Taoism and Lao Tzu
To truly appreciate and understand that we are simply a continuation of spirit, our first step is to acknowledge that this is true. From there, it becomes an if/then proposition: if we are an eternal continuation of spirit, then we must recognize that everything on Earth is divine in its own way, each seeking to move toward the light that nourishes all as a continuum of spirit.
The ancients understood that honoring nature was like honoring ourselves, recognizing that everything is connected and our actions follow cause and effect. Simply put, creating good should have universal benefits, bringing good to nature and our neighbors too.
When encountering bad we are to show others good, until they become good as well. Not as passing judgment but showing the right way to do things through our own actions illustrated as virtue.
The Way of Virtue was never intended to be purely personal or exclusive, but rather a reflection of the virtue found in all things on Earth under Heaven. Its purpose was never to serve one’s ego or to dominate others, as everyone possesses this virtue, often just waiting for the chance to be expressed as light waiting to be revealed. Lao Tzu understood this instinctively and often said it was his biggest frustration when dealing with those in power. Why over the centuries that followed, conventional wisdom said that the Tao Te Ching was meant to be seen as a textbook on governing.
Chapter fifty-one of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching reads like how this continuum appears in chapter after chapter building on what has been said or spoken before. The idea has always been that the Tao gives birth to all things, and that virtue by design is intended to nourish them. That it is the substance that comes from living through virtue that gives us form, and our own unique capabilities that allow us to grow as spiritual, or what may be referred to as sentient beings.
It is meant to apply to all things; the ten thousand things are to venerate the Way and honor this inherent virtue. There are no individual rewards only a constancy meant to apply universally to all things found in nature. In reality, we are simply honoring ourselves in how we live each day.
In chapter/verse 51, Lao Tzu goes on to say that the Way gives birth to all things, nourishes them, helps them grow, brings them to completion, lets them rest, raises them, supports them, and protects them. What is most important as I see it, is that it does not try to own them.
The Tao works for their benefit without making them dependent. Everyone is free to discover and fulfill their true nature knowing this freedom as they grow, without being controlled. When we are ready to follow the Way of Virtue, we are guided solely by our own innate virtue, led by the eternal spirit we have always had, though we may sometimes pay it no heed, or seemingly forget it.
Verse 51 – Honoring the Way
Honoring the Way means staying true to the Way and us. Staying true to the Way means remaining humble with your virtue guiding every thought, action and deed. You have taken form in this place as the essence of the Way of Virtue.
While challenges and stubbing your toe may occur, they are simply to remind you of your own persona that you are here to complete. Your affinity to nature and the natural order of things are simply ways to express and sort through those things you are here to do.
Created as an image or extension of the Way, virtue guides and instructs while being shaped by events as the Tao completes them.
Thus, all things come forward to honor the Way. Remaining transparent, our role cultivates and trains, steadies and adjusts, nurtures and protects without possessing or presuming. Without the need to control events everything reaches its fullest potential.
51. .以道为荣
以道为荣意味著对道忠诚。对道忠诚意味著保持谦恭，用大德指导你的思想和行动。你已经在此
成形，成为道德之精髓。
严峻的挑战和小麻烦的出现只是提醒你来这里的目的是为了完善自己。你与自然的密切关系和事物的自然秩序是表达和理清你来这里做事的方式。作为道的影像或延续，大德宣讲道和指导万物，并得到磨炼，道完善万物。
因此，万物以道为荣。保持清明，没有丝毫的占有或僭越。你的职责是修炼，培训，稳定，调整，抚育和保护。没有必要控制万物生长，万物的潜力能够得到充分的发挥。
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