Do the Tao Now
Make time to do something you’ve never done before—it could be walking barefoot in the rain, taking a yoga class, speaking before a group at a Toastmasters Club, playing a game of touch football, jumping out of an airplane in a parachute, or anything else you’ve always wanted to do. Recognize that you’ve created restrictions for yourself that keep you from new and expanding experiences, and find the time now to close your personal rule book and plunge in where you’ve never before wandered. Also, make time to give those in your charge an opportunity to do the same, enjoying how much they accomplish with minimal or no action on your part.
58th Verse
When the ruler knows his own heart,
the people are simple and pure.
When he meddles with their lives,
they become restless and disturbed.
Bad fortune is what good fortune leans on;
good fortune is what bad fortune hides in.
Who knows the ultimate end of this process?
Is there no norm of right?
Yet what is normal soon becomes abnormal;
peoples’s confusion is indeed long-standing.
Thus the master is content to serve as an example
and not to impose his will.
He is pointed but does not pierce;
he straightens but does not disrupt;
he illuminates but does not dazzle.
Living Untroubled by
Good or Bad Fortune
The world of the 10,000 things is also called “the world of the changing.” You see it in your ever-altering life, even as you want everything to be stable and predictable. However, all things on our planet are in constant motion. As Albert Einstein once observed, “Nothing happens until something moves.” This 58th verse of the Tao Te Ching stresses that there’s another way to see the world, one that virtually guarantees that you’ll be untroubled by good or bad fortune. Instead of only noticing the constantly shifting energy pattern of the material world, this verse invites you to let yourself focus on the unchanging Tao.
Like most humans, you probably want your surroundings to be permanent, steady, reliable, secure, and predictable. However, your reality unequivocally insists that you take into account the opposite and unpredictable that are present in every experience you have. After all, even the landscape that surrounds you is far from orderly: Mountain ranges go up and then down into valleys. Trees tower over shrubs, and cloud formations are ominously black at times and fluffy white at others. In every perfectly sunny day, there’s a storm hiding, and in every rainstorm lies a drought waiting its turn. Up and down and the unexpected are the norm of nature; hills and dales are the way of the 10,000 things.
Change your view of the peaks and valleys of all of life to an attitude that allows you to discover what’s hidden in both of those experiences. Begin to see wholeness rather than good or bad fortune. See opposites as parts of oneness, rather than disrupting surprises. In a world of pure Taoist unity, there’s no good or bad luck; it’s indivisible. What you’re calling “bad” fortune has “good” just waiting to emerge because it’s the other half.
Lao-tzu’s advice for applying the 58th verse to today’s world would probably include the following:
See wholeness in place of good or bad fortune.
When anyone is in the midst of an experience you believe is fortunate, such as a blissful relationship, financial success, excellent health, a great job with a new promotion, or children excelling in school, know that all is subject to change. Accumulated wealth has poverty hidden in it; popularity has nonrecognition camouflaged in it, too. And, of course, the same is true during the periods that are generally thought of as unfortunate.
Your life itself is the perfect place to personalize your ability to live untroubled by good or bad fortune, for you have the opportunity at every stage to see wholeness. So rather than calling youth an aspect of “good fortune” and old age a mark of “bad fortune,” know that the youth you were is part of the wholeness of your old age. The elderly individual you may become is part of the wholeness of your development through the levels of change that are your physical existence. Life has death concealed in it. So know your own heart and let your conduct be consistent with the Tao by not imposing your will—be pointed, straight, and illuminating without piercing, disrupting, or dazzling.
When bad fortune feels so troublesome that you can’t get unstuck, see good fortune leaning on it.
When you feel overpoweringly discouraged during a trip through the valley of despair, it can feel as if that’s all there is. If you’re unable to see a circumstance or situation as part of a larger picture, remind yourself that good fortune is leaning on this bad one, just as morning follows the darkest night. With wholeness as a backdrop, rely on your knowledge of day following night at these times. Keep 58th Verse in mind that when you’ve reached the valley floor, the only direction you can go is upward. Things definitely will get better; your luck must change; scarcity has to turn into abundance. This is because good fortune is invisibly there in all moments of despair, and you want to learn to live untroubled by them both.
Do the Tao Now
Spend a day noticing what aspects of life fall into the categories of “fortunate” or “unfortunate.” List them under their titles at the end of the day, and then explore each
