65
There were those of old who knew the Way,
And loved it in their daily lives.
They did not preach enlightenment,
Or practice deceit among the people.
They lived well because they lived simply.
Now with trickery and brilliance
Are the people governed,
And yet with the utmost difficulty!
A country ruled with cleverness
Is a country gone to waste.
Govern your country in simple innocence,
And it will be blessed among nations.
Remaining aware of the alternatives,
Our conduct may be correctly guided.
Holding fast to this guiding awareness
Is the action of natural virtue.
Natural virtue comes from clarity-
The resonant clarity of the Cosmic Source.
It draws us back within, to the Original Essence-
The great Harmonic, which may be touched
Every day in loving gratitude.
People are not by nature stupid and submissive, as some would make them out to be. This is why it is so difficult to govern them with "trickery and brilliance," because they can inwardly read deceit and corruption in a leader, even if they appear to go along with the program.
"A country ruled with cleverness" is one whose leaders have set themselves above and apart from the people. It is as if such leaders parade their own enlightenment in the ways of governing before the people (a very common practice in election campaign speeches), to prove their fitness to rule. Inevitably, such nonsense will be exposed, because it traps itself in its own complex net of lies.
Lao Tzu offers a more practical and resonant approach to leadership, which accords with his teaching on personal governance: "remaining aware of the alternatives." It is to be noted that he does not speak in terms of "remaining aware of the opposites," because he is trying to lead us past an apparent paradox. To live well (and to lead well) by living simply is not to reduce every course of action to diametrically opposed paths, but to nurture one's own inner ability to feel and balance an entire range of alternatives. For when every decision is reduced to one of two opposing options (the Republican way or the Democratic way; to attack or to resort to diplomacy; to tax and spend or to offer tax breaks), a broad spectrum of possibility is ignored. It is within that very spectrum that the correct solution usually lies, and not at the polar extremes of choice. When we are reduced to governing from within the realm of opposites, then trickery and manipulation are required to divert the people from following the way of common sense and inner clarity. Lao Tzu is asking the modern leader, "why waste or repress resources that will make your job infinitely easier?" For when the Sage is allowed to lead, then much of the work of governing tends to happen by itself, through the "natural virtue" of each individual. This process leads the nation to the harmony in which true leadership spontaneously occurs; this is the "simple innocence" of which the poet speaks.
66
Breadth of river, depth of sea-
How is it that they seem to rule the world?
Because they can infiltrate a kingdom,
Or plumb the depths of a ravine,
And give life to the hundred fertile valleys.
In leading others, learn first to follow.
In speech, let your words find their own level.
To lead the people, learn to nourish them.
Let the Sage be your model:
It dwells in leadership
Without the oppression of superiority.
It dwells in leadership,
Yet the Sage offends no one.
Thus is it honored by all who approach it,
For it never exhausts them.
It is sublime, benevolent:
And therefore no one competes with it.
Lao Tzu here continues his discussion of the theme of leadership from the previous poem. When leaders of the people allow the Sage to guide them in their work, they become like water. It doesn't calculate its flowing course, but simply follows the shape of the land wherever it leads, whether through a king's domain or into the depths of a ravine. As it travels, the water nourishes the land that receives it, in a dance of complementarity: the land provides the space and direction for the water's movement, and the water returns to it the elements necessary for fertile growth. Thus does the poet advise leaders: "learn first to follow," and then "learn to nourish." In nature, neither the water nor the land put on airs of superiority, control, or command, but each provides the other what it needs to realize its destiny. This is the way to lead people: follow the shape of their needs and circumstances, and then ask for the guidance of the Sage in providing them the direction and sustenance they need to fulfill their destiny. Thus, you will not offend them, because they will not perceive you as a superior; and you will never exhaust them, because they will not see you as a competitive force. This is the way of true benevolence.
67
People think the Tao extraordinary,
And tell me, 搘hat a wonder you have made!?br> Perhaps the only wonder is
That we should think it extraordinary at all.
