Lao-tzu advises you to give without keeping an account or expecting something in return, for this is the nature of the Tao, and you are of the Tao. Giving is synonymous with receiving when you live by this illumination. Trust the inner light to guide you, for it is your heritage. Your origin is more from the Tao than from parents, culture, or country.
It’s also important that you live more spontaneously—you don’t need to neatly wrap up each detail of your life. Understand this and you can travel without being attached to a plan that covers every possible scenario. Your inner light is more trustworthy than any guidebook, and it will point you in the direction that’s most beneficial to you and everyone you encounter. When you develop a trust in the Tao, you’ll change the way you look at life. You’ll marvel at the brilliance and clarity of what you begin to see: Fear, anxiety, stress, and unrest will simply become facets of yourself seen in the glow of the Tao, like candles marking your way and helping you love everyone as a piece of yourself.
Lao-tzu advises you to “be wise and help all beings impartially, abandoning none”—that is, you don’t need anyone else’s rules in order to reach out to others. Giving of yourself becomes your natural response because you’re following the inner light of the Tao. You and giving are one; you and receiving are one. In such an arrangement, there is no one who is not you.
The most revealing lines of this verse remind you that a good man is but a bad man’s teacher, and a bad man is but a good man’s job. This is an extremely empowering way to see life and eliminate stress and anger: If you perceive yourself to be a “good” person, then those whom you call “bad”—including convicted felons or enemies on the other side of the world—are your job! Try on the view that you’re here to teach yourself and others in some way, and that the work is to raise the collective energy of our entire universe. Cultivate your awareness of the inner light that’s within all. Be the Tao!
Virtually every translation of the Tao Te Ching I’ve examined refers to all of us being one, and all of us needing to be there for each other. The great secret is this: Waste no opportunity, abandon no one, respect the teachers, and care for the student. Twenty-five hundred years later, the Tao remains elusive to most of us because it’s so infrequently practiced. Nevertheless, it must be instilled within us if we’re to ever truly walk in the luminosity of the Great Way.
Become “a knower of the truth,” as Lao-tzu advises, by forgetting the locks, chains, maps, and plans. Travel without leaving a trace, trust in the goodness that is the root of all, and rather than curse the darkness that seems so rampant, reach out with that inner light and let it shine on those who aren’t seeing their own legacy in the Tao.
From his ancient spiritual throne, Lao-tzu is telling you to practice in these new ways:
Trust in yourself.
Develop an inner code of conduct that’s based exclusively on your irreversible connection to the Tao. When you trust this wisdom that created you, you’re trusting yourself. Know that nothing could ever dissuade you from your internal code of honesty, and live by this standard. If you encounter an easy opportunity to cheat, perhaps because you’ve been handed too much change by a hurried cashier, make the decision to be down-to-the-penny honest. Furthermore, have faith in yourself to go on a trip with a minimal amount of planning. Allow yourself to trust in the energy of the Tao to guide you, rather than relying upon fixed plans arranged by someone else.
Don’t judge yourself or others.
Don’t criticize the behavior or appearance of those you’ve assessed to be “bad people.” Instead, switch your thoughts to something along these lines: I am my own student and have this opportunity to learn that I’m instructing rather than judging. I will now cease critiquing myself or any other, and teach by being the Tao. If the entire world of the 10,000 things knew the simple truth that we are all one, then in my opinion war, hostilities, confusion, and even illness would cease to exist.
Why not be one individual who chooses to respect yourself and all others as teachers and as students? When you see the world as full of opportunities to help, one thought and one action at a time, you’ll be living by your inner light.
The great Sufi poet Hafiz speaks of this in his poem “No More Leaving”:
At
Some point
Your relationship
With God
Will
Become like this:
Next time you meet Him in the forest
Or on a crowded city street
There won’t be anymore
“Leaving.”
That is,
God will climb into
Your pocket.
You will simply just take
Yourself
Along!
Do the Tao Now
Find one person labeled “bad,” and use that opportunity to do your job. Be a teacher by reaching out and sending a loving message to him or her—perhaps you could pass along a book, write an e-mail or letter, or make a phone call. Just do one thing as a “good” person today, even if it’s for a stranger living in a prison cell. He or she is your assignment right now.
28th Verse
Know the strength of man,
but keep a woman’s care!
Be a valley under heaven;
if you do, the constant virtue
will not fade away.
One will become like a child again.
Know
