Verse 64 - Living by Being Here Now

[Eva Libre]

64th Verse

 

What is at rest is easily managed.

What is not yet manifest is easy to prevent.

The brittle is easily shattered;

the small is easily scattered.

 

Act before things exist;

manage them before there is disorder.

Remember:

A tree that fills a man's embrace grows from a seedling.

A tower nine stories high starts with one brick.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

 

Act and destroy it;

grasp and lose it.

The sage does not act, and so is not defeated.

He does not grasp and therefore does not lose.

People usually fail when they are on the verge of success.

So give as much care at the end as at the beginning,

then there will be no failure.

 

The sage does not treasure what is difficult to attain.

He does not collect precious things;

he learns not to hold on to ideas.

He helps the 10,000 things find their own nature

but does not venture to lead them by the nose.

 

 

Contemplation/Meditation Verse

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.
           A tree grows from one seedling.
A tower starts with one brick.

           
Do The Tao Now

Take one habit that you'd like to see removed from your life, such as something that you believe constitutes a weakness or perhaps even an addiction.  Just for today, and with no promises about tomorrow or the future, take a single step to transcend this habit.  Don't smoke or drink caffeine, just today.  Eat only veggies and fruit, just today.  Speak warmly to hostile neighbors, just today.  Notice at the end of this one day how you feel.  Then, only then, decide if tomorrow morning you wish to continue practicing the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching, which was itself written one word and one day at a time, and has lasted for more than 25 centuries.


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

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Remind yourself of the inherent value in practicing
the most enduring line from the entire Tao Te Ching:
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

 

Forget about the end result: When you arrive where you thought you wanted to be, you'll just begin a new journey. So enjoy each step along the way and keep in mind that every goal is possible from here. Just do one thing, one day at a time.

Here's an example of this from my own life: It has now been almost two decades since I've had a drink containing alcohol. Had I thought about not drinking for 20 years, it would have been overwhelming and really difficult - yet I've done it, one day at a time. I can't speak for the next 20 years, but one thing I'm absolutely certain of is that today, and today alone, I will not be taking a drink. One step … one moment … one day at a time … is the Tao in action.

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Become a master anticipator.

 

Decide that you're perfectly capable of preventing trouble from cropping up in your life long before it manifests into your material world. Anticipate your own health, for instance. Become conscious of prevention rather than waiting for challenges to materialize. By taking care to be nutritiously sound as a way of life - such as by taking supplements that remove toxins from your body, cleansing your colon, eating more fruits and vegetables and fewer animal products, exercising, and meditating - you're out in front of big problems. You're foreseeing what you need to do while you're capable of scattering the small, managing your health in harmony with the Tao long before there's disorder. Find other areas of your life to practice being a master anticipator !

[Eva Libre]

From Richard Grossman  - The Tao of Emerson

From James Legge - The Texts of Taoism, 1891

That which is at rest is easily kept hold of;
Before a thing has given indications of its presence,
it is easy to take measures against it;
That which is brittle is easily broken;
That which is very small is easily dispersed.
Action should be taken before a thing
has made its appearance;
Order should be secured before disorder has begun.

The tree which fills the arms grew
from the tiniest sprout;
The tower of nine stories rose from a small heap of earth;
The journey of a thousand li
commenced with a single step.

He who acts with an ulterior purpose does harm;
He who takes hold of a thing in the same way
loses his hold.
The sage does not act so,
and therefore does no harm;
He does not lay hold so,
and therefore does not lose his hold.

The sage desires what other men do not desire,
and does not prize things difficult to get;
He learns what other men do not learn, and turns back
to what the multitude of men have passed by.
Thus he helps the natural development of all things,
And does not dare to act with
an ulterior purpose of his own.

From the  Essays of  Ralph Waldo Emerson  - ”Circles”, ”Compensation”

Every ultimate fact is only the first
of a new series.
There is no outside, no enclosing wall,
no circumference to us.
That which builds is better than
that which is built.
Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit
could be severed;
For the effect already blooms in the cause,
The end preexists in the means,
The fruit is in the seed.

Our strength grows our weakness;
Whilst a man sits on the cushion of advantages,
he goes to sleep.

The man who renounces himself,
comes to himself.
Every step so downward, is a step upward.
Words and actions are not the attributes of
a brute nature;
They cannot cover the dimensions of
what is in truth.
The wise man, in doing one thing, does all;
Or, in the one thing he does rightly,
He sees the likeness of all which is done rightly.