For if it were truly a mere
Treasure of the imagination,
Then it would be as good as worthless.
I have but three pearls
That I keep and cherish:
The first is love,
The second is avoiding excess,
The third is modesty.
When these three lead, the true self follows.
Love can thereby be fearless,
Excess negated can thus be generous,
Modesty can therefore lead the world,
And help its life force to endure.
But today the ego has renounced pure love,
And elevated empty chivalry;
It has wasted moderation
By exalting lavishness;
It has abandoned modesty
For the sake of renown.
This is to walk the path of death.
Enter a conflict with love still alive,
For its defense is stronger
Than the highest wall can ever provide.
The Tao, of course, is not at all extraordinary梠nly ego makes it so. Tao is the ordinary, normal way of life and being within the cosmos. Lao Tzu didn't create the Tao梚t is not a figment of his imagination, nor some cosmological theory he invented, nor a pleasant but idle puddle of poetic fancy. Tao is Lao Tzu's name for the living Consciousness that we can experience through our inner life, and Te (Modesty) is a word for how that experience can transform both the outer and inner aspects of our lives. Lao Tzu is again encouraging us to "negate the excess" of fixed beliefs and attitudes toward life and the cosmos, and experience Tao for ourselves, within ourselves梩o see how this living but impersonal Presence finds voice and substance within the unique vessel of each true self梖or where it leads, the true self follows.
68
The natural fighter spurns aggression,
For a war cannot be won in vengeance.
He defeats his enemy by discarding enmity.
A skillful manager directs the work
By humbly serving those who do it.
This is called natural Modesty:
It gets things done without striving,
And lets each individual achieve his destiny.
Though the world may call it great,
It is simply the surpassing of greatness.
In the inner war, a spirit of vengeance inflames and empowers the demons of ego, since it casts us headlong into the bloody hell of opposition. This undermines the goal of self-development, which is to kill and transform the demonic consciousness of acculturation. To manage such a war correctly requires an attitude of humility梱ou put the work into the hands of those best able to do it right梩he helping energies of the hidden world. This is how true greatness is achieved.
69
The generals have a saying
Which they apply to war,
And I teach it too:
Better to be aggression's guest,
Than its partisan host.
Better to draw back a mile
Than press forward an inch.
This is called marching
Without moving your feet;
Capturing without an assault;
Defeating without an enemy.
For there is no greater error
Than looking outward for enemies.
To look outward for enemies
Is to estrange your only true self.
This is why two sides opposed
Will fight to a bloody draw,
Where sorrow is the only victor.
This poem contains a warning against adopting a way of impulsive action, which will inevitably trap a person within a self-perpetuating cycle of opposition, where conflict is unceasing, battle lines always drawn and redrawn, where truce is tenuous and temporary, and where only sorrow wins. As elsewhere in the Tao Te Ching, the metaphor of "moving the feet" is symbolic of impulsive action梥ee also Chapters 31 and 64. Again, Lao Tzu points out that aggression tends to perpetuate itself: the search for outer enemies is the first and final act of self-destruction.
70
My words can transform understanding,
And are very easy to live with:
So why doesn抰 the world understand them?
And why doesn抰 it live by them?
My words have a primal Origin;
My action also has its natural Guide.
If you don抰 know these,
Then you can抰 know me.
Thus, there are but few
Who can understand my words.
To these, the words point the way
To their own inner treasure.
Such awareness is often couched
In coarse appearance,
Nurturing the jewel within.
In this poem, Lao Tzu asks the Tao itself to speak in the first person, describing its nature, action, and the correct means of approaching it. In the very first line, the essence of the Tao in action is revealed: transformation. The Pinyin Chinese word for transformation is "yi," the very same character in the title of the oracle, "Yi Jing" (which is the same as I Ching in the Wade-Giles system of transliteration). As in Chapter 1 and throughout the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu describes the natural use of language as the path of Te, or Modesty: the Tao in action within the human realm of being. Words cannot tell us what Tao is, but they can tell us what it does梙ow it functions through our unique consciousness. Language arises from inner clarity, and it expresses this clarity; then, it returns to the Origin, which is silence. This is the transformative path of natural language梐 path that is described here and in Hexagram 1 of the I Ching.
