Allow me to provide you with an example of this. My colleague and friend Radhika Kinger recently returned from a visit to Puttaparthi, India, where she was in the presence of Sathya Sai Baba, a God-realized master who lives and breathes all of the Divine messages presented in the Tao Te Ching. Here’s an excerpt from the letter she sent me afterward:
I just returned from Puttaparthi after spending a week there in Sai Baba’s Divine presence. I was saddened to see Sai Baba in a wheelchair due to multiple fractures in his hipbone. According to the doctors, no normal human body can survive such physical agony. But Sai Baba remains ever so blissful and completely unaffected by his physical condition.
A devotee asked Sai Baba how is it that a God-realized being has to undergo physical suffering. Why doesn’t he cure himself? To this Sai Baba replied, “My life is my message. People today need to learn to give up body attachment and experience their divinity within. Pain is a natural phenomenon. But suffering is a ‘choice.’ I do not suffer, as I am not the body.”
Sai Baba looked at his condition and declared himself to be sick of such a thing being in his life. Suffering with illness just isn’t an option when one lives in harmony with the Tao.
With years of addictive behavior behind me, I can tell you that the wisdom of this verse of the Tao Te Ching was largely responsible for my getting back to the purity and well-being from which I originated. I became sick of my sickness, as I was no longer willing to go through the withdrawals and shame that accompanied it. I saw my affliction not so much in the material world, but in the invisible world of my thoughts, which kept leading me back to the illness. When I finally changed the way I looked at all of this, I was able to bring about the seeming paradox of no longer being ill by getting to the point of being sick of it. And this is truly the secret of health.
Here’s how Lao-tzu would instruct you to put this wisdom to work for you here and now:
Have a happy mind.
An ancient Chinese proverb says that if a man has a happy mind, he will a have a happy body. A happy mind is sick of sickness—it refuses to anticipate that things will get worse. It sees a sniffle, a stomachache, back or knee discomfort, and fatigue as messages to follow the body’s signals back to a natural state of well-being. A happy mind thinks of the body as capable of healing infirmities because it knows that it isn’t a human creation, but a product of the Tao. A happy mind trusts the capacity of the body to live without sickness or suffering. So use your happy mind to work with you to stay healthy.
Examine your habits.
What daily habits distance you from your natural state of well-being? Any addictions, no matter how serious or minor they might seem, are beckoning you to be totally fed up with them. Get sick of being weakened by destructive pursuits. You know what they are, and you know when you’ve habitually let yourself become ill from food, alcohol, or drugs; or from the guilt and shame that results after a binge. Remember that “ignoring knowledge is sickness” and examine your fixations, vowing not to ignore your awareness of what they are.
Do the Tao Now
Dedicate a day to really listening to and trusting the messages from your body, and then listen to what your mind tells you about those signals. Introduce your mind to the possibility that the body is signaling a request that you can grant, such as a nap or a walk along the beach, for instance. Cultivate the Tao-centered happy mind, which will not entertain sickness thoughts.
72nd Verse
When people lack a sense of awe,
there will be disaster.
When people do not fear worldly power,
a greater power will arrive.
Do not limit the view of yourself.
Do not despise the conditions of your birth.
Do not resist the natural course of your life.
In this way you will never weary of this world.
Therefore, the sage knows himself
but makes no show of himself;
loves himself
but does not exalt himself.
He prefers what is within to what is without.
Living with
Awe and Acceptance
This verse of the Tao Te Ching alerts you to two components that work together for a harmonious life: a sense of awe and total acceptance. Without these combined forces, you’re unlikely to see the presence of the Tao.
As I wrote about this verse, I found myself reading from Saint John of the Cross, a 16th-century mystical poet who lived a life of awe. I’ve reproduced a few of his lines to give you an idea of how this feeling manifested in a Divinely spiritual man:
My Beloved is the mountains,
And lonely wooded valleys,
Strange islands,
And resounding rivers,
The whistling of love-stirring breezes,
The tranquil night
At the time of rising dawn,
Silent music,
Sounding solitude,
The supper that refreshes and deepens love.
This morning I sit here in my sacred space on Maui feeling an urgency that actually feels like the
