Benefit may attract you in the beginning
But Integrity will compel you in the end
Turn enemies into friends
Opponents into allies
Use the enemy to defeat the enemy
Use opposition to achieve harmony
Do not draw out conflict
Always look for the most enduring solution
Temporary measures
Are easily swept away
But build a solid foundation
And nothing will uproot it
“It greatly benefits The Ten Thousand Things”
How does water benefit the ten thousand things? Scientists believe that water is one of essential components required in the gestation of life. Biologists believe that the very first physical organisms on this planet would have arisen from bodies of water. Whilst I believe there are plenty of organisms throughout the universe that are not dependent upon water for their survival, that it is integral to the proliferation of physical beings on our own planet (and dimension) is without question.
Most of us are composed largely of water. We need to drink and consume it on a regular basis just so we are able to function. Wherever there is water on planet – whether in the form of pools, rivers, the ocean, or rainfall – there is sure to be a hyper-abundance of life. A large percentage of the air we breathe comes not just from trees – which also need water to survive – but from the infinitesimal phytoplankton that resides in the world’s watercourses. Truly, water enriches and sustains the lives of all beings.
The Master of the Way also seeks to nourish and benefit all beings. But, rather than giving them water, he guides them back to the wateriness of the Tao. If water is the basic building block of life, then The Way is the basic building block of eternal life. It is the substance of everything. The Taoist guides people away from attachment to their physical forms, and helps them return instead to this.
“Supreme goodness is like water”
Supreme goodness is like water. Here, the word shan refers not just to moral goodness and virtue, but supreme excellence in all its manifestations – excellence in wisdom, excellence in action, excellence in being.
Why do we this say this manifold excellence is like water? Water is fluid, flexible, yielding, and unconquerable. It is immensely powerful because it can adapt to every possible circumstance. If it gets too cold, it simply transforms itself into ice. If it gets too hot, it transforms itself into steam. Nothing can kill it – it just keeps changing form.
The reason water can keep changing its form is because it is essentially formless. Its form is determined by what is around it. Put it in a cup, and it will be cup-shaped. Put it in a ravine, and it will be river-shaped. It needs no form of its own, because it harmonizes with everything around it, taking other beings as its outline, instead of imposing itself upon others.
The sage strives to mirror these qualities. Fluid and flexible too, he adapts to every situation. When faced with untoward events, he simply transforms himself to suit the situation. Because he is selfless, he has no fixed personality, and can take on whatever personality is most appropriate to his needs. If he needs to be wise, he will be wise. If he needs to be silly, he will be silly. If it were better that he remain unseen, he will remain unknown. Like a great actor, he puts on the right mask to fit the mood.
This might sound insincere to some. Isn’t it wrong to pretend to be something you’re not? But, the sage has renounced his identity, so he can have any identity he likes. Knowing that he is part of the eternal, there is nothing he is not. But, in the same way as the celestial design, however he manifests himself, he does not do so out of self-interest, or with personal profit in mind – only with the ideal of helping enlighten other beings. Thus, any act that helps point beings towards the truth is a compassionate act, no matter how strange it may see on the surface.
“Therefore, The Sage
Puts himself last, and so is first”
The Sage, learning from Heaven and Earth, puts selflessness into practice. Because we have been raised to identify with ourselves so strongly, encouraged to put our own interests above everyone else’s, it is very difficult for us be selfless.
One way to combat attachment to the self is humility. When we consciously hold back, and are willing to put other’s needs before our own, we give selflessness a chance to take root. This may seem unnatural at first, because the desires that make us selfish are still very strong. But if we practice not giving into out desires, we gradually starve our desires of their strength, rendering them weak and feeble. When our desires and needs are not disturbing our being with reckless urgency, we are more easily able to put other’s needs first, as they have desires and needs we have largely resolved, or dispensed with altogether.
When we lose that urgency, we become completely satisfied, without needing anything to satisfy us. Every moment is simply satisfying in and of itself because there are no stray thoughts to disturb it, in the same way that a clear sunny day is satisfying, because there are no clouds to disturb it. So, truly, putting ourselves last, make us supreme.
“Lingering forever like a ceaseless thread of silk
Draw upon her endlessness effortlessly”
Once the barrier we set up between ourselves and infinity is broken down, then the passageway of The Mysterious Female opens up. An infinite source of energy, it can be used to achieve anything. But make sure your intentions are good, and governed by integrity, otherwise that passageway will be closed to you soon enough.
