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Tao Te Ching Verse 80

translated by Hua-Ching Ni

Let there be small communities with few inhabitants.
The supply of vessels may be more than enough,
yet no one would use them.
The inhabitants would love living there so dearly that they would never wish to move to
another place.
They may have every kind of vehicle,
but they would not bother to ride them.
They may have powerful weapons,
but they would not resort to using them.
They would return to a simple system of cords and knots to record their simple events,
as was done in ancient times.
They would be content with plain food,
pleased with simple clothing,
satisfied with rustic but cozy homes,
and would cling to their natural way of life.
The neighboring country would be so close at hand that one could hear its roosters crowing
and its dogs barking along the boundaries.
But, to the end of their days, people would rarely trespass the territory of another's life.

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Utopia On the Surface

My experience with this verse has been unexpectedly beautiful.

In this verse, he outlines utopia:

• Abundance
• Harmony in the Community
• Ability to Travel and Defend but no need for either of those things
• Simplicity in Knowledge Management
• Comfortable lifestyle
• Peace with the Neighbors

So as I’m reading it and reflecting, knowing everything that I’ve learned and practiced so far, I can see that the utopia is actually possible!

There have been two times when I’ve witnessed this, and I didn’t know what it was at the time, but I knew things were different. I’ll tell you about one of them.

In one of my trainings in the Army, I was in what we’d call a squad - about 8 of us in a small group. We were to train, eat, and sleep together for about 35 days. Some of my comrades would have forgotten an item or two, and just me - I would offer what I had blindly. Now someone might say that was a little dumb of me - you know, like I should have given of my overflow, not my cup, right? But naive as I was, I did it. I did that for a week or two, and I noticed that the others started doing the same. Soon, we were a functioning little family unit, and we looked out for each other and our needs. It became normal. Some time later, maybe about 3 weeks, one of our cadre remarked that there wasn’t any infighting in our group like the other squads. They wondered what it was. At that moment, I knew. And it wasn’t like I could have said anything about it - there was no way I could have said that I was the cause in the beginning. It was one of those subtle things that folks weren’t even paying attention to, to include myself! But I knew it.

As I’m considering that experience with that group and reading this verse today, I’m thinking about at least observing how my journey with the Tao has affected my relationships since I started. At home, I have enjoyed a deeper connection with my spouse as I grow with her and we share spiritual insights. At work, I have opened up to more ways to be of service, and interesting opportunities have presented themselves. With friends, I have practiced humility and have met some people that have had profound impacts on my life - and statistically, it seems pretty much impossible that that would have occurred had I gone out searching for them in a deliberate manner.

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Tao Te Ching Verse 79

translated by Keith H. Seddon

When a bad grudge is settled,
Some enmity is bound to remain.
How can this be considered acceptable?
Therefore the Sage keeps to her side of the contract
But does not hold the other party to their promise.
One who has Virtue will honour the contract,
Whilst one who is without Virtue expects others to meet their obligations.
It is the Way of Heaven to be impartial;
It stays always with the good person

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Giving to Receive

I have experienced time and again that most of the time, if I smile at someone, they’ll smile back. I’ve also experienced that when I’m angry or sour-faced, people kind of leave me alone, and if I try to make them feel the way I’m feeling, I’ll get that back, too.

In our physical world, it seems that when I push on object A it moves to location B and pretty much stays there. But in our spiritual world, it seems that when I do action A, it goes out to B and comes back to me in a reflective manner.

The emotions observation was just one thing. Let’s think about a couple more aspects. When I treat others with compassion and they feel safe around me, people open up and share themselves with me. Just doing nothing, just being there and holding space for them, kind of like being the empty vessel, does the trick. When I am doing the opposite - being selfish and closed off, I am left alone and can’t connect with others. When I am feeling desire for stuff or relationships I don’t have, people somehow pick up on this and again, I am left alone mostly. Except in cases where others who are in the same position connect with me and we feed off of each other in unhealthy ways. But when I am in love with my life and am quietly appreciate of myself and everything around me, I attract other people to share in this feeling with me. When I am feeling equal to people, real relationship moments occur. But when I am feeling superior or inferior to others, self-doubt usually surfaces and that feeling eventually causes me to act in passive aggressive or mildly hostile ways toward others. Subtle ways, but hostile nonetheless.

When I give my three treasures away, they return. Similarly, when I give my ‘ick’ away, it returns. So I can pretty much observe that I get back what I put out. It is tempting to enter into esoterica here, and equally so to enter into grander visions of a honed manifestation ability. And while I feel like that’s all got a true feel to it, I do like the way Lao Tzu helps us remember this axiom in a simple way.

He talks about the Sage staying with the left side of the tablet - the debtor’s rather than the creditors. He says that when we emulate the Tao by always giving, always being open and available to connect and serve, we become the forces that help others move into Harmony along with us. And when we do that, we can’t help but reap the rewards - we don’t have to do anything - they just arrive.

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Tao Te Ching Verse 78

translated by The Tao of Rivenrock

There is nothing more flexible and yielding than water.
And yet there is nothing better for attacking the hard and rigid, there is nothing that can do
what it can do.
So it is that the rigid can be overcome by the flexible, and the haughty by the humble.
Yet even knowing this; still no one will put this into adequate practice.
For this reason it is said that the ones who accept the humiliation of the country are fit to be
its rulers.
Those who take the sins of the people onto themselves are able to act as King.
This is the paradox of truth!

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Our Venerable Teachers

Recently, I found myself reacting strongly to a large group of people, like not in a positive way, then transferring those frustrations to a smaller group.

My typical pattern of reactions to large groups I can’t influence directly is this: the group adopts a position with which I disagree and I judge it as wrong. Then the people in the group act, and since they’re wrong anyway, anything they do thereafter is of course amoral and despicable. The judgement cycle continues. Then when I see members of that group in day to day interactions, I reserve myself and withdraw my willingness to think anything about them that resembles compassion, contentment, or humility. There are also the nasty thoughts I entertain at each step of the way, which only solidify my resolve to stay away from our three treasures when thinking about the group.

Lao Tzu says that the one who can take on the troubles of the world and who can tend to calamities for the sake of all beings is qualified to rule it.

I don't want to rule anything - but I do want to contribute to our collective growth and well-being. So I think that moving toward this ideal will have a similar result.

This time, I decided to break the pattern. I decided to acknowledge my feelings and thoughts as it pertained to this and the smaller group. I sat with my feelings. I was as mindful as I could be at the time - in the midst of feeling them, I would catch myself indulging in them. I knew I was indulging when I noticed judgements or fantasies about particular outcomes. I just tried my best to allow the feelings to be there and I welcomed them. And then, something wonderful happened. I dropped my resistance to the feelings, and a flood of realizations gradually washed through me. I began to understand why I was uncomfortable with the group. Why I reacted the way I did. And that led to other realizations that were tangential to the original issue! Once realized, I had the opportunity to explore those ‘whys’ and look for false belief programs I had been running in the background. I took the chance to undo them as best as I could, and after this work was complete, I knew a new freedom.

Without this larger group, I would not have released myself from some of my old ego-thought-feeling patterns. Now, I still don’t have to agree with the group or its members, and can work toward changing it for the better. But I can be grateful for it and ask for the willingness to extend my own compassion, contentment, and humility toward its members when I have the occasion to do so. Different from enabling, sometimes compassion means denial. Sometimes contentment means resistance. Sometimes humility means setting and enforcing boundaries. In any case, exercising the three treasures comes from a place of harmony, of love, not vindictive denial.