Taoism and Lao Tzu
As a storyteller, I enjoy using analogies to shape the story before it unfolds. Painting vivid pictures with words allows the audience to fill in the blanks for themselves. It’s not just about sharing information, but about letting the observer experience and interpret things in their own way. It’s about helping others envision the outcome before it happens, so they can learn to listen and eventually find their own voice.
What matters is learning to remember and to see things from our own perspective, shaped not by what we take for granted, but like stacking blocks to build a pyramid. Remembering means letting words flow through us until they find their place, their companions, and choose to remain.
It’s like existing in both the human and spiritual realms, becoming the fullest version of ourselves. It’s what Joseph Campbell described as finding our bliss, stepping into the sublime. In Taoism this is often referred to as “The sage that embraces simplicity”.
Each life, and every step we take, builds on the one before it, like an endless extension of the spirit. Growth and change rarely happen all at once in a single lifetime but instead unfold gradually in a process we can simply call maturation—as maturity and an endless story to which we are here to contribute. I ’m not here to tell you what to think—it’s better to decide for yourselves.
What we often fear most is new evidence that shakes or challenges what we believe or take for granted, forcing us to reexamine, adapt, and carry those changes within ourselves. We’re encouraged to refresh our memories, using new insights to question and reshape the results we once took for granted. So, take another look, my friends, at the voice that comes from within, from nature, from spirit and the universe, whose only purpose is leading us to the realization of wonder.
To what Lao Tzu speaks to in chapter/verse sixty of the Tao Te Ching very well. He equated ruling a state, and us, as if cooking a small fish. Lao Tzu tells us that when we use the Way to govern the world, evil spirits won’t have God-like powers. It’s not that their powers cannot harm us.
I like to look to past commentaries that have appeared over the centuries trying to decipher Lao Tzu. Especially references to comparing ruling that state to cooking a small fish. I especially like the one that says that in the absence of virtuous leaders we should ask “Who can cook fish/I’ll washout the pot.”
There remains an analogy between evil spirits that won’t have divine power and sage that won’t harm man. Since they do no harm to others, their virtues blend together and return to them, creating harmony between spirits and men. This brings us back to cooking fish so that it isn’t raw and uncooked verses turning the fish to mush when overcooked. Writing commentaries for over 2500 years on what Lao Tzu meant adds credence to the idea that each person can define the meaning for themselves.
Before we go on with Verse number 60 of 85, 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 60 – The Way of long and lasting life
Calmness and economy, two traits the sage follows instinctively. In becoming still, the sage turns to his breath and then his thoughts.
When his thoughts are calm, his virtue remains within.
When his breathing is clear, he is reminded of his center and being at one with the Tao and all things. By embracing economy, the sage can possess what he needs without using more than his spirit requires thereby keeping his virtue intact.
Planning ahead the sage accumulates virtue, accumulating virtue means that he overcomes all. Overcoming all he knows no limit. Knowing no limit, he can return to the Tao as if guarding what is real. Knowing this, he takes care of his body and breath. Caring for his body he remains unharmed.
He stays behind as if one thousand years old. His roots nourished by the breath of ten thousand things. Maintaining deep roots and a solid trunk the sage prospers adhering to the way of virtue letting his branches and leaves breathe through eternity.
60. 第节 养生长寿之道
宁静与节俭是圣人的两个特征。为了达到宁静，圣人养气凝思。当他的头脑冷静下来时，他的大
德得以保持在内。当他的呼吸通畅时，他知道中心之所在，成为万物的合一。通过节俭，圣人拥有他的所需，而不超出他精神上的要求，大德因此保持完整无损。
圣人计划积德，积德必须克服重重困难。通过克服困难，圣人通晓一切。通晓一切，圣人就可以返回道中，好像保护真实一样。明白这点，圣人修身养性。通过修身，圣人炼就不败之身。
圣人隐退，好像他是千岁老人。他的根由万物滋养。他拥有深深的根系和巨大的树身，他的枝叶在永恒中呼吸。圣人固守道德，万事如意。
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