Verse 72 - Living with Awe and Acceptance

[Eva Libre]

72nd Verse

 

When people lack a sense of awe,
there will be disaster.
When people do not fear worldly power,
a greater power will arrive.

 

Do not limit the view of yourself.
Do not despise the conditions of your birth.
Do not resist the natural course of your life.
In this way you will never weary of this world.

 

Therefore, the sage knows himself
but makes no show of himself;
loves himself
 but does not exalt himself.
He prefers what is within to what is without.

Contemplation/Meditation Verse

By staying in a state of awe and bewilderment
         I loosen Ego's hold on my thinking,
                  my body is perfect, born at precisely 
                           the right time, and this is my perfect age.
I accept myself as I am and
         I surrender to the natural course
                  of my body's destiny.
                    
           
Do The Tao Now

List five natural occurrences in your daily life that you've been taking for granted.  Then spend some contemplative time allowing each into your consciousness.  The sky, some flowers, a tree in your yard, the moon, the sun, the fog, the grass, a spiderweb, a crab hole, a lake, a shrub, a cricket, your dog, anything that occurs naturally … let yourself radically appreciate the miracle you hadn't been noticing.  Write, draw, or photograph some observations that you've gleaned from this new perspective of awe and bewilderment.


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

[Eva Libre]

Advice From Dr Dyer -

 

See the miraculous in everything.

 

Change your view of the world to one of awe and bewilderment. Rather than looking for miracles, shift to seeing everything as miraculous. By being in a state of awe, you won't be able to mentally experience boredom or disappointment. Try seeing the invisible Tao flowing through and supporting everyone and everything: A rainstorm becomes a miraculous event, the lightning a fascinating display of electrical fireworks, the thunder a booming reminder of the invisible power of nature. Live the mystery by beginning to perceive what average eyes fail to notice.

[Eva Libre]

Advice From Dr Dyer -

 

Focus on loving the life you have now
in the body you've got !

 

Tell yourself that you love everything about the physical shell you've incarnated into.

Affirm: 

My body is perfect, born at precisely the right time, and this is the perfect age now. I accept myself as I am. I accept my role in the perfection of this universe at this time. I surrender to the natural course of my body's destiny.

See your body through the eyes of totally accepting thoughts and, as Lao-tzu says, “In this way you will never weary of this world.”

[Eva Libre]

From Tao Te Ching - The Definitive Edition by Jonathan Star

When the people do not fear worldly power
a greater power will arrive

Don't limit the view of yourself
Don't despise the conditions of your birth
Don't resist the natural course of your life
In this way you will never weary of this world

The Sage knows himself, but not as himself
he loves himself, but not as himself
he honors himself, but not as himself
Thus, he discards the view of his own self
and chooses the view of the universe

[Eva Libre]

From Richard Grossman - The Tao of Emerson

From James Legge - The Texts of Taoism, 1891

When the people do not fear what
they ought to fear,
That which is their greatest dread
will come to them.

Let them not thoughtlessly indulge themselves
in their ordinary life;
Let them not act as if weary of what
life depends on.

It is by avoiding such indulgence that
such weariness does not arise.

Therefore the sage knows these things,
but does not parade his knowledge;
Loves, but does not appear to set a value
on himself.
And thus he puts the latter alternative away
and makes a choice of the former.

From the Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - ”Education”

The use of the world is that man may
learn its laws.
When a man stupid becomes a man inspired,
When one and the same man
Passes out of the torpid into the perceiving state,
Leaves the din of trifles, the stupor of the senses,
to enter into the quasi-omniscience of higher thought -
Up and down, all around go,
All limits disappear,
No horizon shuts down.
He sees things in their causes,
all facts in their connection.

[Eva Libre]

From The Tao of Motherhood by Vimala McClure

72
WONDER

Children who grow up with no
spirituality - with no sense of
wonder - will struggle with
depression as adults.

Do not impose rational thinking
on your children too early.
Do not oppress them with
adult reality.

Because you don't pressure
them to grow up, they can
grow naturally and keep their
sweetness.

The wise parent can be childlike
but is not irresponsible,
loves herself but is not selfish.
She is spiritual but not dogmatic.

[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

72 (37)

When the people do not fear the majestic,
Great majesty will soon visit them.

Do not limit their dwellings,
Do not suppress their livelihood.
Simply because you do not suppress them,
they will not grow weary of you.

For this reason,
The sage is self-aware,
but does not flaunt himself;
He is self-devoted,
but does not glorify himself.

