Water Conservation
Thursday 01 December 2011 at 08:27 am.
They had no need to hurry and rush through life. You can do the same today. Become a seer. Just be aware of your true identity as the Tao, pure awareness, and the Tao will take care of everything else. Here Lao Tzu refers to water again, to another quality of water, to its clarity. Water clears when it is still. If you stay with your still and clear center you will find the outside turmoil clearing too. Stay with the unchanging truth of your being. It is bound to benefit everyone. The image at the left is the Chinese ideograph for Tao. It is composed of two graphs, one meaning go, one meaning head. It is usually translated as Way. This combination of meanings is found in English as well. Consider these expressions: headway, head off, go away, head out. Douglas Harding points out that the ideograph looks like a head and a chopper. The head is about to be removed! The Tao is the gone-head! Your head must go. See the emptiness or blankness that exists in the place where you imagined a head. Nothing exists here but bare awareness. The Tao is this simple naked awareness.
16. See that you are emptiness Always quiet and at peace You're in the place where all begins The space where all things cease All things arise and have their day And then go back to the single source Returning to serenity With no regret and no remorse When you see the source within You only give assent You see you're everlasting And eternally omnificent You are omnificent, all-creating. You create everything because you create your own point of view. All that you see depends on you. Without you, none of it would exist in the manner in which it appears in you. All appears in your emptiness, in your awareness. This is not to say that you know how you do it. Creation happens in you, as you, on its own, spontaneously. Return to the Tao, to your serene and peaceful center, and watch the myriad things of the world come and go. You are the host. 17. It's best if you are barely known The lesser state is being praised Worse is being hated Just stay empty and amazed Only do what must be done And see you are the one alone When you finish all will say We did this on our own Lao Tzu is referring to leaders of states and, by extension, to all of us. The most effective leaders act by not acting for recognition. The best course is to stay centered and allow events to go their natural way. Do what is needed for the situation and then stop. Allow others to take the credit. What does personal recognition add to totality? Just recognize your open and accepting nature. 18. Goodness and compliance Came when people lost the way Spontaneity declined Hypocrisy was here to stay Goodness and obedience appear when we lose the way. Rebellion comes too. We adopt living to please others and to avoid their disapproval. And do we ever regret it! 19. Banish learned discourse And everyone will be content Eliminate propriety Increase astonishment Stay away from fraud and swindle Everyone is bound to gain You really have it all you know
There is no basis to complain Can you see your empty core? It isn't missing, gone or hidden Just let go of neediness And it will come unbidden Do you know what is proper for other people? Can you let go of your need to interfere? Allow life to come to you on its own terms. Interfering in the lives of others with your so-called authoritative opinions and directions causes more misery in the world than anything else. And in giving misery, you eventually get it back. We all want approval. We want to merit approval. We are so needy we give our lives away in an attempt to be seen in a good light by everyone. Is this possible? Is it worth the effort? Can you see your empty core? This is the whole of what you need to do. Relax and let go. Stay empty and amazed. Only when you are empty and open can you be filled. See that you are always empty! Isn't it encouraging to know that this is all there is to it? You can let go of all attempts to control or influence. Allow the world to come to you. See that you are made to receive and accept whatever is happening. 20. You need not give a yes or no Such distinctions matter little Keep your vision open And be at center noncommittal See that it's ridiculous To seek success and fear to fail To ever want what others want To think you always must prevail Other people look so bright I am dark and void and null Others are so very sharp While I alone am dull Others are so purposeful Only I don't understand Aimless, drifting, weak and dumb Uninteresting and bland I see I'm different from the rest For I take in what's plainly shown And I take my sustenance Only from the great unknown Where is your center?
Where do you place your attention? If you are seeing clearly, your attention is on totality, all that is given in the present moment. You are not driven to appear successful in the eyes of others. You are not driven at all. You are aware that support and sustenance comes to you on its own from the Tao, the great unknown but clearly seen core of your being. Lao Tzu says he is dull, even void. He is seeing the limitless emptiness of the Tao, the absent head. Remember Tao means go-head. His head is gone. What remains is the glorious emptiness and the ten thousand things, thoughts, events and feelings that fill it with brimming brightness. Of course he looks different from the rest. He is the source and container of all that appears. He is not a thing among things. He is the original. And of course this vision is sustaining. Not such a dull fellow after all! The dullness he sees is the amazing central void that makes brightness possible. He is total presence. 21. Seeming utter emptiness Quite impossible to trace Yet it contains all images Within its wide embrace Appearing total darkness Yet you see that it is right
To stay with its obscurity The only origin of light This ever present openness At center and within Can be seen just anytime So look and look again Your true center is always available. You can see the emptiness that contains all things whenever you remember to look, and the more you look, the more you remember to look. Be as persistent as you can. Let's be persistent. Let's look again right now. As an aid to directing your attention, point your finger to your face, to your gone-head. Others will tell you that your are pointing to your face. Do you see it differently? Of course you do. You see the truth from the position only you yourself occupy. You see absolute emptiness filled with all the images of the eternal here and now. Most interpreters of Lao Tzu speak of the Master or Sage. I use the word Seer instead, because Lao Tzu insists we see the Tao, that it's visible as an absence and almost palpable as a presence. And isn't that good news? We can all see. We are all seers! We do it all the time. There's nothing to it. Lao Tzu simply tells us where to look, and that's where the head is missing. In place of a head we find the world. Look and see a head? Never. Look and see emptiness here and a universe there! There is no need to become a Sage or a Master. Become a Seer! Become what you already are! Allow it! There's nothing to do but allow!
It bears repeating! Lao Tzu repeats the same themes throughout the Tao Te Ching. He knows that we have been brought up to ignore the Tao, the gone-head. We imagine a head on our shoulders so we can be like everyone else. But we are not like anyone else. We are unique. We are the headless One, the absolute center of existence. So Lao Tzu repeatedly reminds us that we must look in order to see how the world is set up, how it is presented with emptiness here and fullness there. If we look repeatedly and see the arrangement, there comes a day when the seeing is natural, and the head is gone forever. 22. Overcome by giving up See that you are really nil Look into your emptiness If you want to have your fill Be satisfied with little Just content with what you need If you are always wanting more You surely are consumed by greed Abide in your simplicity Though you are not on display See all things are shining bright In marvelous array If you do not boast or brag Everyone will hold you high If you do not argue You will prevail thereby Only see you are complete And all things have come to you Overcome by giving up All except your inner view The Tao is your original state. The farther you drift from it, the less content you are, the more you want in compensation for what you lost. Lao Tzu tells us that greed can consume us and that we really need very little to be satisfied.
He also tells us that this is true because we already have the most marvelous gift of all. We have the bare awareness that holds all things. Only this naked simplicity truly satisfies. We need so little to be happy, to have all that can be had. Can you stay with this vision of totality, of already having everything? If you can, you will not need to boast or brag or promote yourself in any way. You can't be promoted beyond totality. Others will quietly appreciate your presence, you who are in competition with no one. You are complete and whole. You have no need to prove yourself worthy, to gain back any missing parts or lost love. You have the whole bright world before you. You are not in need of anything that does not already belong to you.
