Continued.....
13. The failure
If you want to take control of the world and run it,
I can see that you will not succeed.
The world is a spiritual being,
which can't be improved.
To try to manipulate and control it
is to create disorder.
To try to stabilize it
is to destroy it.
The Taoist sage would be derided as inactive and indecisive by "the man of action". The sage is innately suspicious of public action, for he realizes it is often a compulsive vanity trip leading to harm.
The sage believes in the virtues of non-manipulative action and non-interference, of containing his influence, of reducing his ego, of remaining silent. He acts when compassion dictates, and his actions are often unpremeditated and spontaneous. He prefers to work out of reach of the public eye. Whatever he does, he does well, but he would finish what he has to do, and then retire, without clinging to his achievements, careful to avoid any honour, influence or advantage it might bring him. He clings neither to responsibilities nor to positions. He is never possessive.
The sage knows the only influence that moves the spirit forward is the presence of character based on compassion and integrity. Character cannot be developed by the crude exhibitionism of modern role models; nor can enlightenment be inspired by your upper-middle class ideal: the smooth respectable perpetration of egotism glossed over by education, good manners, proper language, affluence, good taste and just the right touch of religiosity. Least of all can civilization be improved by the corrupting and self-inflationary "management" of human beings and their lives.
The Tao sage avoids "managing" other people's lives, for he knows the world is a spiritual thing that should not be controlled or interfered with. He tries to restrict his own influence on others. He will rather suffer loss than manipulate others to reach his aims. Freedom to him has spiritual implications: it is to avoid any form of interference or manipulation. He therefore rejects the basic tenets of power. He prefers to be seen as a loser if success entails tampering with the lives and fates of others.
The Taoist sage is honest in his relationships, never calculating. He does not flatter. He would treat his "superiors" with the same honesty than he would deal with his "colleagues" or "subordinates." He does not cringe when threatened, nor laugh ingratiatingly at the boss's jokes. He has no hidden self-promotional agendas. Responding to his natural impulses, he would spontaneously do what is virtuous, and instinctively avoid the false and the mean. He would participate in an organization and obey orders as far as they are of benefit to sentient beings, but he would go no further, no matter what it might cost him in terms of career, promotion or prestige. His incorruptibility is remarkable, for it springs from the inner strength of a person who has diminished his own ego to a degree where he has become independent of the judgement of society. He is essentially, genuinely anarchic: he is master of himself, and he will not be controlled by any system of power.
What the upwardly mobile person would find unforgivable in the Taoist sage is his lack of ambition. The sage avoids a life brimming over with goals and objectives, which he finds a hindrance rather than a help. He realizes that some goals might be essential for survival, and some might even be useful to make life pleasant. Most goals, however, do not give meaning to life. In fact, striving with great effort to reach numerous goals often destroys compassion as one becomes insensitive to the needs of others.
The sage instinctively avoids becoming too busy, which he sees as the worst form of laziness. Mostly, being too busy is nothing but the effort to sidestep the issues that really matter in your life. No matter how lofty or altruistic your goals might seem to be, being too busy is often a form of egomania, regularly accompanied by a martyr complex, in which the protagonist overtly or subtly displays how much he is "sacrificing" himself and "suffering" for "others" or for "the company" or some "worthy cause". Instead of giving meaning to your life, hyperactivity can create delusions which alienate you from your own self and increase your confusion.
Being too busy is like running fast without knowing where you are going. The sage refuses to run blindly in any direction. He moves at leisure with his eyes wide open, sensitive to the needs of living beings around him. Like the Good Samaritan, he will have enough time to help his fellow traveller lying, helpless, next to the road.
14. The detached one
Other people are excited,
as though they were at a parade.
I alone don't care,
I alone am expressionless,
like an infant before it can smile.
The Taoist sage seems strangely detached. He functions unconstrained by his own emotions. He knows that his own observations, emotions, thoughts, concepts and judgements are just ripples on the mind's surface, inconstant and perpetually changing. He realizes that the mind can only reflect compassion clearly - like a tranquil pool the perfect moon - when it has become free of the ripples of thoughts and emotions.
Acts of mercy are not acts of passion to him: they come as naturally to him as sneezing or falling asleep.
Therefore you can rely totally on the sage: his mercy is not dependent on his emotional state, his affinity or aversion to an object, what he believes or any thoughts that might be disturbing the tranquility of his mind.
In a world of inconstancy and illusion, his compassion is constant and real.
