In ancient times those who followed the Tao did not try to educate the people. They chose to let them be.
The reason people become hard to govern is that they think they know it all.
So, if a leader tries to lead through cleverness, he is nothing but a liability. But if a leader leads, not through cleverness, but through goodness, this is a blessing to all.
To be always conscious of the Great Pattern is a spiritual virtue.
Spiritual virtue is awesome and infinite and it leads all things back to their Source. Then there emerges the Great Harmony.
(Tao Teh King 65–Mabry translation)
In ancient times those who followed the Tao did not try to educate the people. They chose to let them be.
The universe and everything in it is evolving, and the evolutionary impulse is from within moving outward. Evolution never comes from without but from within, though an external factor can provoke an internal response that brings about evolutionary unfoldment. Knowing this, those in harmony with the Tao did not try to change others by external worlds or deeds, but simply kept living according to the Tao and by their silent presence in the world produced favorable conditions for the natural growth of others. They were like the leavening which causes bread to rise. They had a profound effect on others, but it was completely internal. So they benefitted them by not interfering with them. Invisibly they assisted in their growth.
The reason people become hard to govern is that they think they know it all. Blackney: “The more the folk know what is going on, the harder it becomes to govern them. For public knowledge of the government is such a thief that it will spoil the realm.” This is certainly not in harmony with “the right to know” that the media attributes to people in general. Having information in no way imparts the intelligence and insight to draw right conclusions. There is no denying that in the intervening centuries between Lao Tzu and the present day there has been an opening of consciousness that has certainly rendered most people more capable of understanding what is going on in the world than at his time. Nevertheless, humanity has a long way to go, and until then it is beneficial for us to seriously consider what past leaders have had to say about public life.
So, if a leader tries to lead through cleverness, he is nothing but a liability. But if a leader leads, not through cleverness, but through goodness, this is a blessing to all. Anyone with good sense should know this is true, but in this country we have endured the presidency of corrupt and morally vile men who, we were assured daily, were capable of being worthy presidents because their personal life had no effect on their political life. Those who wanted to deny decency and personal responsibility gladly took to this gospel of evil, but no one with open eyes and ears failed to see that the opposite was true. Each aspect of our life affects all the others because they are essentially one. To ascribe to the possibility, much less the desirability, of moral schizophrenia is itself insane. Yet we have seen in other leaders the value of goodness which guided their endeavors.
To be always conscious of the Great Pattern is a spiritual virtue. Lao Tzu certainly believed in moral absolutes. The Great Pattern of which he speaks is the Natural Law so shrilly and even hysterically denied by the forces that advocate chaos and evil as a way of life. How well do I remember seeing Robert Bork grilled about his belief in Natural Law. Since fools will always do as they please with no regard to realities, it is our duty to ignore them and order our own lives to conform to that Law which is indeed a divine law. Those who do not know or who ignore the divine plan for each one of us cannot live a truly human life. But we can do so and, as Lao Tzu just said, through that be a blessing to all.
Spiritual virtue is awesome and infinite and it leads all things back to their Source. Then there emerges the Great Harmony.
Feng and English: “Primal Virtue is deep and far. It leads all things back toward the Great Oneness.” Here we have it stated clearly. Spiritual virtue is needed, for by its very nature it leads us back to our divine Source, into unity with God. We should prize spiritual virtue above all in ourselves and others. For it leads to the Infinite. What is spiritual virtue? The master yogi, Patanjali, in Yoga Sutras 2:30 says it consists of these ten principles:
- Ahimsa: non-violence, non-injury, harmlessness
- Satya: truthfulness, honesty
- Asteya: non-stealing, honesty, non-misappropriativeness
- Brahmacharya: sexual continence in thought, word and deed as well as control of all the senses
- Aparigraha: non-possessiveness, non-greed, non-selfishness, non-acquisitiveness
- Shaucha: purity, cleanliness
- Santosha: contentment, peacefulness
- Tapas: austerity, practical (i.e., result-producing) spiritual discipline
- Swadhyaya: introspective self-study, spiritual study
- Ishwarapranidhana: offering of one’s life to God
“He that hath ears to hear, let him hear”(Matthew 11:15).
Next in the Tao Teh King for Awakening: The Lords of the Ravines