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Chapter of the Week: #57 [Archive]
I NEVER do the happy dance when it snows-hate the stuff-luckily none here this year-last year was more than enuf-inches on ice over everything for 3 days...I'm a warm weather sort. I lived in Iowa as a kid, got my fill of snow there. My fill of snow and my fill of Iowans!
Comments
Note: The Tao Te Ching can be obscure, especially if you think you're supposed to understand what it's saying! We find it easier and more instructive to simply contemplate how the chapter resonates with your personal experience. Becoming more aware at this fundamental level simplifies life. This approach conforms to the view that true knowing lies within ourselves. Thus, when a passage in the scripture resonates, you've found your inner truth. The same applies for when it evokes a question; questions are the grist for self realization.
Chapter 57
Govern the state by being straightforward; wage war by being crafty;
but win the empire by not being meddlesome.
How do I know that it is like that? By means of this.
The more taboos there are in the empire
The poorer the people;
The more sharpened tools the people have
The more benighted the state;
The more skills the people have
The further novelties multiply;
The better known the laws and edicts
The more thieves and robbers there are.
Hence the sage says,
I take no action and the people are transformed of themselves;
I prefer stillness and the people are rectified of themselves;
I am not meddlesome and the people prosper of themselves;
I am free from desire and the people of themsleves
become simple like the uncarved block.
The more skills the people have, the further novelties multiply, is obvious, but what is less obvious is how this is a problem. After all, novelties and variety make the world go round, eh? However, closer observation reveals the unintended consequences of skills and novelites. Here's the twist ? our [chref=18]cleverness[/chref] gives us a survival edge, but that edge also cuts us loose from nature's balancing influences.
Taboos, are proscriptions against or pro something. On the pro side are a culture's initiation rites. Our's, whether it's going off to college or circumcision robs us of something deeper (mystery), even as it gives us a sense (albeit fleeting) of security. Is the trade off worth it, or do we end up poorer. Ah, you say, but college make us richer! Poverty of spirit is so much more impoverishing than poverty of materials. Furthermore, it's not going to college that is at issue, it is the 'positive' taboo, i.e., the idea you are diminished by not going, just as you are diminished by not being circumcised, or, well... you name it.
The better known the laws and edicts... may sound like laws and edicts cause thieves and robbers. I find it simpler to see laws and edicts as simply symptomatic of thieves and robbers. So, what causes the thieves and robbers? How much robbery occurs within close knit families /tribes? Thieves and robbers are just one the unintended consequences of civilization?s inability to connect people as intimately as our hunter-gatherer ancestors were. I can't think of a social ill that doesn't stem from this post agricultural revolution [chref=51]circumstance [/chref]. And yet the 'party line' exalts civilization as the cure for our 'beastly' nature. It's so fascinating how we bamboozle ourselves.
Now, the only relief from this goofy situation lies at the end of this chapter. I've found that simple is directly proportional to desire. What about those ironic occasions when I really desired to simplify my life and so threw out stuff? Naturally, that works about as well as putting out a fire with gasoline. Take no action, prefer stillness, not meddlesome all allow life to unfold naturally. It is my [chref=64] desire[/chref] to have my way with nature that complicates life. It is my desire that disrupts the perfection of the moment. [chref=1]Desires[/chref] are insidious. You can't live with 'em, and you can't live without 'em! The best I can do is carefully observe, moment to moment, in order to notice when my desire may be standing in the way of nature's way. That often gives me enough motivation, (counterbalancing desire) to remain still and free. Yes, truly free
The last verse says if you don't stir the pot, everything will follow its natural course. It sounds like the Buddha.
-as free speech and freedoms are being curtailed, we're poorer for it. Even down to the idea of being allowd to go barefoot in public-or, how in Mexico there's a town where the tourists were complaining about homeowners near the beach walking about nude (in their own homes), so now home nudity there is banned-been this way in Singapore for years-but Buddy, you say, thats not America-well, just wait...they're concerned about our bedrooms, our bodies, who we marry, but they'll sell us drugs they know will kill us, because theres a profit to be made...
and I still say the pot must be stirred occasionally or all the good stuff sinks to the bottom, and the goverment is full of bottom feeders-in this case, we're at the top swimming around sucking up nothing but grease and promises...
I get your meaning, but in my experience opinions just cloud my inner self and keep me from clarity. Opinions/free speech are just one more thing to cling to, one more desire to cause suffering. Letting go of that will bring peace. Focusing on 'the way' or what's really important to me brings peace, diminishes suffering.
Of course, expressing opinions is fun and we love to feel smarter than and 'edgy' but the price is high. I spar with my husband all the time, but always within is a place of peace and that's what enriches me.
I hope it doesn't seem like I'm always disagreeing with you; it just helps me to solidify stuff by writing it down. It's my own experience I'm talking about and has little to do with right or wrong.
Taboos reflect other chapters about blunting the sharpness, softening the glare. Taboos are a hardness, a set-in-stone this is the way things should be. (Similar to sharpness, or glare.) To me this creates differences ? us/right, them/wrong. There?s no room for compassion, for acceptance. This black and white perspective moves away from appreciating the ?mysterious sameness? of people, of the universe.
Sharpened tools, and skills, reflect verses about knowing and speaking. They?re all ways to differentiate, to make me ?better? because I ?know? the answer, or because I have the tools or skills, I can do the job the ?right? way. Which misses the point, because we?re all doing the best we can, and we?re all ?failing? at being perfect, in one way or another.
i dont meddle to change things, i get meddled with when i try to do things as they should be: tolerance, acceptance, cleanliness, freedom, curiosity...all these often bring on suspicion, and try as i might, i have to respond once in a while...i dont mind disaggreement, difference, discussion, but i need to learn to ignore stuff and walk away.