15. The heathen
Therefore the sincere man concerns himself
with the depths and not the surface,
with the fruit and not the flower.
He has no ego to follow.
He dwells in reality,
and lets all illusions go.
By almost any Western standard, the sage qualifies as irreligious. Stale ritual has little meaning to him. Even if liturgy should be filled with emotion, the sage remains aloof and suspicious of it. Emotions come and go, and religions that depend on something so volatile as emotions usually forsake their followers when they need comfort most.
Prayer to the sage is not asking God for favours.
Prayer is to dissolve the ego and to become still.
The Taoist sage has experienced it:
the purest revelation is stillness and silence.
16. The coward
The sage views the parts with compassion
because he understands the whole.
His constant practice is humility.
He doesn't glitter like a jewel
but lets himself be shaped by the Tao,
as rugged and common as stone.
The Taoist sage shuns competition, for it nurtures egotism, fosters brutality and justifies humiliation. The triumphant pose of the strutting victor is a sign of spiritual bankruptcy to the sage. The demonstratively humble acceptance of the prize, with the losers looking on in awe, is the pinnacle of vanity, and might corrupt even the purest of hearts.
He does not see God as his personal mentor, coach or advisor supporting him at the cost of others as he moves up social or corporate ladders. He realizes the Calvinistic urge to prove your closeness to God through competition and the outward show of success is a futile exercise in vanity. Proving your superiority at the cost of somebody else is a proof of inferiority and ignorance. Trying to show you are more in God's favour than someone else is evil. Insulting other religions to demonstrate your own nobility is an insult to your own religion and yourself. Persecuting because you differ on the incomprehensible, as Christians or Muslims or Jews have been doing in their sad histories, is a form of barbarism.
To the sage, feelings of superiority based on adherence, creed, position, possession, appearance, intelligence, performance or achievement are symptoms of spiritual poverty. The sage's vision is non-divisive. It is one of unity. But he does not see unity on a grand political scale. He lives his own vision of harmony in the simplest of ways in his everyday life. He is quite simply unaffected by differences between people, and he is untouched by pride, vanity and greed.
17. The traitor
Nothing is impossible for him.
Because he has let go,
he can care for people's welfare
as a mother cares for her child.
The Taoist sage has the tolerance of someone who knows his ideas are less important than his own well-being. He lives with the constant awareness that his convictions are not as precious as the well-being of others.
He has the patience of someone who knows his insights are limited and subject to continuous change.
He has the humility of someone who realizes what really matter are mostly beyond the grasp of mind and language.
Creating discord to defend your own limited vision is absurd to the sage who believes that harmony is the essence of meaningful life.
Therefore the sage does not take sides in intellectual pursuits.
He does not wear the colours of any sect or party.
He does not wave flags patriotically in the wind.
He does not sing anthems with tear-filled eyes.
He refuses to "die for his country".
He refuses to kill for some nationalistic cause, or in patriotic fervour, or to satisfy the greed of his rulers, or because he has fallen for some propaganda.
He is a true warrior. He would rather be declared a traitor than betray himself. He has conquered himself and therefore cannot be conquered.
18. The mystery
Look, and it can't be seen.
Listen, and it can't be heard.
Reach, and it can't be grasped.
The Tao is nowhere to be found.
Yet it nourishes and completes all things.
God or Tao or the Absolute or Allah or Jehovah or Brahma - or whatever you prefer to call whatever is or is not wherever or nowhere or everywhere:
It is not a feeling that can be conjured up in liturgy.
It is not a riddle that can be solved intellectually.
It is not a concept that can be captured in science or philosophy.
It is not a dogma that can be formulated in Theology.
It is not something lurking in the ultra-depths of our psyche.
It is not going to be discovered in our DNA.
It is not something still undetected on the sub-quark level.
And yet it is all of these.
For all things come from it
and all things return to it.
The whatever-you-prefer-to-call-it becomes real to you if you live in harmony with it.
It is there to be lived, and that's that.
You either live it, or you don't.
The Taoist sage lives it, and yet he doesn't.
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© Jos Slabbert 1999
Postal Address: P.O. Box 4037, Vineta, Namibia
Fax No.: 09264 64 46 1014 E-Mail:
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This passage or excerpts from it may be reproduced for non-profit motives.
The author acknowledges and thanks anyone who might have observed in the passage echoes of what might have been written or said or thought by him or her, or where translations of the Tao Te Ching are reminiscent of his or her own translation. Anyone who contacts the author and demands non-anonymity, will be gratefully and explicitly acknowledged by the author.