Lao Tzu tells us that if we want to reach The Mysterious Female, we must have mastered inner effortlessness. I specify inner effortlessness to avoid confusion. A Taoist works hard in all his aims, but because he is at peace within, he does not get attached to them. He takes as long as he needs to take to do things, neither rushing, nor slacking, stopping when finished, so as not to overdo it. It is like picking up gossamer, or the subtle silk of a spider’s web; if you are anything less than gentle, you will break it. You have to touch it as though you were touching nothing at all.
It is the same with emptiness. If you want emptiness, and the peaceful power is conveys, you cannot aggressively force it come to you – that will only repel it further and further. Make yourself as gentle and receptive as diaphanous gossamer, and she will come to you naturally. Of course, being omnipresent and immanent, she hasn’t come to you at all. It is only that your new state of receptive awareness has enabled you to perceive it.
What you perceive, you welcome
What you ignore, you lose
You do not need to be a Taoist to appreciate the magnificence of the supreme female, for she manifests herself everywhere as Isis, Durga, Lakshmi, Sophia, Shekkinah, Mary, Spider Grandmother, and countless other goddesses that serve as avatars for the unrepresentable, unknowable, unimaginable Mysterious Female. There is a reason she is called mysterious, because no one can ever fathom her. Know that she is unknowable, and she will let you know everything about her.
“The Sage is without bias
Regarding the mass of men
As if they were straw dogs”
As The Sage – The Taoist – aspires to mirror Heaven and Earth in all things, so does he mirror them in their dispassionate sobriety – their undifferentiated awareness. In Chapter Two, it was said that The Sage nurtures all beings, and rejects none. But, if The Sage were biased or predisposed to partiality, how would this be possible? He would nurture some, and then leer at others; show special affection to some, and then scorn others. Thus, it is because the sage is free from bias that he is also free to disseminate his compassion in all directions.
But what of The Sage regarding men as straw dogs? How benign could it be to compare someone to a sacrificial object? A straw dog is assembled from separate parts. But, once it is burned, all those separate parts become one, dissolving into immaterial smoke. The Sage understands men to be the same. We are assembled together from assorted aggregates: our parents’ DNA and chromosomes, individual atoms, cells, organs, organelles, bones, senses, nerves and specific colorations of awareness. It is amazing we are even considered a ‘single’ entity – even each of the individual organelles within our cells could all be considered living beings in their own right!
But, once we are burned up by the experience of life, all of those unique aggregates of ours that were carefully woven together begin to unravel. Burned to ashes, worthless as even maggot food, it is only the smoke of the Tao that enlivened us that still remains. That is the dog behind the straw dog – the changeless symbol behind every ephemeral life.
Seeing men like this, The Sage is able to love all beings without being deceived or attached to them. Unattached and with a clear mind, he is completely free, and thus, capable of freeing others. This is what Don Juan Matus would call ‘ruthless kindness.’ A kindness that always helps, but does not indulge people.
“Regarding The Ten Thousand Things
As if they were straw dogs”
Straw dogs were objects used in ancient Chinese rituals, burned as offerings to ancestors, spirits, or demons. There are references to sacrificing dogs to mountain spirits in The Classic of Mountains and Seas, so, it is quite likely that straw dogs was substituted in place of live dogs, so that the practice could continued, without cruelty.
So straw dogs are objects that are made for a specific purpose, and then disposed of once that purpose is fulfilled. They are not kept out of sentimentality, fear or habit – only for as long as they are required.
The same is true with human lives. We are assigned to these earthly bodies with a specific purpose. Once we have achieved that purpose, we die, and return to eternity, perchance to be allotted more tasks to carry out in the cosmos. That Heaven and Earth allows beings to suffer and die may seem barbarous to us, but, to The Eternal, life and death are meaningless – all the sufferings of the aeons are just a single pinch we soon forget. Heaven and Earth do not weep for the dead, any more than we would if one of our best friends gave away all their clothes. The body and illusory self are the only things lost at death. But eternity is gained.
Though Heaven and Earth may be without partiality, they love us more than we can ever know. But they are wise enough to love us, not for what we think we are, but for what we actually are. That is the supreme distinction.
“A reflection existing before the image of God –“
This is a particularly significant passage. Perhaps one of the reasons Taoism has endured for so long, yet remained so obscure, is because Taoism is without a supreme divine personality. Taoists understand that as soon as we create a god, and begin to give it an image and attributes, we are already playing a deception upon ourselves. We are giving form to that which is formless, thereby limiting it, and reducing its scope.
