true of love,
is that it is a state of extreme impressionability;
The lover has more senses and finer senses than others,
His eye and ear are telegraphs;
He reads omens on the flower, and cloud,
and face, and gesture,
And reads them right.

 

[Eva Libre]

From The Tao of Motherhood by  Vimala McClure

67
YOUR TREASURES

Everyone says the Eternal One
is great. Because it is great it is
beyond our comprehension.
If we could hold it in our minds,
it would be limited. If it is limited,
it is not the Way.

There are three treasures which
are invaluable to you as a parent:

The first is kindness. The second is
simplicity. The third is humility.

If you are kind, you can act with
courage to support and protect
your children.

If you keep your life simple, you
have lots of time to give them.

If you know yourself as a human
being - no more, no less - you
teach your children without
imposing on them.

A parent who is protective without
being kind, whose life is busy and
complicated, who demands respect
and expects perfection, loses her
children in the end.

Loving kindness, simplicity, and
humility are the treasures your
children will inherit.

[Eva Libre]

From Tao Te Ching - The Definitive Edition by Jonathan Star

All the world talks about my Tao
with such familiarity -
What folly !
Tao is not something found at the marketplace
or passed on from father to son
It is not something gained by knowing
or lost by forgetting
If Tao were like this
It would have been lost and forgotten long ago

I have three treasures that I cherish and hold dear
the first is love
the second is moderation
the third is humility
With love one is fearless
With moderation one is abundant
With humility one can fill the highest position
Now if one is fearless but has no love
abundant but has no moderation
rises up but has no humility
Surely he is doomed

Love vanquishes all attackers
It is impregnable in defense
When Heaven wants to protect someone
does it send an army ?
No, it protects him with love

[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

 

67 (32)

 

     All under heaven say that I am great,

          great but unconventional.

Now,

     Precisely because I am unconventional,

          I can be great;

     If I were conventional,

          I would long since have become a trifle.

     I have always possessed three treasures

          that I guard and cherish.

     The first is compassion,

     The second is frugality,

     The third is not daring to be ahead of all under heaven.

Now,

      Because I am compassionate,

           I can be brave;

      Because I am frugal,

           I can be magnanimous;

      Because I dare not be ahead of all under heaven,

           I can be a leader in the completion of affairs.

If, today, I were to

     Be courageous while forsaking compassion,

     Be magnanimous while forsaking frugality,

     Get ahead while forsaking the hindmost,

          that would be death !

For compassion

     In war brings victory,

     In defense brings invulnerability.

     Whomsoever heaven would establish,

     It surrounds with a bulwark of compassion.

[Eva Libre]

Lynn's - Daode jing of Laozi

 

All under Heaven say that my Dao is great but seems to have no likeness [buxiao].  The reason why it seems to have no likeness is that greatness is its only attribute.  If it had a likeness, all this times it would have been insignificant !

 

"All this time it would have been insignificant" is like saying "it would have been insignificant all this time".  If it had a likeness, it woud lose the wherewithal to be great. (1)  Thus the text says: "If it had a likeness, all this time it would have been insignificant !"

 

I have three treasures, which I hold tight and protect.  The first is called "kindness", the second "frugality", and the third is "no presumption that I am first among all under Heaven".  It is thanks to kindness that one can be brave.

 

"Thanks to kindness [ci], when one takes the field, he is victorious, and, when he takes a defensive position, he holds firm."  Thus "one can be brave".

 

It is thanks to frugality that one can be generous.

 

If one is frugal and is careful with expenditures, all under Heaven will not want.  Thus "one can be generous".

It is by not presuming to be first among all under Heaven that one can make one's ready device last long.

 

Only one who puts his person behind and aside can become someone to whom the people gravitate. (2)  Only then can such a one establish himself as a ready device [chengqi], be of benefit to all under Heaven, and become leader of all the people. (3)

Now, if one abandons kindness and takes bravery,

 

Ju [keep intact] means something like qu [take].

Abandons frugality and takes generosity, and abandons the back and takes first place, such a one will die !  Thanks to kindness, when one takes the field, he is victorious, and, when he takes a defensive position, he holds firm, for it is Heaven that will save him by protecting him with guards of kindness.

 

 

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 only attribute of the Dao is its great size; it has no other feature and resembles absolutely nothing.  Cf. section 25, sixth passage.  The Dao is, after all, formless (wuxing); buxiao (have no likeness) is an alternate term for wuxing.

(2)  Cf. section 7, second passage.

(3)  Cf. section 11 of the Xici zhuan (Commentary on the Appended Phrases), Part One, of the Yijing (Classic of changes), which reads in part: "Of those who made things available and extended their use to the utmost and who introduced ready devices [chengqi] and made them of benefit to all the world [all under Heaven], none are greater than the sages" (Lynn, The Classic of Changes, 66; see Zhouyi zhengyi [Correct meaning of the Changes of the Zhou], 7:29b), Chengqi, "ready device", literally means a "completed vessel", that is, the perfect man capable of assuming sovereignty over all under Heaven.

[Eva Libre]

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

Some say that my teaching is nonsense.
Others call it lofty but impractical.
But to those who have looked inside themselves,
this nonsense makes perfect sense.
And to those who put it into practice,
this loftiness has roots that go deep.

I have just three things to teach:
simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.

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

 

Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.

 

I notice that I fed myself this morning in the kindest way. The food was wholesome and simple, and if I hadn't had china and elegant flatware and chairs and table and candle, I would have found a place in the sun and sat and eaten breakfast with my hands. I wouldn't give myself less than the best of what is available at any moment. I love that I am my keeper, and I love what keeps the keeper: everything.

