When I wrote the entry below it was the first or second week of June 1995, and I had only been in Boynton Beach for a few weeks as Assistant Planner. I was still getting acquainted in the community and sort through what my responsibilities would entail. We got an apartment out on Military Trail across the street from the pharmacy where Marie would work. So, we were settling in while my writing seems to flourish. I was writing number ninety-six of one hundred fifty-eight entries of “My travels with Leih Tzu”, that would continue until November or December later that year.
Four years passed before my first trip to China, as I was immersed in work and waiting to see how things unfolded. I knew I would eventually go to China, though I wasn’t sure how or when. Three ideas guided me toward that journey: first, Marie and I planned to adopt a little girl from China, and second, I aspired to create a Chinese-designed Friendship Park in Boynton Beach.
I also wanted to find a publisher in China to help me publish my first book about the I Ching, which introduced me to Chinese philosophy and Taoism that I had written when I was still in Massachusetts. All of this was designed to align with my intentions, enabling me to stay focused on my work as a city planner while exploring pursuits that would lead me toward my ultimate goals.
It felt like both fate and intention had placed me in the ideal job and location to pursue my still undefined dreams and destiny. As a professional city planner, I had found my calling. My job was to help update the city’s comprehensive plan, which at the time was a state-mandated requirement. Helping to align the city and focus on neighborhood improvements perfectly matched my passion for guiding people toward opportunities and places they might not otherwise consider—if only a way could be found.
Defining collective intention can be challenging when trying to get everyone on the same page, but it was something I had proven I could handle.
This naturally connected to neighborhood planning as part of the city’s comprehensive plan. Five years later, when the city created the Neighborhood Specialist Department and advertised the position, I stood out well above the rest. They essentially wanted me to expand the work I was already doing to a much larger scale.
My challenge was being pulled in two different directions, but I managed to align my actions and thoughts with the concept of defining and pursuing complementary opposites that I had explored earlier. Staying in the flow of our intent is essential. We cannot know the final outcome because if we thought we knew what was instore beyond a general description, our ego can serve to derail or get in the way. That when we define history through our ego, then everyone suffers. From the ancients we debated rather we can guide our own fate. Intrinsic wisdom teaches us to simply let go and live spontaneously, as though we are only filling in the blanks or gaps that are meant to serve as our guide along the path, or way.
My travels with Lieh Tzu / Interpolations along the Way
Chapter Six – Endeavor and Destiny
95. Doing nothing more than the right thing by all, or the Sage’s dilemma
Who can stay in favor and who can fall when we neglect them? Why can it be that some we initially favor, we later neglect and those we begin by neglecting we later choose to favor. How can we judge others by the circumstance’s life brings to their doorstep?
Two friends who served the sons of the duke got caught in the middle of much intrigue when the matter came up as to who would succeed the throne. The two sons, named Chiu and Hsiao‑po later fought with Hsiao‑po eventually winning the throne. Their closest friends and allies Kuan Chung and Pao Shu ya were caught in the middle and eventually had to take sides or be put to death for favoring the wrong son, Kuan Chang, who had served Chui and Pao Shu ya who served Hsiao‑po.
After Hsiao‑po succeeded the throne, he decided it best to have his brother Chui killed. Which he did and to have Kuan Chung imprisoned. Pao Shu ya then spoke up for Kuan Chung saying that he was too capable to dismiss and was able to rule the State. He added that a man worthy of ruling the State carried no grudges. A man capable of serving one master is certainly capable of serving another. He continued by telling Hsiao po, now the duke, that he would never obtain the Imperial throne he sought without Kuan Chung ‑ he must be let go.
Kuan Chung was released from prison, his chains undone. Hsiao‑po gave him a position above the highest families and Pao Shu ya was happy to serve him. Kuan Chung took responsibility for the State and because of his administrative acumen, the duke attained the throne he had coveted so intently.
Upon deep reflection Kuan Chung, in thinking what his friend Pao Shu ya had done for him, said:
“In my youth when I was in difficulties, Pao and I traded together, I took the largest share of the profits for myself. But he did not think I was greedy as he knew of my need. I used to plan ventures for Pao and got into even worse difficulties. However, he did not think of me as a fool, because he knew the times were not favorable. I was in the office three times and evicted three times. He did not consider me worthless, because he knew my opportunity had not come. When I was in battle on three separate occasions, I showed my back and ran.
But he did not consider me a coward because I had an elderly mother to support. When my Master Chui was killed by Hsiao‑po and I preferred imprisonment and chains, he did not think me shameless as he knew that I was not embarrassed by small dishonors. But I am only ashamed that my name was not renowned throughout the world. It may have been my mother and father who bore me, but it has been Pao Shu ya who understands me and has given me a chance to show myself.”
Subsequently the world praised Kuan Chung and Pao Shu ya for their skill in choosing allies and the duke for employing such valuable men. Neither was true as anyone else may have been more skillful in choosing allies as employing capable men. Simply that Pao Shu ya was able to appoint a capable man in Kuan Chung and that the duke was able to employ his enemy. They could not have considered or done otherwise.
All this ended when Kuan Chung fell ill, and a successor had to be named. The duke suggested Pao, his friend, as a replacement. But Kuan responded in dismay: “Pao Shu ya, although my dearest friend over the years, I cannot recommend it. As I know his strengths, I see his weaknesses as well. He is inflexible in his morality to the point of bigotry. Anyone who is not as upright as himself he mistreats. If a mistake is made, he never lets it be forgotten. He will eventually offend and embarrass you and would lead to your own downfall. Might I suggest Hsi Peng?”
Kuan Chung continued:
“Hsi Peng is able to forget his position without those beneath becoming insubordinate. He is ashamed he is not as one with the Yellow Emperor and is sorry others are not as lucky as himself,” and further admonished the duke by adding that, is it not as Lieh Tzu says: “The highest sage shares his moral possessions with others. The next in wisdom shares his material possessions with others. The man who because of his own wisdom looks down on others has never won man’s hearts. The man who in spite of his own wisdom is humble to others has never failed to win men’s hearts.”
Some we favor initially must fall in disfavor. Just as those we may see as our enemy are our key to our own salvation. Is it not our ability to cease to make judgments and let every situation play itself out to its logical conclusion that the way is found that must be followed to the end? Does our destiny not depend on circumstances that may now appear as obscure and confused that are allowed to simply come forward to occur?
Kuan Chuang continued: “Hsi Peng does not want to be told everything which is wrong with the State, just as he does not want to notice everything which is wrong with his own family. Unless you have someone better in mind Hsi Peng will do.”
Knowing that neither favor nor neglect depend on ourselves, does not our own spontaneity to each situation as it draws near ensure our eventual success or failure? Is not falling in and out of favor with the situation that comes to greet us then the avenue in which our inner selves find its true path?
In the end it is not that Kuan Chuang neglected Pao Shu ya to whom he owed his life and favored another. It was that he could not do otherwise. How can favor and neglect depend solely upon us? Always doing nothing more than the right thing by all as the true mentor or knowing sage showing the way to all we encounter. What else can there possibly be? 6/8‑10/95
Number ninety-five of one hundred fifty-eight entries.
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