Of course, there is a reason we do this. The infinite is a concept that is very difficult to fathom and grasp. To many people, it seems daunting and unimaginably cold. However, once we bestow a finite form upon this infinity, we make it more approachable, knowable, loveable, discoverable. Far from being a formless void, it is now something warm, fearsome, or personable that we feel we can have a specific relationship with.
So, there is definite use to creating/recognizing gods. Tantric Buddhists, like myself, and many other mystic practitioners, often meditate upon these forms of god to generate specific attributes within ourselves. We meditate upon Avalokiteshvara to cultivate compassion; Yamantaka to attain transcendental fearlessness; Manjushri to manifest wisdom. But we recognize that these images are just provisional realities emanating from a source that has no image.
In this way, all gods are just a reflection of the pre-existent Tao. Every religion is a form of Taoism, in one with or another, and one does not have to let go of their existing religious beliefs in order to become a Taoist – only willing to deepen them.
But, just because The Tao doesn’t have a cuddly or frightful avatar to represent it, that doesn’t mean we can’t enter into a personal relationship with it. Once we learn to experience and intuit directly, such images will lose their importance to us. The Lakota call the divine ‘Wakan Tanka’ which means ‘The Great Mystery.’ Learn to love that which has no face or name, and your love will radiate everywhere. Learn to understand that which cannot be understood, and your wisdom will flow everywhere.
“A fathomless abyss!
It seems to be the source
Of All Things”
Being infinitely deep, dark, and ever-expanding, Tao cannot be comprehended through seeing it, but through being it. In order to approach the mysterious, we must become mysterious, penetrating the formless mystery within ourselves. In order to experience its bottomless depth, we must be willing to face our own bottomless depth. We cannot look for Tao outside of ourselves – though its manifestations are everywhere, it is more fulfilling to look within.
Because of this, the Taoist is like a fearless explorer, a psychonaut, following an invisible map, with a nameless destination. To cognize that boundless expanse, we must realize the boundless expanse of our minds. It is not work for the weak-hearted. It necessitates the willingness to leave behind everything you have ever known, loved, or believed to be real. With no baggage or encumbrances to inhibit, we throw ourselves ruthlessly into the abyss, prepared to face the darkest hells, the most supernal heavens, and a cornucopia of planes that couldn’t rightly be categorized as anywhere at all. It is a journey to the heart of radiant nothingness itself.
This is why Taoism is essentially without doctrine. A doctrine would be an encumbrance, an attachment –just another piece of baggage we must unlearn before we throw ourselves into the void. Let go of the beliefs you think sustain you, and you’ll find the force that sustains us all.
“Difficult and easy complete one another”
Difficulty and ease necessarily serve one another. We need difficulty in order to make things easier for ourselves. For this reason, a Taoist’s life is far more difficult than other people’s, and infinitely easier than other people’s!
What do we mean by this? A Taoist’s lifestyle is difficult because he wants to conquer his false mind, and enthrone his true mind – he wants to cut off his desires, and move effortlessly in time with the rhythm of the universe. But, because most of us have been raised in spiritually-dyslexic societies that go against nature and encourage delusional thinking, we must ‘unlearn what we have learned’ in order to accomplish what is effortless for an aborigine, an animal, or a new-born child. This requires restraint, discipline, dedication, perseverance, endurance and forbearance – qualities most people are too weak-willed to actively (or passively) foster. We attain these things through meditation, yoga, dieting, fasting, study, patience, rigorous self-improvement, and personal transformation – things that are not undertaken lightly.
However, after we have worked hard, and our labours begin to bear fruit, the qualities of restraint, compassion, dedication, humility, and endurance begin to become natural for us. They are no longer things that we have to strive to acquire, for they are qualities that exist self-evidently within us. Because we are free from desires we no longer have to restrain ourselves; because we are free from a self, we no longer have to strive to be selfless. Everything comes naturally to us, and, thus, our difficulty has given birth to easiness.
A fitting example of this is a story I read in ‘Ancestors’ by Frank Ching. The author relates how his father, as a child, often had heavy rocks placed in his rucksack by his parents when he was going to school. His school was at the top of a steep hill, so his parents were only making an already difficult endeavour even more difficult. But, as a result of his fortitude, as an adult, rucksack-free, he was able to scale hills and mountains with lightning speed. His difficulty had hatched into easiness!
It takes a lot of effort to attain such effortlessness. We must take on many heavy loads before we can reject them, and embrace infinite flight. Do not turn away from the difficulties in your life, or else you will be turning away from the alchemical crucible that makes things easier.
A Poet's Life 