Chapter 8 of the Tao Te Ching - The Highest Good

I visited a former co-worker in the city. As I sat waiting for him I watched the people as they moved frantically from one location to another. They would leave their high rise apartment buildings in a rush to get to work or school. There was so much tension that when they would get in each other’s way they ended up rude to each other. The longer I sat in the café witnessing all these things the more I could feel the tension building inside myself. I longed to get back to my home where all is quiet and peaceful.

When my friend arrived I could see that he was as uptight as all the others.

“You look haggard, my friend,” I said to him.

“You have no idea,” he said. “Life is turning into a living hell.”

“That can happen when you live there,” I told him.

“Live where?”

“In Hell.”

He laughed. “I am not used to jokes these days, I am afraid.”

“I didn’t realize I was telling one.”

He took a breath and looked into my eyes. “You are always so calm, so peaceful,” he said. “How do you do it?”

“I try to see the good in all things.”

“You won’t see much good around this place,” he said.

I wanted to agree with him as I watched a couple of people yelling at each other across the street. “Oh, it is here,” I said, “you just have to know where to look.”

He looked around as if trying to find it in the darkened corners of the room.

“The highest good,” I told him, “is like water. Water gives life to all things, but does not suffer itself in doing so. It flows into all of the places that men ignore or reject. In this way, it is very much like the Tao.”

“But where do you find that?” he asked. “How can I find good when all around me is hatred, violence and evil?”

“I will give you a list. Follow these things and you will always find good, no matter where you are.”

I asked him for a pen and I wrote the following on napkin.

• In dwelling, be close to the land.
• In meditation, go deep in the heart.
• In dealing with others, be gentle and kind.
• In speech, be true.
• In ruling, be just.
• In daily life, be competent.
• In action, be aware of the time and the season.

I handed it to him and let him read it.

“But this seems so simple,” he said.

“It is,” I answered. “All things that are of the Tao are simple.”

He looked at the list again and smiled. “Sometimes,” he said, “we just need little reminders to keep us going.”

“One more thing,” I told him.

“Yes?”

“Living in a place like this it becomes more important that you avoid fighting at all cost.”

“Oh, I don’t fight,” he said. “I abhor violence.”

“Not all fighting is physical,” I said.

I waited for that to register in his thoughts. “As you go about your day,” I said, “and things start going against you, do not look for things or people to blame. Placing blame keeps you from facing the responsibility of getting your own life in order.”

“But what if everything goes my way and I have a wonderful day today?”

“Well, for that,” I said with a wink, “you can blame me.”

I like to see my friends smile. It makes my day go so much better.

Chapter 7 of the Tao Te Ching - The Eternal Heaven and Earth

“Did you read the news today?” he asked as he sat across from me at the café.

“No thanks,” I said, “I’m trying to quit.”

“Quit what?”

“Reading the news,” I answered. “My time is better spent looking at the flowers in the garden across the street.”

“But, how do you know what is going on in the world?”

“Why would I want to?”

“You have to keep up so that you know what to expect.”

“Ah,” I said, “I don’t need that. I already know what to expect. In fact, I bet that I can tell you what was in the news this morning and I haven’t read the news in over five years.”

“This should be interesting,” he said. “Go for it.”

“Let’s see,” I began, “Someone was killed, someone was raped, war is escalating in the Middle East and the price of gasoline is going up again.”

“You are right,” he said with surprise. “How did you know that?”

“Because that is what was on the news the last day that I watched it.”

“I suppose so,” he said, “but things are much worse than they were five years ago.”

“Of that,” I said, “I have no doubt. But I don’t worry too much. If there is any news that is important to me, it will find me.”

“How does that happen?”

“It found me today didn’t it? You have come here to tell me what it is.”

“True enough.”

“So, what is your news?”

“Oh, you already said it. War is escalating in the Middle East.”

“Why is that important to you?” I asked.

“I am really starting to think that the end of the world is coming soon.”

“People have been saying that for thousands of years,” I said. “But it will never happen. It can’t happen.”

“But of course it can. It would not take much to wipe out the entire human race.”

“True,” I said. “But that would not be the end of the world.”

“It would be for me,” he said.

“Neither Heaven nor Earth can ever be destroyed. They were never born. Therefore they can never die.”

“But if the human race is destroyed, what would be left.”

“Everything. People have been fighting for years to save the Earth, when what they really want is to save the Humans. No matter what we do to this planet, it will always remain alive. It will adapt and grow stronger than ever. Sometimes I think that the best thing that could happen to this planet would be for the humans to destroy itself. But, we weren’t talking about the end of the world we were talking about the news.”

“I thought we were talking about both.”

“That is one of the problems with people today,” I said. “They think too much.”

“So, what do you think we should do?”