[Eva Libre]

From Vimala McClure - The Tao of Motherhood

64
NOW

Love your children while they
are small. Spend time with them
now. Don't put it off for a
single moment.

The rigid tree begins as a pliant
sapling. A huge building begins
as a shovelful of dirt. A thousand-
mile journey begins under
your feet.

Everything depends on early
influences. You can't go back later
and bond with your children in
the same way.

Many parents get anxious with
their teenagers and try to make up
for lost time. When the child
needs wings, they try to root him
and spoil everything.

Conscious mothering requires
careful choices, from beginning
to end.

[Eva Libre]

From Tao Te Ching - The Definitive Edition by Jonathan Star 

A still mind can easily hold the truth
The difficulties yet to come can easily be avoided

The feeble are easily broken
The small are easily scattered
Begin your task before it becomes a burden
Put things in order before they get out of hand
Remember,
A tree that fills a man's embrace grows from a seedling
A tower nine stories high starts with one brick
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

Act and it's ruined
Grab and it's gone
People on the verge of success often lose patience
and fail in their undertakings
Be steady from the beginning to the end
and you won't bring on failure

The Sage desires that which has no desires
and teaches that which cannot be taught
He does not value the objects held by a few
but only that which is held by everyone
He guides men back to their own treasure
and helps all things come to know
the truth they have forgotten
All this he does without a stir

[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

 

64 (27)

 

     What is secure is easily grasped,

     What has no omens is easily forestalled,

     What is brittle is easily split,

     What is minuscule is easily dispersed.

     Act before there is a problem;

     Bring order before there is disorder.

     A tree that fills the arms' embrace

          is born from a downy shoot;

     A terrace nice layers high

          starts from a basketful of earth;

     An ascent of a hundred strides

          begins beneath one's foot.

     Who acts fails;

     Who grasps loses.

For this reason,

     The sage does not act.

Therefore,

     He does not fail.

     He does not grasp.

Therefore,

     He does not lose.

[Eva Libre]

Lynn's - Daode jing of Laozi

 

The secure is easy to maintain; the premanifest [weizhao] (1) is easy to plan for.

 

When he is secure [an], one does not forget danger [wei], and, in maintaining security, one does not forget ruin [wang] but plans for it while its potential is still without effect. (2)  Thus the text says that it "is easy".

 

The fragile is easy to melt; the tiny is easy to dissolve.

 

Although it [the danger of ruin] has detached itself from nothingness and entered existence, because of its fragility and tiny size, it still lacks the wherewithal to initiate any large effect.  Thus to deal with it is still "easy".  These four [the secure, the premanifest, the fragile, and the tiny] all warn that one should be heedful of how things end.  One must not fail to maintain security merely because the danger of ruin does not yet exist, and one must not fail to dissolve the danger of ruin merely because it is still tiny.  If one fails to maintain security while danger does not exist, danger will take root and grow into existence in that failure.  If one fails to dissolve danger while it is still tiny, it will take root and grow large in that failure.  Therefore, if one worried equally about disaster as it happens at the end and as it is threatened at the beginning, no endeavor would ever end in defeat.

 

So take action while it still does not exist.

 

This means while it still resides in its premanifest state [weizhao].

And control it before it turns into disorder.

 

This means while it is still tiny and fragile.

A tree that takes both arms to clasp grows form a tiny shoot; a nine-story terrace starts from a pile of dirt; a journey of a thousand li begins under one's feet.  One who takes deliberate action [wei] will become ruined; one who consciously administers will become lost.

 

It is right that one, mindful of how they end, eliminates tiny sprouts of danger and right that one, mindful of tiny sprouts of danger, eliminates disorder.  However, if one attempts to bring them under control by taking conscious action and implementing procedures or tries to take administrative action against them by using punishments and names, this will, on the contrary, provoke the start of new troubles, and clever stealth will proliferate.  Thus it is that one is "ruined" and "lost".

This is why the sage engages in no deliberate action and so never becomes ruined, does not consciously administer and so never becomes lost.  People pursue matters in such a way that they always suffer ruin just when they are about to succeed.

 

They are not mindful about how things end.

