72nd Verse
When people lack a sense of awe,
there will be disaster.
When people do not fear worldly power,
a greater power will arrive.
Do not limit the view of yourself.
Do not despise the conditions of your birth.
Do not resist the natural course of your life.
In this way you will never weary of this world.
Therefore, the sage knows himself
but makes no show of himself;
loves himself
but does not exalt himself.
He prefers what is within to what is without.
Living with
Awe and Acceptance
This verse of the Tao Te Ching alerts you to two components that work together for a harmonious life: a sense of awe and total acceptance. Without these combined forces, you’re unlikely to see the presence of the Tao.
As I wrote about this verse, I found myself reading from Saint John of the Cross, a 16th-century mystical poet who lived a life of awe. I’ve reproduced a few of his lines to give you an idea of how this feeling manifested in a Divinely spiritual man:
My Beloved is the mountains,
And lonely wooded valleys,
Strange islands,
And resounding rivers,
The whistling of love-stirring breezes,
The tranquil night
At the time of rising dawn,
Silent music,
Sounding solitude,
The supper that refreshes and deepens love.
This morning I sit here in my sacred space on Maui feeling an urgency that actually feels like the rapture in Saint John of the Cross’s words. I sense the presence of Lao-tzu urging me to hurry up so that he may convey to you what he means by having a sense of awe. It is so profound as to usher into your life a timeless awareness of the arrival of a greater power.
I feel that power right now in my beautiful surroundings. The sound of mynah birds fill the air as the ocean rolls in undulating waves, much like the heartbeat of our planet. The colors are absolutely breathtaking: the bright blue sky; the shimmering green palm trees, sea grass, and ficus plants; the dreamy oranges and purples mixing in the distant clouds; and topping it all off, a rainbow that appears to be connecting the nearby island of Lanai with my front window.
When words appear on my blank sheets of paper, I’m awash with bewildering waves of pleasure at how I’m being used by an invisible Source. I know that I’ll soon be in the ocean, propelling myself along the shoreline, looking down at the creatures playfully moving about in the salty water and wondering where they sleep. How do they get here? How can they breathe without air? Do they ever stop moving? Will they be here after I’m gone? And then I’ll emerge from the ocean and walk along the sand, feeling the sun on my body and questioning how it stays up there, how we keep moving around it while spinning once every 24 hours, why the ocean doesn’t tip upside down while the whole planet is turning over and over, and if the stars and the universe itself will ever end.
The reason it’s crucial to have a sense of awe is because it helps loosen the ego’s hold on your thinking. You can then know that there’s something great and enduring that animates all of existence. Being in awe of that something staves off disasters because you have no fear of worldly conditions. You’re kept grounded in the otherworldly power that manifests a trillion miracles a second, all of which are oblivious to your ego.
The 72nd verse of the Tao Te Ching also asks you to accept yourself and your individual concerns. With three very emphatic suggestions, Lao-tzu tells you to avoid self-limits, accept your body as a perfect creation, and allow your life to unfold in accordance with its own nature.
I love the metaphor of nature as a guide to sagelike acceptance. In fact, throughout the 81 verses, Lao-tzu emphasizes being in harmony with the natural world, telling you that’s where you connect with the Tao. As Meister Eckhart, a 13th-century Catholic monk and scholar, put it: “God created all things in such a way that they are not outside himself, as ignorant people falsely imagine. Rather, all creatures flow outward, but nonetheless remain within God.”
And in John 15:4–5, the Bible advises you to “stay joined to me, and I will stay joined to you. Just as a branch cannot produce fruit unless it stays joined to the vine, you cannot produce fruit unless you stay joined to me. I am the vine, and you are the branches.”
Learn about the Tao by being in perfect harmony with the environment. Think of trees, which endure rain, snow, cold, and wind—and when the harsh times arrive, they wait with the forbearance of being true to their inner selves. As Deng Ming-Dao writes in 365 Tao: Daily Meditations: “They stand, and they wait, the power of their growth apparently dormant. But inside, a burgeoning is building imperceptibly . . . neither bad fortune nor good fortune will alter what they are. We should be the same way.”
In order to do so, we must accept ourselves as being a part of the 10,000 things. And we must love that same burgeoning, imperceptible inner nature that will bear fruit. Or, as Lao-tzu concludes this verse, “He prefers what is within to what is without.”
Love yourself, make no show of yourself, and quietly remain in awe and acceptance. Here are some suggestions on how to make this your reality:
See the miraculous in
Change your view of the world to one of awe and bewilderment. Rather than looking for miracles, shift to seeing everything as miraculous. By being in a state of awe, you won’t be able to mentally experience boredom or disappointment. Try seeing the invisible Tao flowing through and supporting everyone and everything: A rainstorm becomes a miraculous event, the lightning a fascinating display of electrical fireworks, the thunder a booming reminder of the invisible power of nature. Live the mystery by beginning to perceive what average eyes fail to notice.
Focus on loving the life you have now in the body you’ve got!