71
Awareness of the poverty of knowledge
Is all the knowledge you need.
Repression of the awareness
Is the seed of disease.
You can remove the disease
By watching the symptoms,
And sickening their origin.
Thus the follower of the Sage:
He guards his health
By being aware of disease.
Thus he never seems sickened,
Since he feels his own pain.
Negative emotions, such as hatred, envy, pity, and contempt are the symptoms of the metaphorical disease described in this poem. The symptoms of the disease must be watched, because they lead one to the "seed of disease," which is the arrogance of knowledge, exemplified in the false and superficial ideas that comprise the one-sided vision of scholarly accumulation (see also Chapter 81). True awareness is the consciousness of the poverty of knowledge in isolation from the totality of being; to fully sense this poverty is to "feel one's own pain," without the empty and officious compassion of a politician, a guru, or some other authority. This is the "awareness of disease" that Lao Tzu reminds us to nurture within ourselves: the deep self-knowledge that comes when you are acutely aware of not-knowing. This is the path of true independence.
72
Let the fear of God die among the people,
And they will find their own true guide within.
Do not constrict them in their homes,
Or oppress them at their work,
For if the people lack a sense of burden,
Then they will not feel oppressed.
Thus, the teaching heart of the Cosmos:
It is a living, dynamic consciousness-
It draws close to sincerity,
And retreats from exaltation.
The former it receives,
The latter it discards.
The fear of God is of a distant and threatening Being, which can only inflict pain and guilt, while repressing one's inner truth (the "true Guide" mentioned). Societies and governments behave like such a daunting God-force when they dictate and limit the acceptable norms of living and working, even to the point of defining what a proper home and job must be. When these strictures are lifted, then there is the deepest liberation. Just be sincere, and you will be helped.
73
The wooden impetuosity of the hero
Is the path of inner death.
Courage that retreats from daring
Is the path of inner life.
Yet one who walks on either road
Will sometimes suffer, sometimes prosper-
As if God indeed played dice,
While humans fought to find His Reason.
The Cosmic Consciousness does not compete,
And thus it simply finds its way.
It doesn抰 have to talk or make its point,
And thus it can communicate.
It does not send an invitation,
It so naturally attracts all being.
It does not micromanage,
And all its parts harmonize.
The Cosmic Whole is like a net-
So perfectly cast, its open meshes are capable
Of catching everything.
74
People don't truly fear death,
But they do fear being threatened with it.
When people's fears are thus enlivened,
It is a crime of intimidation-inner murder.
But it is the criminal thought, and not the man,
Who must be caught and killed.
There may always be those who use death to further power,
But they are not to be opposed.
For they would usurp the place of the Cosmic Artisan,
And try to do the work of Nature
Without the ability to use its tools.
Thus, the pretenders will but seldom fail
To shed the blood of their own incompetence.
75
People go hungry because taxes eat their food.
Therefore, the people go hungry.
People are hard to manage because they are oppressed.
Therefore, they are hard to manage.
People laugh at death because their lives are cheapened
With the weight of expectation.
This is why they laugh at death.
Who could value life
When food is scarce, and freedom repressed?
The peculiar structure of this verse, with its apparently clumsy redundancy, has been a matter of comment and rationalization by scholars and translators. Perhaps this poem's structure is best explained as a matter of emphasis: Lao Tzu is underscoring the inexorable and appalling connection between taxation and hunger, oppression and rebellion, despair and the cheapening of life. The expression "the people" is not a mere empty ideological abstraction, to be written into constitutions and political speeches, while each unique individual within the nation is forgotten or suppressed. Lao Tzu uses the alliterative language of verse to make a subtle but crucial point: "the people" are real beings, not a collective abstraction, and so when a government represses their natural freedom or robs them of their livelihood, then it has stolen from the treasure of each individual's life and its potential.