If one is as mindful of ends as he is of beginnings, his endeavors will never end in defeat.  This is why the sage desires to have no desire and does not value goods hard to get. (3)

 

Although likes and desires may be tiny, contentious tastes will arise out of them.  Although goods hard to get might be insignificant, greedy thievery will occur because of them.

He learns not to learn and redeems the errors that the mass of common folk make.

 

What one is capable of without learning is the natural [ziran]. (4)  To be learned in learning (5) results in error.  Thus "he learns not to learn and redeems the errors that the mass of common folk make".

Accordingly, he enhances the natural state of the myriad folk but dares not engage in deliberate action. (6)

 

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 20, fourth passage.

(2)  Cf. section 5 of the Xici zhuan (Commentary on the Appended Phrases), Part Two, of the Yijing (Classic of changes), which reads in part: "To get into danger is a matter of thinking one's position secure; to become ruined is a matter of thinking one's continuance protected; to fall into disorder is a matter of thinking one's order enduring.  Therefore the noble man when secure does not forget danger, when enjoying continuance does not forget ruin, when maintaining order does not forget disorder.  This is the way his person is kept secure and his state remains protected" (Lynn, The Classic of Changes, 83; see Zhouyi zhengyi [Correct meaning of the Changes of the Zhou], 8:12a-12b).

(3)  Cf. section 3, first passage; section 12, second passage; section 27, fifth passage; and paragraph I of Wang's commentary to section 49, fifth passage.

(4)  Cf. Wang's commentary to section 20, first passage: "If one could stay on the mark without knowing how it is done, what should he ever seek to learn by advancing his knowledge ?"

(5)  The interpretation of yu yu xue as "learned in learning" is suggested by Hatano Taro, who notes a similar syntactic pattern in Lunyu (Analects), 4:16: "The noble man is learned in righteousness; the petty man is learned in profit."  See Hatano, Roshi Dotokukyo kenkyu, 395.

(6)  Cf.  Wang's commentary to section 27, fifth passage.

[Eva Libre]

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

What is rooted is easy to nourish.
What is recent is easy to correct.
What is brittle is easy to break.
What is small is easy to scatter.

Prevent trouble before it arises.
Put things in order before they exist.
The giant pine tree
grows from a tiny sprout.
The journey of a thousand miles
starts from beneath your feet.

Rushing into action, you fail.
Trying to grasp things, you lose them.
Forcing a project to completion,
you ruin what was almost ripe.

Therefore the Master takes action
by letting things take their course.
He remains as calm
at the end as at the beginning.
He has nothing,
thus has nothing to lose.
What he desires is non-desire;
what he learns is to unlearn.
He simply reminds people
of who they have always been.
He cares about nothing but the Tao.
Thus he can care for all things.

 

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

 

Prevent trouble before it arises.
Put things in order before they exist.

 

There's no need to put the world in order. Things are already in order, even before they exist. I walk out onto the street, there are people and cars and dogs and birds and plants and litter, and in this marvelous chaos there is a beauty that always delights me. It's all for me, it presents itself to me at the perfect moment, exactly as needed. Though walking down the street doesn't seem like a lot to some people, to me it's a whole world, it's my secret world, where I'm always serving everyone and everything, as they serve me. There's never a task too great or too small, because the only task to accomplish is the one in front of me. It might appear that there are a thousand things to do, but in fact there is never more than one.

I live in constant meditation, and if a thought should ever show up as anything less than goodness, I know that it would spill over to other people as confusion, and those other people are me. My job is to enlighten myself to that, and to love the spent rose, the sound of the traffic, the litter on the ground, and the litterer who gives me my world. I pick up the litter, do the dishes, sweep the floor, wipe the baby's nose, and question anything that would cost me the awareness of my true nature. There's nothing kinder than nothing.

I come home from my walk, make lunch, and as we're eating, Stephen says, “Look, there are ants in the salad,” I continue to chew, and I marvel at the balance of life. I never get more or less protein than I need. Before a rain, the ants move into our kitchen. There is a steady trail of them across the stove and the countertop, and my vision was too foggy to see those marvelous little explorers. Later, sitting on the living room couch, I feel ants on my legs, my arms, in my hair, one by one, little massage therapists, walking over my pressure points, tickling me, sometimes biting me, but only where needed. And I notice my hand moving toward my arm, squeezing an ant between my fingers and killing it as quickly as I would want to die myself. It is my own death I am experiencing, and I love death as I love life. My hand moves to my leg and squeezes two little fellows who are traveling up my calf. I notice the thought “Oh, I'm killing the ants”, and I smile. How very strange. The hand keeps moving on its own, without a plan, doing its job. “I” stop it, and I notice later, when I'm not conscious of my murdering ways, that the hand is at it again. When I'm not looking, who is killing the ants ? Should I take credit ? The hand stops. And who know what it will be up to next ?