Tell yourself that you love everything about the physical shell you’ve incarnated into. Affirm: My body is perfect, born at precisely the right time, and this is the perfect age now. I accept myself as I am. I accept my role in the perfection of this universe at this time. I surrender to the natural course of my body’s destiny.
See your body through the eyes of totally accepting thoughts and, as Lao-tzu says, “In this way you will never weary of this world.”
Do the Tao Now
List five natural occurrences in your daily life that you’ve been taking for granted. Then spend some contemplative time allowing each into your consciousness. The sky, some flowers, a tree in your yard, the moon, the sun, the fog, the grass, a spiderweb, a crab hole, a lake, a shrub, a cricket, your dog, anything that occurs naturally . . . let yourself radically appreciate the miracle you hadn’t been noticing. Write, draw, or photograph some observations that you’ve gleaned from this new perspective of awe and bewilderment.
73rd Verse
Bold action against others leads to death.
Bold action in harmony with the Tao leads to life.
Both of these things
sometimes benefit
and sometimes injure.
It is heaven’s way to conquer without striving.
It does not speak, yet it is answered.
It does not ask, yet it is supplied with all that it needs.
It does not hurry, yet it completes everything on time.
The net of heaven catches all;
its mesh is coarse,
but nothing slips through.
Living in
Heaven’s Net
Once again you’re asked to see the Tao through a paradoxical lens. After all, what is “the net of heaven”? It is the invisible world wherein all of the 10,000 things originate. And while it appears to have many openings—ways to escape the inevitability of the intentions of the Tao—no one and no thing can exist beyond what the Tao orchestrates.
Here in this 73rd verse, you’re encouraged to be a respectful, cautious being under the net
of heaven. All the translations I’ve studied say the same thing in different words. Here’s one, for instance, that’s brief and to the point:
Reckless bravery: death.
Cautious bravery: life.
Therefore the sage behaves in a cautious manner.
So Lao-tzu is asking you to change the way you look at bravado and courage. Rather than seeing these qualities as admirable, he asks you to be less of a dauntless hero and more vigilant and alert in order to live the Great Way. Note that the way of heaven is to eschew bold actions and remain cautious.
Lao-tzu offers you four examples of how the net of heaven holds everything within its grasp without having to be forceful or reckless, and you’re encouraged to emulate that in all of your undertakings:
1. “It is heaven’s way to conquer without striving.” See how the Tao is peaceful, silent, and always the conqueror. No human can command the sun to cool down, ocean currents to stop, winds to subside, rain to cease, or crops to quit growing—this is all handled naturally and perfectly without any effort by the Tao. Nature always wins because the Tao simply does it all without needing to attack or strive. Be like this and relax in heaven’s net.
2. “It does not speak, yet it is answered.” Heaven’s net is invisible and silent—the force that provides you with every breath and holds the universe together at the same time does so without commanding, yelling, or even mildly cajoling. So be in harmony with heaven’s way by being more cautious and reserved. Listen more and speak less, trusting that your answers will come to you without any notice and most assuredly without any screaming.
3. “It does not ask, yet it is supplied with all that it needs.” You have an infinite supply of all that you will ever need available to you, so you needn’t demand anything or even ask for it. All is in Divinely perfect order with heaven’s way, and you are a component of that perfect order. Your supply will arrive if you require less and welcome all that shows up. You simply cannot slip through heaven’s net, no matter how many holes you may perceive there to be. Everything is arriving on schedule—by trusting in this, you’ll be guided to a rendezvous with your destiny, and you’ll marvel at how it all comes together without your asking or demanding.
4. “It does not hurry, yet it completes everything on time.” How can the Tao hurry up? Imagine giving such a request to heaven: “I’m tired of winter and insist that you bring me spring flowers in the middle of these long freezing nights. I want my potatoes today, even though I only planted the seeds yesterday. Hurry up, I insist!” The Tao works with Divine timing, so everything is completed precisely as it should be. You’re invited to slow your pace so that it 73rd Verse harmonizes with heaven’s way. Even if you think that what you want is late, in reality it is all on time.
The more you hurry, the less you get done. Try rushing through a shower after running a 10k and notice how your body continues to sweat profusely. Then try slowing your mind down, relaxing, and allowing the water to course over you—and notice how your body feels clean without sweating in precisely the same amount of time that you used in your hurry-up mode. Even if your ego doesn’t grasp it, this is the truth: Everything is on time under heaven’s net.
What follows is Lao-tzu’s advice for you today, as you peruse this 73rd verse of the Tao Te Ching some 2,500 years after it was written:
Don’t see caution as a weakness or an expression of fear.
Instead, view it as a way to step back and allow events to unfold naturally. Bravery is a fine quality, but reckless bravery—that is, where you rush in without thinking—is a sure way to invite disaster. In this provocative verse, Lao-tzu is telling you to think before you act. Allow heaven’s way to do the conquering without your having to fight or defeat anyone. Very often your first impulse is dominated by your ego’s need to win and conquer.
