Verse 59 - Living by Thrift and Moderation

[Eva Libre]

59th Verse

  

In governing people and serving nature,

nothing surpasses thrift and moderation.

 

Restraint begins with giving up one's own ideas.

This depends on virtue gathered in the past. 

If there is a good store of virtue, then nothing is impossible.

If nothing is impossible, then there are no limits.

If a man knows no limits, he is fit to lead.

 

This is the way to be deeply rooted and firmly planted in the Tao,

the secret of long life and lasting vision.

 

 

Contemplation/Meditation Verse

 

I practice living without limits

        by gathering virtue and modeling it.

        

          

Do The Tao Now

 

Make a commitment to gather five God points today.  Imagine how the Divine Source of all 10,000 things must be operating in order to maintain the creation cycles of life, and do five things that match up to it.  Pick up a piece of someone else's trash, which is an example of excess; anonymously give a gift to someone in need; or perform any other actions that help you accumulate virtue and remain deeply rooted in the Tao. 

 

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

by Dr Wayne W Dyer

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Gather as much virtue as you possibly can.

 

For years I practiced gathering virtue without realizing it.  I sent hundreds of thousands of books to individuals and organizations at my own expense, getting into the habit of beginning each day with this act of love.  I spent a great deal of time giving away much of what I earned, almost all of it anonymously.  I didn't realize it at the time, but what I was doing was accumulating virtue, or what I facetiously called "God points".

 

I then found that not all of my life was to be peaks and mountaintops.  Yet when I succeeded in getting out from under what felt like a mountain, I was virtually unscathed.  This is because I was so deeply rooted and firmly planted in the Tao that my original vision was to be a lasting one, impervious to external circumstances.

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Practice moderating your ego.

 

Change the way you look at your life by moderating your ego.  See yourself as a being who gives rather than collects, and live on what you need rather than practicing conspicuous consumption.  You'll begin to see that your purpose has more to do with Tao consciousness than ego directives.  When you moderate your demands and use only what you and your family require, you'll gather virtue points by serving rather than accumulating.  Lao-tzu reminds you that this is "the secret of long life and lasting vision".

 

William Shakespeare described this more than 2,000 years after Lao-tzu's passing in his play The Third Part of Henry the Sixth:

 

My crown is in my heart, not on my head;

Not deck'd with diamonds and Indian stones,

Not to be seen.  My crown is call'd content;

A crown it is that seldom kings enjoy.

[Eva Libre]

From Vimala McClure - The Tao of Motherhood

 

59

RESTRAINT

 

In bringing up children there is

nothing like restraint.  This

requires deep roots in your own

spirituality, because it means

releasing your own ideas in favor

of perceiving each child’s needs.

 

Prayer, meditation and the like

can help you stay centered

and aware of the deeper levels

of what is happening.  Take the

time you need for your

spiritual growth.

 

Cultivate limitlessness,

and you will know how and

when to set limits for your

children.

[Eva Libre]

From Tao Te Ching - The Definitive Edition by Jonathan Star

 

Rule the people and serve Heaven

            yet hold nothing more dear than the Mother's harvest

Let every thought and every breath

            be the fruit of your offering -

Do it now

Let her power run thick in your blood

            There will be no obstacle you cannot overcome

            No limit you cannot surpass

            No empire you cannot rule

 

Ah, but in all your glory

            never lose sight of the Mother

Without her

            your empire will crumble

            you power will waste away

For the Mother brings the harvest

            She alone causes all things to endure

 

We call this

            "Deep roots and a solid trunk"

            "The way of long life and lasting insight"

[Eva Libre]

From Richard Grossman - The Tao of Emerson

 

From James Legge - The Texts of Taoism, 1891

 

For regulating the human and

          rendering service to the heavenly

          there is nothing like moderation.

 

It is only by this moderation that there is effected

          an early return to man's normal state.

That early return is what I call the repeated accumulation

         of the attributes of the Tao.

With that repeated accumulation of those attributes,

         there comes

         a subjugation of every obstacle to such return.

Of this subjugation we know not what shall be the limit;

And when one knows not what the limit shall be,

         he may be the ruler of a state.

 

He who possesses the mother of the state

         may continue long.

His case is like that of the plant, of which we say

         that its roots are deep and its flower stalks firm -

This is the way to secure that its enduring life

         shall long be seen.

 

 

From the Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - "Education"

 

By your own act you teach the beholder

          how to do the practicable.

According to the depth from which you draw

          your life.

Such is the depth not only of your strenuous effort,

          but of your manners and presence.

