Lao-tzu offers the following to you, through me, to aid you in “the practice of eternal light” in today’s world:
Open mouth—spirit escapes. Closed mouth—spirit connection excellent!
Think of your mouth as a gate that guards your spirit: When you speak to others, become conscious of the need to close the door and allow your spirit to be safely ensconced within you. Make the same mental shift with your ears: Keep them sealed when it comes to rumors and petty conversations. Use fewer words; commit yourself to long periods of listening; and eliminate giving advice, meddling, and participating in gossip.
Cultivate your strength with the flexibility of consciously deciding when to involve your speaking and auditory senses. When you’re inclined to get into other people’s business, remember that your eternal Mother’s one and only voice is silence. Do likewise, and you’ll feel yourself holding on to her in freedom and bliss, thus returning while living!
Seeing the smallest mystery reveals the grandest mystery.
By being attentive to smallness, you cultivate your desire for clarity. Noting the same spark in microscopic creatures that animates you is a way of exploring life as a return trip rather than a dead end. What seem to be the tiniest mysteries of life lead to an experience of the shining radiance that comes from an appreciation for all that you encounter. You and the Mother who birthed you and everything else are one. By seeing the small, you gain this clarity, which is the return trip you’re encouraged to make while alive. Now your world begins to look very different, as you see originating spirit everywhere. Nothing is viewed as ordinary, inferior, or unwanted anymore.
Do the Tao Now
Plan a day dedicated to examining the smallest life-forms that you can find. Become a witness to a spider creating a web, a sand crab scurrying along the beach, or a fly buzzing about on the wall. Take an imaginary trip through your insides, examining the life-forms that reside in your intestines, in your bloodstream, or in the lining of your eyes—all creatures that you’d need a powerful microscope to be able to see. Meditate on the Mother birthing these little bacteria in order for you to exist. Experience the way viewing your body through the infinitesimally tiny life that’s part of you affects you. Living by returning to the Mother will provide you with a clarity you’ve never experienced before.
53rd Verse
If I have even just a little sense,
I should walk in the Great Way,
and my only fear would be straying.
The Great Way is very smooth and straight,
and yet the people prefer devious paths.
That is why the court is corrupt,
the fields lie in waste,
the granaries are empty.
Dressing magnificently,
wearing a sharp sword,
stuffing oneself with food and drink,
amassing wealth to the extent of not knowing
what to do with it,
is being like a robber.
I say this pomp at the expense of others
is like the boasting of thieves after a looting.
This is not the Tao.
Living Honorably
Imagine that you were able to view the world from a position of complete honor and oneness: Everywhere you looked you saw the Great Way . . . and saw all of it as you. From this perspective, every person who’s ever existed, or will ever exist, is a part of you, birthed by your Source. All of life—the creatures, the land, the oceans, and the vegetation—are connected by the Tao. From this perspective, your world would change dramatically. If a critical mass of humanity had this same perspective, seeing the whole globe as part of ourselves would translate to the same respect for every form of life that we have for our individual bodies. And this unity would make the scene that Lao-tzu is describing in this passage impossible.
Despite all of our technological advances, the words that the great Chinese master wrote 2,500 years ago still apply. Unfortunately, we’re far removed from walking the Great Way, for we continue to see great divisions rather than a sense of unified oneness. As Lao-tzu admonishes at the end of this verse, “This is not the Tao.”
One of my favorite translations of this 53rd verse of the Tao Te Ching was written in 1944 by Witter Bynner. He expresses it perfectly:
See how fine the palaces
And see how poor the farms,
How bare the peasants’ granaries
While gentry wear embroideries
Hiding sharpened arms.
And the more they have the more they seize,
How can there be such men as these
Who never hunger, never thirst,
Yet eat and drink until they burst!
You can see that these conditions still exist today: Whole continents of people experience starvation, while a few in positions of power live in opulence and grandeur. Weapons of destruction receive funding, while millions live in poverty. Leaders sit down to overflowing plenitude, while the masses
