Taoism and Lao Tzu
The thought of living in paradox often comes to mind when considering the true role of the sage, as if every journey starts in emptiness so that virtue can guide our actions. It was Wang Pi who admonishes us saying “Only when we take emptiness as our virtue can our actions accord with the Tao”. With the Tao considered to be transcendent and present in all things, it tends to absorb and harmonize things verses looking to find contradictions.
Our energy is like the sun and moon, constantly waxing and waning, needing to be replenished daily. A sage’s success lies in how he both adapts to spirit and initiates change that can determine the success or failure of himself and others.
The Tao teaches that when we appear formless or shapeless, what once seemed obscure gains clarity and becomes clear. This awareness allows us to recognize the results of our actions before we move forward, connecting back to the ideas of cause and effect found in the I Ching. There’s a link between the heavy clouds in the west and the rain they may bring. We should remember that our virtue goes before us, like a protective coat shielding us from getting wet.
The ancient sage and shaman gave us the ability to communicate with change and with nature giving us a sense of what is universal, and that this change had to occur within us. They taught us that everything we encounter has a spirit of its own and why this meant we are to learn how to discern all the forces that impact our lives. That when sage-mind and spirit acted in unison we could communicate directly with change. That when we act with virtue change gives us the recipe to live life to the fullest.
Imagine everyone moving in harmony, guided by the lessons of experience, connected to the Tao—the Way of Heaven—and sharing a deep friendship of the spirit. Finally, when we think of what remains eternal within us, we can begin to acknowledge that all things found in nature have a common source and been given a tool to find and achieve its highest good.
That we are in essence the vessel with abilities and power to realize and complete things to match our own highest endeavor.
It becomes how we accommodate change, regulate our feelings, thoughts, and behaviors that we create patterns for us and all we are here to encounter with virtue intact. What traverses through all of this is spirit. It is through change it surfaces to benefit all things.
Before we go on with Verse number 21 of 81, it’s worth noting that the title of the book we’re adding commentary to—Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching—is my own version, titled “Thoughts on Becoming a Sage: The Guidebook to Leading a Virtuous Life”. It’s important to note that Lao Tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching in the sixth century BC, while I wrote mine in May and June of 2000 and published it in China in 2006.
Verse 21 – Forever replenishing our Virtue
What is this thing called virtue and value placed on emptiness and how can they be so inter-related?
That virtue cannot be found unless we are willing to remain empty, that the Tao remains hidden from view except as virtue found through emptiness. Following the Tao, we are continually subject to change and are redefined as our virtue waxes and wanes.
As if guided by the phases of the moon I find structure through tending my garden just as Shen-ming, the divine husbandman, who discovered agriculture along with the healing properties of plants and a calendar to be followed by the sages of long ago.
Could it be that virtue is the manifestation of the Tao, or Way, that should guide us? That the Way is what virtue contains and without it could have no meaning or power. That without virtue, the Way would have no appearance or ability to come forward.
Taking no form, the Tao takes expression only when it changes into virtue. It is when the sage truly mirrors the Tao that virtue can be given an opportunity to manifest and grow and the natural course, or scheme of things, becomes apparent for all to see.
The Tao by itself neither existing or not existing. As if coming and going as the essence of one’s heart and soul – simply by maintaining its presence as… virtue. Everything in the universe held accountable to the Tao. Continually changing – with our identity the first to go. What was once true becomes false and what was once false slips into becoming true. It is only our essence expressed as virtue that is kept and continually replenished by the Tao.
第21节 修练大德，永无止境
大德是什么？虚空是什么？他们之间的关系又如何？如果我们不愿意保持虚空，大德就无从谈起。来自虚空的大德是可见的，除此之外所有的大德都不可见。大德时多时少，我们必须不断修练和完善。
仿佛受到月的盈亏的指点，我象神农那样，通过耕耘我的花园发现了万物的结构。神农是一个伟大的农夫，他很久以前就发现了农业耕作，植物的治病作用和圣人们用来记事的日历。它是道通过大德的显示吗？可以用来指导我们吗？道为大德所拥有。没有大德，道就毫无意义和力量，没有大德，道就无法表现或缺乏动力。道无形，道惟有隐于德时才会显示出来，自然规律或万物法则才变得清晰明了。
道亦有亦无，随着心灵意念来来去去。有德则有道，万物皆有道。我们要不断变革，从改变自身开始。原来的真实现在变成了虚假，原来的虚假现在变成了真实。保留的只有充满道的大德。
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