MEDITATIONS: TAO TE CHING CHAPTER SEVENTY-NINE
harmonizing great resentments and injuries
requires a soft but steady equilibrium
but even in a gentle balancing of the scales
some friction and pain will always remain
harmony can still be reached
if the sage wise man doesn’t push
for complete unity
the sage wise man comes to understand that flawless justice
is impossible
so he holds an even temperament instead
great knowledge comes from the left hand
holding something broken and flawed
accept the small inequities
a bodymind embracing the tao way of life
doesn’t need perfection
a bodymind rejects the tao way of life
striving for perfection
remember
heaven lends its strength to those who
follow the natural laws of the universe
—Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching; An authentic Taoist translation. translated by John Bright-Fey
Resentment is the source of much malevolence and many destructive impulses and wills toward revenge. It is the desire for someone or something else to be different than it is. Such a desire cannot be fulfilled, and so its only possible manifestation is as the desire for that someone or something to not be at all. To harbor resentment in your heart is to give reign over your life to your innermost demons, and you can be sure that they will lead you off the Path and into ever deeper darkness, pain, and suffering.
Accepting yourself and the world at their lowest points is the only way to cure resentment. This is finding balance through bringing the will in line with what is as opposed to what we think ought to be. This is patterning ourselves after water; however, even accomplishing this, know that the results will necessarily be imperfect. Just as the Yang and Yin contain each other within themselves, so to will the Tao way of life always contain a tinge of resentment. That is why it the Way and not the destination: you must continually bring yourself in accord with the world because the world’s fundamental nature is change.
In short, there is no such thing as purity or perfection. There is only acceptance or rejection—the affirmation of life or its denial. If you reject everything but for the ideal, you give permission for nothing to be. You will be capable only of destruction and deconstruction, for everything which is will never meet your standard. On the other hand, if you accept unfairness, inequity, brokenness, and flaws, then you can rejoice in your circumstances and in your creations. Accepting imperfection, achievement becomes more than merely possible—it becomes inevitable.
Lao-tzu. “Chapter Seventy-Nine”. Tao Te Ching; An Authentic Taoist Translation, translated by John Bright-Fey, Sweetwater Press, 2014. p.141
