You and your children can learn to change the way you look at edicts and laws. When harmony is lost, a rule may seem to be helpful, but make sure everyone in the family realizes that you’re inviting them to learn to live without it! The existence of codes of conduct are proof that we aren’t allowing the Tao to flow freely through our lives. Learning that it is each individual’s personal responsibility to live without governing will ultimately demonstrate that when you change your thoughts, you change your life.
This idea extends further: Ask yourself if laws create a healthy society, and if patriotism is valuable. Or does it appear that when a country has fallen into chaos or some form of civil war, laws and codes concerning patriotism seem to need to be enforced? Rules are created to impose penalties to control or govern people who haven’t learned their individual responsibility as a part of the wholeness of the group. Yet a national sense of unity needn’t regulate a universal sense, for the Tao oneness is greater than any group on Earth.
So here we have a summary of what takes place when the Great Way is deserted: The need for justice arises. Falsity among the people creates a need for rules, and rulers are needed to restore order. Political ministers appear to bring light to the disorder and darkness. Knowing all of this, I believe it’s essential to get back to that picture I asked you to envision a few paragraphs ago and apply what Lao-tzu is saying in this profound verse of the Tao Te Ching: 18th Verse
Let your actions arise from your Tao-centered heart.
When you’re centered in the Tao, you don’t need any rules, nor are you bound by what’s declared to be legal or illegal. Your reason for not stealing from others isn’t because it’s against the law; rather, you assume personal responsibility for your actions. Your life isn’t based on living by rules; your reason for not stealing is that you respect the rights of others to be free from pilfering because it resonates with the Tao. In the Tao there is no stealing because everything belongs to everyone. There is no ownership of land or property—there is only the willingness to love and respect everyone and all things. The laws making stealing, maiming, or fighting illegal arose because of disconnection from the Tao.
Don’t act virtuous; be virtue.
Acting virtuous is not the same as being virtuous, so the Tao instructs you to be authentic in all of your interactions. Be pious because your own heart feels the piety that is the great Tao. Be spontaneously generous to others because your inner calling demands it, not because others in their code making have determined that this is how you should behave. Don’t wait for chaos to erupt before you are generous and kind to others. A natural disaster may stimulate your desire to reach out and help your fellow humans—yet if you change the way you look at that natural disaster, you could also see it as a reminder to let the Tao be your guiding spirit at all times. This would inspire your patriotism to be for all of humanity, rather than confined to the land where you happened to be born.
Again, I’d like to remind you of the similar sentiment expressed by Hafiz, the great Sufi poet:
Everyone
Is God speaking.
Why not be polite and
Listen to
Him?
And everyone really means everyone, not just those who are subject to your rules and your laws.
Do the Tao Now
Emphasize why you’re obeying human-made edicts today. Spend some time connecting to the underlying reason for stopping at a red light, having a driver’s license, wearing a seat belt, paying to enter a movie theater, or not drinking and driving. See if your ego enjoys “breaking” rules for its purposes by listing all the rules and laws you obey or disobey in one day, and then identify your most important “heart rules.”
19th Verse
Give up sainthood, renounce wisdom,
and it will be a hundred times better for everyone.
Throw away morality and justice
and people will do the right thing.
Throw away industry and profit
and there will be no thieves.
All of these are outward forms alone;
they are not sufficient in themselves.
It is more important
to see the simplicity,
to realize one’s true nature,
to cast off selfishness
and temper desire.
Living
Without Attachment
Upon first reading this 19th verse of the Tao Te Ching, it appears that Lao-tzu is encouraging us to abandon the highest principles of the Tao. Renounce sainthood, wisdom, morality, justice, industry, and profit, says the great sage, and all will be well. Lao-tzu tells us that “all of these are outward forms alone” and are insufficient for living according to the highest Way.
The first of these categories represents education and the way you look at your sources of learning. This verse advises you to alter your concept of being saintly just because you follow the teachings of an organized religion, and to change your view of self-importance because of degrees you’ve received from an educational institution. Lao-tzu gently informs you that it’s far more valuable to cultivate your true nature.
As with virtually all of the teachings of the Tao, the greatest trust is placed in your accessing the sacred Tao center of yourself. Within you lies a piece