As an educator (high school teacher), I am confused with you calling college an "initiation" rite. Futhermore, I would never diminish my students who did not go to college. However, I do encourage all high school graduates to have some sort of post-secondary education whether it be a two year or four year degree.
Being trained in a job and out in the job force is the very backbone of our economy whether it's a dental technician, electrician, heart specialist, dentist, pharmacist, or a chinese restaurant owner, or Radio Shack employee. You don't need "material" goods you say. You still need a place to sleep, food to eat, clothes to wear (okay, so maybe you don't Buddy!)
We all need some sort of "job" to earn a living. It's the unskilled labor force that is destined to live in poverty Carl. They are called the "working poor".
It's a proven fact the more education you have, the higher your standard of living.
I don't know what the economy is like in Santa Cruz, but here in Michigan it's awful! Factories are down-sizing or closing because they've been "outsourced" by foreign labor. Do any of you buy Kellogg's cereals? Well, Battle Creek, Michigan was Kellogg's headquarters...not any more. It's somewhere overseas. People all around Battle Creek lost jobs. And that's happening to cities all over Michigan. It used to be back in the 50's and even the 60's and 70's, men would come to Flint or Detroit Michigan to get a job in one of the auto factories...not anymore. Factories are closing.
Post secondary education after high school is not something to do...if the "spirit moves you", it is a must to stay afloat....it is a must if you want to be able to afford rent, a house, a car, gas to put in the car, insurance for the car....let alone health, dental and optical insurance for yourself!!
And, I'm sure those students that Buddy looks after are receiving counseling in job training. I don't think the state of Oregon would call it an initiation rite. A job is what is going to keep them out of poverty, out of crime and out of jail. It's not enough to just have a high school diploma now days, you must have some training beyond high school in order to "make it" in the job force.
The lecture's over...school's out.
Michi
I understand what you're saying. I also realized you may have a hard time understanding me. When a person believes his cultural paradigm IS reality, it is impossible for him to see it any other way. Also, there is the 'if your not with us, you are against us' dynamic. Any challenge to a paradigm's rites always feel threatening to the 'paradigm's patriots'. I'm NOT suggesting that people not go to college. In fact, I would hope that the doctor that operates on me has :!:
Seeing how out of whack some American cultural taboos actually are vis-a-vis healthy ancestral human needs probably requires either living outside the comfort zone of one's own cultural paradigm long enough, or living long enough to see the 'taboos' for what they are, i.e., a taboo feels differently to those who believe in it than to those who don't.
Our 'poverty' as a culture is profoundly spiritual, social and emotional, and is only getting worse. Of course, to change this would require calling into question all the 'taboos' our country has believed in for several centuries. Not a welcome proposition and so things will need to get much worse before the 'drunk' hits bottom and is ready to return to sanity. Well, we can hope anyway....
Again, my comments on this chapter are not about whether kids get trained for the work force or not. I'd say to anyone, follow your heart, do what you need to do, and do it with as much care as you can muster. That you need to strongly defend college, jobs, standard of living, and so on, reflects something you may be struggling with in your personal life. I wish you well with that.
I hope I'm not offending you with these comments. I tend to just call 'em as I see 'em which does piss off a lot of folks. A good Taoist would keep his mouth shut, which shows you how uncouth I am. My apologies in advance...
I have nothing against kids working, no job is below me or anyone, but these are youths who can barely read or write, have no sense of history or socioligy or math skills,,,and they're being pulled out of class 3 days a week and stuck in a dishroom. This bothers me greatly, and I've even been in contact with a state congresswoman about it. The way things are going, dishwashing may be the only job an average American worker can get, no matter what their education...
So in this case, job training isnt going to do them much good-a house built without a foundation, as it were-or in this case a shotgun shack...
-though this school we have here probably doesnt do them much good either, but thats another story-anyway I tell them the best education is the one we give ourselves...
I'm not "struggling" with anything in my personal life Carl. I feel so blessed to have a job that I love to do. If I could live my life over, I don't think I'd change a thing (except some hairstyles!). I wanted to be a teacher since I was in elementary school. It's like my dream has come true.
And I live a dreamy life. I came from a good, wholesome home (like your home) with two loving parents (like your boys have). That's what we have in common.
Of course I'm going to defend college, jobs and not lowering one's standard of living and rising to one's potential. That's what I believe in and that's what I teach.
Yes, education was stressed in our home (my father being a teacher no doubt had a lot to do with it), but spirituality was also stressed in our home.
Although I was raised a Protestant, I wasn't raised to believe that "our" religion was the "only" way.
And emotional security was a biggie too. We spent a lot of time together as a family and still do. There was no social void either. My house was where all the neighborhood kids gathered. I still keep in contact with my oldest friends from 5th grade. I don't feel this "poverty" you talk about. I feel enriched.
My grass is green on this side of the fence...well actually it's snow-covered!
Michi
Actually, I don't think we are disagreeing. It is more like we are talking past each other. We are talking about different things which just happen to use the same words. You might say we are looking out of different windows describing what we see and feel. It sounds like we are talking about the same thing because language is so linear and limited when we try to use it to communicate visceral matters. :? This happens an awful lot between people I notice, even those who share the same cultural paradigm. Of course, such misunderstandings make the world go round.
That we are considering each others 'reflections' speaks to something deeper we share beyond our Tao / "UnTao" circumstance. Great!
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