Chuang Tzu’s perfected man reminds us that it is from or through the authenticity and compassion of our heart that our spirit becomes or is reborn and decides to stay.
I think three of the most important words we should learn in any language are one, the word context. It is asking what we think we know that lends itself to our understanding of any situation and how we choose to respond. The only time we usually hear the word is when someone’s opinion is taken to task and argues that “they have been taken out of context”.
Saying that’s not what I really meant as a pretext when actually they did. The second word is ignorance and when they are called out on it… they defensively try to defend the indefensible.
As though they don’t care or understand how hurtful our words and actions can be. That ignorance doesn’t have to be a foregone conclusion. That the first thing that should define us as spirit is compassion for others and all things found in nature. It’s what is meant to truly define us as being humane.
What can be called the need to eradicate or leave behind the roots and branches of what doesn’t ring true with Heaven, Earth, and the Tao, or even God if you like.
We do that by gently correcting them with compassion and authentic spirit.
The third is when people say they are entitled to opinions that they know are wrong but choose to have them anyway. When historians tell us history is bound to repeat itself and we needn’t ask why… it’s because we know. Asking why should one have the benefit of a full life and not another?
Taoism and Lao Tzu
It was when Lao Tzu was confronted by ego and someone who would contend or say that they were doing the right thing when they weren’t. What he was continually confronted with was ignorance when people do things that common sense should serve to say otherwise that usually only serve someone’s self-interest and/or ego.
Asking how we live and accept behavior that is inappropriate. That there are benchmarks that should serve to define us that universal spirit is crying out to each of us to see and recognize our beginnings, our eternal spirit, and why we are here in this place just now.
Lao Tzu would often use the terms that define both the sage and the true meaning of virtue interchangeably as though exchanging one for the other. In writing my own version of the Tao Te Ching twenty-five years ago, this chapter/verse was one of my favorites. It was saying,
“Ok, you know the Tao and what it means to both eternity and spirit, now how do I take the right steps to live the Tao, or even as God intended. That knowing and doing as though every moment of every day is done in meditation of the highest version of yourself in this moment is the path you are meant to take.”
I first had to be clear of who I was not. That I had now been on a journey of becoming authentic, of spirit, to what some might call a pilgrimage leaving the USA behind and to go unafraid to where spirit was to take me. That of course would be China and Qufu.
When I ended up living and teaching in Qufu it was as though everyone treated me as though as Lao Tzu says here that I was great and yet unlike everyone else. But in the end, I discovered I was useless. What made me great separated me as insignificant and small. So, I finished teaching and left and came home first to Florida then Missouri.
What I learned was as Lao Tzu tells us that we are to cherish three treasures. The first I have always known is compassion and living courageously. The second is the value of living frugally, or an austere lifestyle that the more frugal I was the more magnanimous and extravagant I could be in my true endeavors and writing, and third not to presume to be in the forefront of the world and to serve those with more complete talent.
But be warned, if you renounce compassion for being courageous and valor, if you abandon this frugality and yet try to be magnanimous, someone who has a less than generous spirit, and finally if you abandon this staying behind when called for and still going to the front then you will meet your end.
What’s important is that if it is with compassion you attack – then you’ll win, and if you defend then standing firm. Knowing that what Heaven creates and surrounds us with is the protective wall of compassion.
Verse 67 – Thoughts on remaining a lower presence
The sage’s challenge is to be present but act as if he is not really here. Possessing the Way, he sees himself as an orphan widowed and impoverished staying below those around him.
He is as if the banks of a great river allowing everything to run through and past him, while he guides the way. He is like the receptacle of everything as it meets its end, as if the ocean remaining lower and capturing the water of a hundred rivers. While they pour into him, he barely notices except to be raised up by their presence.
For those who would benefit by the sage he must maintain a position lower than everyone around him.
If thrust to the forefront he must act as if he were behind. If seen as above others he must see that others remain unburdened by him.
While those around him continually push him forward he simply flows with events taking care not to struggle. Because he does not struggle no one can struggle against him. As no one can struggle against him he takes everything to new heights and places they would not otherwise go.
67. 对保持低调的思考
圣人面临的挑战是，既要抛头露面，又要不为人知。圣人有道，把自己看作低人一等的贫穷孤
儿。他如同一道河堤，让河水顺堤而下，超越自己。他如同万物之器皿，包容一切。他如同大海，纳百川之水，仍然难观其变化。
圣人的地位必须比众人低，才能让众人得益。
如果圣人挺身而出，他却必须装作落后。如果圣人居于众人之上，他必须看到众人不会因他而背上负担。
当身边的人不断推他向前，圣人只是随波逐流，与世无争。因为他与世无争，世人也不与他竞争。因为无人与他竞争，圣人得以把万物带到新的高度和从未到过的地方。
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