My daughter happens to be visiting, and as she leaves the house to buy rice milk for Marley, I tell her, “And, by the way, sweetheart, please buy some ant hotels”. Why did I say such a thing ? Because I did. That's the way of it. The idea with ant hotels is that the ants are drawn to the poison inside and go back to their nest after eating it and infect the others, and that, supposedly, is the end of the ants in the house. I wonder why killing ants doesn't bother me. And I come to see that my death also is by poison, the things I have done to pollute the water that not only I but everyone drinks, the emissions from my car that poison the very air we breathe. I am so like the ants. And the greed for food that for so many years created guilt in me, as if mind were body and suffering were possible in reality. And the chemicals from the processed food products that I occasionally eat, the many ways that I still poison myself, bring a smile to my face. It's not that I'm masochistic, I love my life, but this continual poisoning is beyond me; it is simply the way of it. Am I breathing ? That's how it seems. I live with the ants the way I live with my own dear self. Bodies come and go. And when mind understands itself, when it stops poisoning itself with what it believes to be true, there is no physical experience that it can suffer over.

Two days later, as I sit in my favorite corner of the couch, again I begin to feel little scrambling movements on my hand and my neck. Ants again. It turns out that I am their nest, I am the one they have come back to infect, and I have only bought poison for myself. What goes around comes around. I appreciate that.

[Eva Libre]

Dr Dyer's Essay for Verse 64 -

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” is the most famous line of the entire Tao Te Ching. It's quoted so often because it encourages us to avoid procrastination and just begin from where we are, right here, right now. A tiny seed planted and nurtured grows into a forest; a marathon begins by taking that first stride. In my opinion, the German poet and playwright Johann von Goethe nicely summed up this ancient teaching with these rhyming words:

 

Only engage, and then the mind grows heated,
begin it, and then the work will be completed.

 

The essence of the widely known 64th verse of the Tao Te Ching is this: Every goal is possible from here ! With the emphasis on from here ! This is particularly applicable to problems that seem overwhelming. When you change the way you think about them, your new and unique perspective will cause the enormity of the things before you to diminish.

“The sage does not treasure what is difficult” because he breaks it down into easily managed steps. Rather than taking over and directing others or attempting to do everything himself, the follower of the Tao finds a way to manage problems before they exist, and prior to disorder breaking out. Lao-tzu is encouraging us all to do the same.

Reexamine how you view the challenges you face, as well as those of your family, community, and country. Sense in your heart how easily preventable many of them are when you deal with things before they exist, and when you refuse to be attached to the ideas that are largely responsible for these problems.

There are three steps to enlightenment that most people traverse:

[1] The first is through suffering. This is when the big problems of your life become so overwhelming that a long period of misery ensues because you “treasure what is difficult to attain”. Ultimately, you come to a place where you can look back at those huge obstacles - such as illness, accidents, addiction, financial loss, children's struggles, and divorce - and see in retrospect that they were actually gifts disguised as problems. Yet this is not the way of the Tao; this is not how a sage conducts his life.

[2] The second is by being in the present moment. Here you've moved closer to the Tao by asking yourself when a crisis erupts, What do I have to learn from this experience right now? I know there's a gift hidden for me in this misfortune, and I'll focus on looking for it. While this is Tao-centered thinking, it's not all that Lao-tzu wants to convey in this 64th verse.

[3] The third is by getting out in front of big problems. This means that you act before difficulties occur, sense disorder coming your way, and manage it in advance. This is the way of the Tao. “The small is easily scattered”, say Lao-tzu. So here you're the acute observer who's totally in tune with nature. With foresight, you anticipate an argument, play it out in your mind in a split second, and are able to neutralize the negative energy because you were in front of it. You've responded by not acting in your former problem-producing ways and are thus harmonized with the Tao. At this stage you prevent difficulties rather than solve them.

This verse invites you to master the third or Tao-centered method.