Begin recognizing that every moment of your life is in accordance with the Divine Tao. By doing so, you’ll shift from judgment (and perhaps anger) to gratefulness for being able to feel both exhausted and rested, scared and safe, unloved and cared for. All of it is a part of the natural law. Your “ego-mind” tries to protect you from pain by insisting that you can learn to eliminate some aspects 29th Verse of your life. However, the sage within you desires to be more harmonious with the perfection of the Tao. How do you allow this? Lao-tzu urges you to avoid the extremes, the excesses, and the extravagant, and know that all is unfolding perfectly, even if your thoughts tell you that it’s imperfect. Those thoughts must also have their own time, and in the natural flow, they’ll be replaced by new ones . . . which will show up on time as well.
Here’s what I believe this verse from Lao-tzu offers you from its 2,500-year-old perspective:
Give up needing to control.
Begin a conscious program of surrendering, and allowing your world and everyone in it to do as they are ordained to do. Surrendering is a mental process: It involves taking a split second to stop yourself in your mode of judgment or frustration and have a brief talk with yourself on the spot. Just remind yourself to step back and be a witness rather than a protagonist, which you can do by providing a sanctuary for the feeling you’re judging. Invite Divine natural order in by simply allowing what you’re experiencing to go forward without criticism or control; in this way, you move to the center. Think of the need to control as a signal to allow the Tao to flow freely through your life. At first your ego-mind may loudly scoff at the idea of the Tao being responsible for the perfect unfolding of everything. It’s up to you to recognize that your belief that ego can control life is an illusion.
Practice recognizing that there’s a time for everything.
When you’re in the middle of a tough moment, repeat the lines given to you by Lao-tzu. I do this in yoga practice when I feel exhausted holding a position for what seems like a too-lengthy period. I remind myself, There’s a time for being exhausted, and there’s a time for being vigorous. This frees me immediately from my demanding ego, which is saying, You shouldn’t be feeling this tired. You can do the same in any moment in your life. Experiences of pain, loss, fear, anger, and even hatred seem to vanish when you remember that this is a part of the perfect blossoming of natural law; and there will soon be a time for comfort, peace, and love.
Apply this verse of the Tao Te Ching by creating your personalized statement when you observe things such as crime, AIDS, hunger, and war. Try something like, Yes, there seems to be a time for such things, and I choose not to remain in extremes of resentment and anger. But there is also my desire to do something aboutthese circumstances—that feeling is also a part of the natural law unfolding. I choose to act on my inner desire to rectify these conditions. By remaining internally peaceful and avoiding the extremes, I will impact the world in the same loving way that the Tao eternally manifests from love and kindness.
It’s not what you see around you that keeps you connected to the Tao; it’s understanding how this eternal flow works. As Ralph Waldo Emerson put it, “By atoms, by trifles, by sots, heaven operates. The needles are nothing, the magnetism is all.”
Do the Tao Now
Find a place where control is all-consuming and relinquish it today. Stifle your inclination to interfere, reminding yourself as you do so that there’s a time for everything and you’re becoming more adept at observing peacefully rather than taking over.
Post this advice by Naomi Long Madgett where you can read it, and be constantly reminded of your desire to live naturally:
I wouldn’t coax the plant if I were you.
Such watchful nurturing may do it harm.
Let the soil rest from so much digging
And wait until it’s dry before you water it.
The leaf’s inclined to find its own direction;
Give it a chance to seek the sunlight for itself.
Much growth is stunted by too much prodding,
Too eager tenderness.
The things we love we have to learn to leave alone.
30th Verse
One who would guide a leader of men in the uses of life
will warn him against the use of arms for conquest.
Weapons often turn upon the wielder.
Where armies settle,
nature offers nothing but briars and thorns.
After a great battle has been fought,
the land is cursed, the crops fail,
the earth lies stripped of its Motherhood.
After you have attained your purpose,
you must not parade your success,
you must not boast of your ability,
you must not feel proud;
you must rather regret that you had not been
able to prevent the war.
You must never think of conquering others by force.
Whatever strains with force
will soon decay.
It is not attuned to the Way.
Not being attuned to the Way,
its end comes all too soon.
Living
Without Force
If you were to explicitly follow the advice offered in this 30th verse of the Tao Te Ching, you’d be in a