I saw this as a competitive tennis player. By not striving, I’d often emerge victorious over younger, stronger, and sometimes more talented players. The reckless overhitting of the ball by my opponent would cause him to make unnecessary errors, while I stayed in the backcourt and simply returned the ball in what appeared to be effortless harmony. And this created more of a desire to win in my recklessly brave opponent, causing him to make even more mistakes. I call this “young man’s disease.”
Be an active listener.
Rather than attempting to control others by speaking frequently and loudly, allow yourself to become an active listener. Many of the answers you seek (and the results you expect) from others will surface if you can remember not to speak or even ask. Try living in accord with nature, which listening—rather than pushing, striving, or demanding—will help you do.
Do the Tao Now
I decided to go for a one-hour nonaction walk today after rereading this 73rd verse, to simply observe how everything under the net of heaven is working perfectly. I noticed the silent sun nourishing the land and providing light for us all. I stepped back and watched bees flitting back and forth between flowers, and stood there amazed by the invisible life force growing green bananas in a clump at the top of a tree. In all, I was just an observer of the Divine, invisible, silent, effortless Tao at work—realizing that while it’s in no hurry, it’s still getting everything done on time. Those green bananas will ripen in due course; but today I just loved the energy that creates, nourishes, and prepares them to appear for my breakfast someday!
Today I urge you to take a similar nonaction walk for an hour, and note how nothing slips through the net of heaven.
74th Verse
If you realize that all things change,
there is nothing you will try to hold on to.
If you are not afraid of dying,
there is nothing you cannot achieve.
There is always a lord of death.
He who takes the place of the lord of death
is like one who cuts with the blade
of a master carpenter.
Whoever cuts with the blade of a master carpenter is sure to cut his own hands.
Living with
No Fear of Death
What happens when we die? Is death the vehicle that returns us to our Source of being, or does it signify the end of consciousness and all of life? One thing is absolutely certain: This subject is an absolute mystery to us. Some Tao scholars have referred to death as a place of oneness wherein time, space, and all of the 10,000 things cease to have meaning. Thus, what dies is our human identity. There’s still someone underneath the external layers, though, so when you know and understand who that formless someone is, your fear of dying will evaporate. You can live on the active side of infinity by knowing your infinite Tao nature, which probably means that you’ll alter the way you think about birth, life, and death.
Move from wanting to see permanence in your life to realizing that all things change due to the nature of this being an ever-modifying world. There’s nothing external to hold on to; after all, the moment you think you have it, it becomes something else. This is as true for your earthly packaging as it is for your worldly treasures. Whether you realize it or not, the body you were in when you began reading this essay is different now, and it will become different again the moment you attempt to make it remain the same. This is the nature of our reality. If you can get comfortable with it, you’ll reduce—and ultimately eliminate—your anxiety regarding mortality. As Lao-tzu promises: “If you are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot achieve.”
Your Tao essence has to be infinite because it came from a world of infinite possibilities. You’re not a thing that’s solid and permanent; in fact, there’s nothing like that in the world you incarnated into! You are real, and what’s real never changes. Yet your real self isn’t in this world, but is the part of you that is the Tao. When you live in harmony with the infinite Tao, death is irrelevant—so know your highest self and understand that there’s nothing you can’t achieve.
The second part of this verse deals with killing, or taking another being’s life. Lao-tzu is qu
ite specific here, saying, “There is always a lord of death.” At the moment of your coming into the world, everything you needed for this journey was handled by the lord of life and death. Just as your birth was Tao energy, your body type, skin color, eyes, ears, and every other physical aspect of you are expressions of the Tao. This includes your death, which has been choreographed, determined, and allowed to unfold in Divine timing. In other words, killing isn’t your job, not ever—not of another person or any other being. Since death is as much a part of the Tao as life, it must be allowed to be in accord with nature, not performed as an ego decision.
I learned this lesson years ago while changing court sides in the middle of a tennis match in which I’d been playing at an exceptionally high level. While taking a drink of water, I noticed a bee lying upside down, apparently in the final throes of its short life. I assumed that it was suffering, so I stepped on it to avoid prolonging its agony. As I began to play again, I couldn’t get that bee out of my mind: Did I do the right thing? Who am I to decide this little creature’s fate? Who am I to become an executioner, even to such a seemingly insignificant creature as a tiny insect? And everything on the tennis court began to take on a different energy from that moment on.
Previously my shots had been landing on the lines, and presently they were out by inches. The wind seemed to shift and work against me. I was now moving more slowly and making uncharacteristic errors. Ultimately, what looked like a sure victory turned into a complete letdown and an embarrassing defeat because my role as the well-intentioned murderer of a small bee had been occupying my mind. I’ve since changed the way I see death, and I no longer 74th Verse deliberately kill anything. I’ve decided that it’s not my job to decide another’s death ever since my day of awakening with that bee! Even if that bee only had a few minutes of life remaining, it is the job of the “lord of death,” or the great Tao, to make that determination.
Change Your Thoughts—Change Your Life Page 27