Therefore,
He rejects the one and adopts the other

[Eva Libre]

Lynn's - Daode jing of Laozi

 

If the common folk do no fear force, then such great force will arrive that there will be no restricting them to the boundaries within which they should dwell, no satisfying them within the limits in which they should live.

 

Where they should dwell means in purity, quietude, and freedom from deliberate action.  Where they should live means in humility, deference, and freedom from arrogance.  If one [the sovereign] should abandon purity and quietude and instead practice greed, should desert humility and deference and instead rely on power, people will make trouble, and the common folk will fall into deviant behavior.  This means that power is no longer able to control the common folk. (1)  When the common folk are unable to hear the weight of this power any longer, they will burst forth in flood from top to bottom [from the boundaries and limits within which they should live], which means that the terrible judgment of Heaven is about to arrive.  Thus the text says: “If the common folk do not fear force, then such great force will arrive that there will be no restricting them to the boundaries within which they should dwell, no satisfying them within the limits in which they should live.”  In other words, the power of force cannot be relied on.

 

It is just because one is insatiable

 

That is, if one does not find contentment with his own lot.

 

That there is no satisfying him.

 

It is because one does not find contentment with his own lot that nothing in all under Heaven will ever satisfy him. (2)

 

Therefore what the sage himself knows he does not himself reveal.

 

He does not himself reveal what he knows, that is, how to use the searchlight of his brightness and how to exercise his power. (3)

 

He cherishes himself but does not value himself.

 

If he valued himself, he would have to place restrictions on the boundaries within which people should dwell and enforce limits of satisfaction within which they should live.

 

Thus he rejects the one and keeps the other. (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. section 17, third and fourth passages.

 

(2)  Qian Zhongshu’s note on this passage helped with the interpretation.  Qian reads the text of the Laozi as if it meant: “It is just because one never has enough [yan] that he never gets enough [yan]”, which brings out the different but associated meanings of yan as “satisfaction” and “satiation/disgust”.  See Qian, Guanzhui bian, 3:459.

 

(3)  Cf. section 58, especially the last passage.

 

(4)  That is, he does nothing to put his rulership in jeopardy, which means he cherishes himself, and places no value on his own person, which means he dwells in purity and quietude and lives in humility and deference.

[Eva Libre]

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

When they lose their sense of awe,
people turn to religion.
When they no longer trust themselves,
they begin to depend upon authority.

Therefore the Master steps back
so that people won't be confused.
He teaches without a teaching,
so that people will have nothing to learn.

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

 

When they lose their sense of awe,
people turn to religion.

 

A Christian asked me if I had ever met Jesus. I'm a lover of God - in other words, a lover of reality. I like to meet you there, which is here, now.

I don't know much about Jesus, except that he loved God. He was a man with a wonderful way that worked for him - someone who truly lived it. I know what that is. I found a wonderful way, too, and I live it. And, of course, that's not true. “I” didn't find the way, it found me, when there wasn't even a me to find. The way is simply what is. It doesn't bend to what anyone thinks it should be, it is its own integrity, it is infinitely intelligent and kind. To my mind, if Jesus is the way, I meet him in everyone, because the way is nothing more than a mirror image of my own thinking.

Christians say they love Jesus, but that's easy to believe when things are going your way. If Jesus walked into this room, everyone would love him, some would even fall at his feet and worship him, until he said something that threatened their religion, which is the concept they're attached to in the moment. Then he'd become an enemy. “He's a radical. He's not what I thought he'd be. He hangs out with the wrong people. A spiritual teacher shouldn't be political. He's contradicting the scriptures. His head's in the clouds. He doesn't understand.” People will write off even the clearest, most loving person in the world when he opposes their belief system. They will invalidate him, negate him, obliterate him, prove that he's wrong, he's a fraud, he's dangerous to society, so that they can protect what they really believe is important. They'd rather be right than free.

When you revere a spiritual teacher, it's yourself that you're revering, because you can't project anything but yourself. And as long as there is something unhealed in you, you have to attach that to the teacher when you don't get your way or when your belief system is threatened. He says something, you put meaning onto it, you think that he's wrong or lacking, and you move out of reverence. What you’re reacting to is not what he said, but what you heard. It's a fine thing to love Jesus, but until you can love the monster, the terrorist, the child molester, until you can meet your worst enemy without defense or justification, you reverence for Jesus isn't real, because each of these is just another of his forms. That's how you know when you are truly revering your spiritual teacher: when your reverence goes across the board.