“Nothing. The wise man will let the world run past him and he will sit and watch it from behind. In this way, he can see what is going on more clearly because he is looking from the outside. When he is needed he does his tasks without needing recognition. By working in this way, he gains true fulfillment.”

We sat for several more minutes drinking coffee and chatting idly. He looked at his watch several times, but he never realized that he was doing it. He lives in a very hectic world and he must rush to keep up with it.

After he left I thought about my past and the time when I lived in the same world that he lives in. Then I noticed someone at the gas station across the street. They were changing the price on the marquee. It was going up another ten cents.

I grabbed my backpack and casually walked home, enjoying the afternoon sun.

Chapter 6 of the Tao Te Ching - The Root of Heaven and Earth

I was sitting on a bench in the park, looking down into a wooded valley. A young woman walked up to me and smiled. “I see you here a lot,” she said. “Almost every day you are out here staring into that valley. What are you looking at?”

“My Mother,” I answered.

She gazed into the direction that I was looking, trying to find something. “I don’t see anyone. Has she died and is buried down there?” she asked.

“No,” I said, “You are thinking about the wrong Mother. I am talking not about my birth mother, but about my eternal mother.”

“Nature?” she asked.

I nodded. “The spirit of the valley is eternal. She is the primal mother of all things.”

“When I look into that valley, all I see are trees,” she said.

“Then you are looking in the wrong place.”

“Where is the right place?”

“There is a gateway,” I said, “at the root of Heaven and Earth. That gateway is hers. It is like a veil that can barely be seen.”

“So, where do I find the root of Heaven and Earth?”

“Sometimes,” I said, “when we are searching for things, we look in the wrong place. There are times when we are looking outside when we need to be looking inside. When searching for God we look up, but we should be looking in.”

“You are a strange man,” she said.

“Believe it or not,” I said, “You are not the first person to tell me that.”

Her smile was pleasant. When looking into her eyes I felt the same way that I do when looking into the valley.

“Seek Heaven,” I told her. “When you understand what it really is, then you will know where to find the root. When you find it embrace the true spirit of the valley. That spirit will never fail you.”

I stood up and shook her hand.

“It was nice meeting you,” I said. Then I turned and walked home. I have seen her many times since. She too, now sits on a park bench and gazes into the valley.

Chapter 5 of the Tao Te Ching - Adaptation

Why do people hoard things? Why do they amass great fortunes? What do they think these things will bring them? I see people everyday fighting to have the biggest and best of everything. What is it about human nature that makes them do this?

Everything that exists comes from nature; therefore it all comes from the Tao. Even those things that are man made have their origins in the Tao. Nature itself does not place one thing more important than another. All things exist in harmony and, when left to themselves, all things remain in balance.

The wise are as impartial as nature. They see all people as equally important. The amount of wealth a person has does not make him any more important. The amount of toys that a person collects does not make his existence any more justified than any one else.

Nature is like the space inside a bellows. As the bellows moves, the space yields and adapts. The wise allow themselves to do the same. They adapt to life instead of forcing life to be what they want.

Keep your life simple and your speech more so. More can be said with fewer words. Don’t grasp for things that you think might bring you happiness. Instead, find the happiness that is at your center. Latch on to it, focus on it and never let go.

Chapter 4 of the Tao Te Ching - Simplicity

“I have returned,” he said.

“From where?” I asked.

“Um, nowhere, really.”

I smiled. “Nice place,” I said. “I have a summer home there that I visit often.”
I think he is starting to get used to me saying things that he doesn’t understand.

“You told me return to you after I have found out what it is that I truly seek.”

“Did I?” I asked.

“Yes, you did.”

“And did you find your answer?”

“I did,” he said. “And more.”

“What else did you find?”

“I think,” he said, “that I now understand the Tao.”

“That is very good” I said. “It will help you greatly in your life.”

I could see that he was not happy with the way the conversation was going. I suspected that he was really hoping to tell me what he had found so that I could tell him if he was right or not.

“So,” I asked him, “how did you come to understand the Tao.”

He smiled at me. “I made things as simple as I could. I tried to understand what the Tao was instead of making it something that I could understand.”

“That was a very wise start,” I said. “How did you accomplish that?”

“It is hard to explain what I did in English and I don’t know any other languages.”

“Try the language of metaphor,” I suggested.

He thought very hard for several moments. “Ok,” he began, “I blunted the sharpness, untangled the knot, softened the glare and became one with the dust.”

“Excellent,” I said. “I understood that completely. Now, what did you find when you became one with the dust?”

“I found the Tao,’ he said. “It is a vessel that everything springs forth from. It is endless and can never be filled. I don’t know where it came from. I don’t think anyone does. But there is one thing that I am certain of.”

“What is that?” I asked.

“It was here long before any of the gods were here.”

“You have taken a long journey in your first step,” I said to him. “But be comforted in the knowledge that the first step is always the hardest. You truly understand the Tao. The question now is, what are you going to do with it?”