Leave the military hurry and adopt the pace of nature.

Her secret is patience.

Have the self-command you wish to inspire.

Your teaching and discipline must have

          the reserve and taciturnity of nature.

Say little; do not snarl; do not chide;

          but govern by the eye.

See what they need and the right thing is done.

[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

 

59 (22)

 

          To rule men and serve heaven,

                    there is nothing like thrift.

Now,

           Only through thrift

                     can one be prepared;

           Being prepared

                     means having a heavy store of integrity;

           With a heavy store of integrity,

                     he can overcome everything.

           Able to overcome everything,

                     no one knows his limits;

            If no one knows his limits,

                     he can have the kingdom;

            Having the mother of the kingdom;

                     he can long endure.

            This is called "sinking roots firm and deep,

                     the Way of long life and lasting vision".

[Eva Libre]

Lynn's - Daode jing of Laozi

 

For ordering the people and serving Heaven, nothing is better than husbandry.

 

"Nothing is better than" is like saying "nothing surpasses".  Se [husbandry] refers to the farmer.  The way the farmer puts his farm in order is to bring a single uniformity to it by earnestly ridding it of weeds.  He fulfills its naturalness by preventing the threat that it be damaged by neglect, that is, he eliminates that which causes damage by neglect [weeds].  For receiving the mandate of Heaven above and for keeping the people content below, nothing surpasses this.

 

Only husbandry can be called the quick way to submission.

 

What there is "quick submission" to its constancy [chang].

 

By "quick way to submission" we mean the repetitive accumulation of virtue.

 

Just let repetitive accumulation of virtue happen, and avoid forcing them [the people] to go faster, for only then can one have them submit to the way of constancy.  Thus the text says: "By 'quick way to submission' we mean the repetitive accumulation of virtue". (1)

 

If one repetitively accumulates virtue, there is nothing that he cannot conquer.  As there is nothing that he cannot conquer, no one knows the limits he can reach.

 

The Dao is infinite.

 

As no one knows his limits, he can, accordingly, keep his state.

 

If one attempts to rule as state while he is limited by constraints, this is not one who can keep a state.

 

If one maintains the mother of the state, he can, accordingly, long endure.

 

That which keeps a state at peace is called its mother.  The "repetitive accumulation of virtue" means nothing other than carefully planning the roots first and only then tending to the branch tips, (2) for this enables him [the ruler] to live his life to the end.

 

This we refer to as having deep roots firmly established, for it is the Dao of long life and enduring oversight.

 

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)  Although Wang seems to read section 59 up to this point as advice about how the ruler should rule his people - the good ruler is like the good farmer who does not try to accelerate the growth of crops but lets them gradually realize the potential (virtue) of growth - he shifts back to the ruler's own accumulation of virtue with the following passage.

 

(2)  Cf. section 54, first passage.

[Eva Libre]

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

 

For governing a country well

there is nothing better than moderation.

 

The mark of a moderate man

is freedom from his own ideas.

Tolerant like the sky,

all-pervading like sunlight,

firm like a mountain,

supple like a tree in the wind,

he has no destination in view

and makes use of anything

life happens to bring his way.

 

Nothing is impossible for him.

Because he has let go,

he can care for the people's welfare

as a mother cares for her child.

 

 

From Byron Katie - A Thousand Names For Joy

- Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are

 

She has no destination in view

and makes use of anything

life happens to bring her way.

 

When you have no destination in view, you can go anywhere.  You realize that whatever life brings you is good, so you look forward to it all.  There's no such thing as adversity.  Adversity is just an unquestioned thought.

 

Without a belief, there's no separation.  Adversity and good fortune are equal.  You can wake up on Mars, you can find yourself in hell, and there's no problem, because The Work is alive inside you.  You can flip into the most unusual mind-states, into emotions that you've been hiding from yourself for decades.  You can enter the worst of your fears, and with inquiry, it doesn't matter where you go or how you appear.  Without a belief, you are all things.  And if you get stuck in a particular identity, you have inquiry to unstick you.

 

One day in 1986, as I was walking in a shopping mall, I saw a very old woman coming toward me on a walker.  She looked like she was in her nineties.  Her back was bent, and her face grimaced from what appeared to be pain.  As I continued to walk, I noticed, to my horror, that I was looking out through this old woman's eyes at the woman I had been, the one with Katie's body, so healthy, agile, and as bright as all the lights in the world.  As I watched her, the bright one began to round the corner in her usual fast-paced, carefree manner, and I realized that I was now the old woman.  I felt her pain - it wasn't hers now but mine.   I smelled my putrid odor.  I became aware of my body's flesh disconnected and hanging from its bones.  The flesh was wrinkled and gray, with no muscles to hold it.  The pain shot through my joints with each movement.  The slowness of my motion was infuriating.  The thought that accompanied the anger was "I want to move as fast as that young woman.  It's not fair."