If you think you're devoted to a spiritual teacher, that's a wonderful beginning; you get to see how your devotion could look when it's directed to all of us. Whatever disrespect, invalidation, or fear you project onto an enemy - sooner or later you'll project it onto your spiritual teacher. Everyone is your teacher, and the most powerful spiritual practice is to hang out with the people who criticize you. You don't even have to do that physically, since they live right here in your head. And when you think that you've grown beyond all your defensiveness and justifications, then hang out with your enemies physically, and see how lighthearted you are when they trash you. That's the real test.

To become aware without any spiritual teacher, without any scripture or tradition or authority, is to meet the teacher where you are. For me, the truth was right under my nose. Most amazing. It was sweet and simple, with nothing complicated about it. If it hadn't been so simple, I would never have found it.

[Eva Libre]

Dr Dyer's Essay for Verse 72 -

This verse of the Tao Te Ching alerts you to two components that work together for a harmonious life: a sense of awe and total acceptance. Without these combined forces, you're unlikely to see the presence of the Tao.

As I wrote about this verse, I found myself reading from Saint John of the Cross, a 16th-century mystical poet who lived a life of awe. I've reproduced a few of his lines to give you an idea of how this feeling manifested in a Divinely spiritual man:

My Beloved is the mountains,
And lonely wooded valleys,
Strange islands,
And resounding rivers,
The whistling of love-stirring breezes,

The tranquil night
At the time of rising dawn,
Silent music,
Sounding solitude,
The supper that refreshes and deepens love.

This morning I sit here in my sacred space on Maui feeling an urgency that actually feels like the rapture in Saint John of the Cross's words. I sense the presence of Lao-tzu urging me to hurry up so that he may convey to you what he means by having a sense of awe. It is so profound as to usher into your life a timeless awareness of the arrival of a greater power.

I feel that power right now in my beautiful surroundings. The sound of mynah birds fill the air as the ocean rolls in undulating waves, much like the heart beat of our planet. The colors are absolutely breathtaking: the bright blue sky; the shimmering green palm trees, sea grass, and ficus plants; the dreamy oranges and purples mixing in the distant clouds; and topping it all off, a rainbow that appears to be connecting the nearby island of Lanai with my front window.

When words appear on my blank sheets of paper, I'm awash with bewildering waves of pleasure at how I'm being used by an invisible Source. I know that I'll soon be in the ocean, propelling myself along the shoreline, looking down at the creatures playfully moving about in the salty water and wondering where they sleep. How do they get here ? How can they breathe without air ? Do they ever stop moving ? Will they be here after I'm gone ? And then I'll emerge from the ocean and walk along the sand, feeling the sun on my body and questioning how it stays up there, how we keep moving around it while spinning once every 24 hours, why the ocean doesn't tip upside down while the whole planet is turning over and over, and if the stars and the universe itself will ever end.

The reason it's crucial to have a sense of awe is because it helps loosen the ego's hold on your thinking. You can then know that there's something great and enduring that animates all of existence. Being in awe of that something staves off disasters because you have no fear of worldly conditions. You're kept grounded in the otherworldly power that manifests a trillion miracles a second, all of which are oblivious to your ego.

The 72nd verse of the Tao Te Ching also asks you to accept yourself and your individual concerns. With three very emphatic suggestions, Lao-tzu tells you to [1] avoid self-limits, [2] accept your body as a perfect creation, and [3] allow your life to unfold in accordance with its own nature.

I love the metaphor of nature as a guide to sagelike acceptance. In fact, throughout the 81 verses, Lao-tzu emphasizes being in harmony with the natural world, telling you that's where you connect with the Tao. As Meister Eckhart, a 13th-century Catholic monk and scholar, put it: “God created all things in such a way that they are not outside himself, as ignorant people falsely imagine. Rather, all creatures flow outward, but nonetheless remain within God.”

And in John 15:4-5, the Bible advises you to “stay joined to me, and I will stay joined to you. Just as a branch cannot produce fruit unless it stays joined to the vine, you cannot produce fruit unless you stay joined to me. I am the vine, and you are the branches.”

Learn about the Tao by being in perfect harmony with the environment. Think of trees, which endure rain, snow, cold, and wind - and when the harsh times arrive, they wait with the forbearance of being true to their inner selves. As Deng Ming-Dao writes in 365 Tao: Daily Meditations (see Jan 7): “They stand, and they wait, the power of their growth apparently dormant. But inside, a burgeoning is building imperceptibly … neither bad fortune nor good fortune will alter what they are. We should be the same way.”

In order to do so, we must accept ourselves as being a part of the 10,000 things. And we must love that same burgeoning, imperceptible inner nature that will bear fruit. Or, as Lao-tzu concludes this verse, “He prefers what is within to what is without.”

Love yourself,
make no show of yourself, and
quietly remain in awe and acceptance.