Making breakfast for Stephen and myself is about watching kindness in action. I watch it move to the refrigerator, a hand opens the door, and I call it mine. I can never believe that, and the mind song is the background music that I love. What will the hand reach for ? It pulls out an egg carton and a loaf of bread, and I notice the light reflected off the white surfaces in the kitchen. The hand takes four eggs, the body moves to the counter, the hand puts two slices of bread in the toaster, takes out a fork, a bowl, cracks the eggs, scrambles them, adds salt and pepper, moves to the stove, puts a pat of butter in the skillet, watches it melt, pours in the eggs. And as they are cooking, I see mental pictures of chickens in the fresh air and sunlight (the eggs are free-range), and also pictures of chickens in cages on top of each other, being force-fed, and I ask myself where am I in a cage, and I wait in the silence. I see the long-ago times when I was in a cage, and what an endless, dark period that seemed to be, when I believed that my pain was unbearable even as I bore it, in that pitch-dark cage, with no way out. And then I saw the key, and I opened the door. And after that, every time a problem seemed to arise in this new world, it was like child's play, as if I were some kind of skilled magician, the sorcerer who makes everything disappear with one stroke of mind. All this as the eggs are cooking. To me, they are strength. They die so that I can live. I put them on two shiny white dishes, with the toast that has popped up in the toaster, and I move to the dining room table, where tea and teacups are waiting. What a beautiful word breakfast is. What a beautiful world.

Beyond what the mind can see is kinder than what it sees - that's the privilege of an open mind. Kindness resonates with the way things are. Kindness is sipping a cup of tea without a thought that I'm even sipping it. It's like being my own plant, feeling myself being watered, beyond any thought that that's what I even need. It's the sound of rain against the window, the gift of the sound of rain in my ears, the gift of life, which I did nothing to deserve. Kindness prepares what I am to eat in the next season. It even leaves a rainbow. It's infinite. It's the hair that protects my head in the sun, the ground that supports the floor. There's nothing that isn't kind. A death accomplishes what ordinary life could never do, letting you experience what is beyond identification: the bodiless self, mind infinitely free.

When you realize where you come from, no imagination can move you to believe that you are separate. Everything is seen for what it is, and you understand that no one is in danger of losing anything but his identification. And in that forever good news, in the face of everything that appears to be real, only kindness remains. It's nothing that can be taught. It's an experience; it's self-delight. When I give to you without motive, I am delighted. I act with kindness because I like myself when I do that. The kindness can only be to myself. It doesn't include anyone else, not even the apparent receiver. I am both giver and receiver, and that's all that matters.

The whole world belongs to me, because I live in the last story, the last dream: woman sitting in chair with cup of tea. I look out the window, and whatever I see is my world. There's nothing beyond that, not one thought. This world is enough for me. Anything I ever need to do or be is in this unlimited space. It's enough to accomplish my purpose, and my purpose is to sit here now and sip my tea. I can imagine a world outside what I can see, and as it happens I prefer this one. It is always more beautiful here, wherever I am, than any story of a future or a past. The here and now is where I can make a difference. It's what I live out of. Nothing more is required.

[Eva Libre]

Dr Dyer's Essay for Verse 67 -

Your being invited to change your life by seeing it through the prism of this ancient verse of the Tao Te Ching, which instructs you on the three things you need for a Tao-styled life of success:

Mercy is the name used here for the first treasure, but additional terms such as compassion, good-heartedness, love, kindness, and charity have been employed in other translations. You've very likely been weaned on a model of achievement that's measured by accumulation, accomplishment, and the acquisition of power and influence over others. Successful people are usually considered to be narrowly focused on their own goals, oblivious to anything but getting to the top, and ruthless in preventing anyone else from getting what they're after.

Lao-tzu, however, says that the first and most important treasure is what true courage stems from, not from a heartless and callous attitude. He even tells you that boldness without mercy is a prescription for death ! So you're encouraged to think of others first by being willing to serve and exhibit kindness and love, even toward your enemies, instead of seeking external indicators to prove that you're successful.

Shakespeare speaks of the first treasure in The Merchant of Venice:

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven …

But mercy is above this sceptered sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings …

The great playwright then reminds us with his next lines why Lao-tzu made mercy the top priority of the three treasures:

It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice.

Mercy, compassion, and kindness are all attributes of God and the Tao. Lao-tzu saw this truth many centuries before Shakespeare did.

The second treasure is frugality, or what was referred to in other translations as economy, moderation, thrift, or simplicity. Now frugality and moderation don't generally spring to mind when those at the pinnacle of achievement are described; however, according to Lao-tzu, being satisfied with less rather than more results in great generosity. So be willing to take only what you need, and don't accumulate or hoard. The less attached you are to your stuff, the easier it is to be generous; the more you cling to it, the more you feel you need, and the less concerned you are with the welfare of others.

The third treasure necessary for a successful life is humility, which other translations refer to as ”not presuming to be above nature”, ”daring not to be ahead of others”, and ”not always trying to be number one”. From this quality, Lao-tzu reminds us, comes true leadership that radiates Tao energy.

Often our perception of strength, power, and triumph is influenced by the yang masculine qualities of arrogance, loftiness, and self-importance. So when you change the way you think about enlightened leadership, you can discover what genuinely successful people have learned before you - that is, that we're all instruments for Tao or God or whatever you call the energy that writes the books, delivers the speeches, makes the lifesaving discoveries, and so on. Humility is akin to surrendering to a force greater than your ego, giving credit to that Source, and being grateful for any wisdom and influence that's given to you by that power. Be humble; stay low; and be a generous, grateful leader.