 

And then the full horror of the situation appeared.  If I were to give it words, the thought would be "Oh, my God, I'm trapped here !  I'm supposed to be the young, bright one !  There's been a mistake, I'll never get out, I'll be like this forever !"  Immediately inquiry arose: "I am this" - is it true ?  Is it true that I am this forever ?  How do I react when I believe that ?  What would I be without the thought ?  The questioning, too, was beyond words.  It didn't come after the wordless thought: thought and questions arose at the same instant and canceled each other out.  The horror was equivalent to a deep gentleness, a caressing, a full, immovable acceptance.  There was no discomfort.  It began, from its new position, to celebrate the whole life of itself, to love itself as the old woman, and to appreciate the slow pace, the withered flesh, the pain, the stench.  The stench was as sweet as the fragrance of spring.  I was able to love that it had found the perfect home for a me.  There was no longer even the slightest desire to be anywhere else.  I wanted nothing other than what is.  And as soon as I realized this, I found myself, to my amazement, rounding the corner of the mall as the body of the fast-paced, bright woman who had apparently been lost to me forever.

 

I had come to feel just as comfortable in that decaying old body as I am here, but now it was a Katie.  And people wonder why I can look at my hand and become ecstatic.  It's no different from being trapped forever in a body that was almost dead.  Inquiry can hold any condition, whatever it is, in a state of loving awareness.  After that experience, everything was child's play, the freedom of being everywhere, the dance and the bodilessness of it all.

 

Inquiry is grace.  It wakes up inside you, and it's alive, and there's no suffering that can stand against it.  It will take you over, and then it doesn't matter what life brings you, "good" or "bad".  You open your arms to the worst that can happen, because inquiry will continue to hold you, safely, sweetly, through it all.  Even the most radical problem becomes just a sweet, natural happening, an opportunity for your own self-realization.  And when others are experiencing terror, you are the embodiment of clarity and compassion.  You are the living example.

 

[Eva Libre]

Dr Dyer's Essay for Verse 59 –

 

There are four words that crop up repeatedly in many of the translations of this passage of the Tao Te Ching: restraint, frugality, moderation, and thrift.  Here, Lao-tzu is advising you to examine the way you look at these qualities in relation to your supervisory and parenting roles - he doesn't say that you should sit on the sidelines and do nothing, but he does counsel you to practice self-control.  When you cultivate a style of leadership that creates "a good store of virtue, then nothing is impossible", for there are no limits.

 

Living in thrift and moderation means being in harmony with the world through your generous nature.  Rather than continually prodding, directing, giving orders, setting down rules, and demanding obedience, it's important to be a leader who accumulates a warehouse full of virtue by living in accordance with the Tao.  When that's what you have to give away, you'll naturally interfere less.  Feel joyful knowing that the example you're modeling is helping others make the right choices, as this is the essence of Tao leadership.  As Lao-tzu specifically states, "If a man knows no limits, he is fit to lead".

 

People whose lives are run by rules, dogma, and fear can only do what they've been told to do . . . nothing more.  The options for self-direction are nonexistent for the blindly obedient, so practice restraint, moderation, frugality, and thrift when making pronouncements about how others must behave.  Children raised in families where that blind obedience is demanded have the highest levels of prejudice when they become adults.  Why ?  Because they've been taught to "prejudge" what's acceptable, according to someone in a position to lead them.  That's why it's so vital to give your kids an example of leadership that encourages them to make choices based on higher standards.

 

I have a gift from my daughter Saje that I've placed on my desk, which I've titled NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE.  It's a green plant growing out of a rock - there's no dirt or earth, only hard rock, yet it thrives, despite what all of us have been taught to believe.  When Saje gave this to me, she remarked that it reminded her of me because I've always said that I refuse to believe in anything being impossible.  My plant helps me remember that nature knows no limits, and that I am as much as part of nature as both the rock and the greenery growing within that hard stone.

 

Lao-tzu reminds you that "if nothing is impossible, then there are no limits".  So practice living without limits by gathering virtue and modeling it.  When you do, you'll see the "lasting vision" in those you've been selected to lead in one way or another, and they'll see it in you, too.