MEDITATIONS: TAO TE CHING CHAPTER THIRTY
the ancient child asks
who can help
anyone
the ancient child asks
who can help you
everyone
the ancient child asks
how can you help them
by showing them how to be resolute
the ancient child asks
how can they help you
by learning to be resolute
the ancient child asks
what is resolute
not violent
not arrogant
not boastful
not haughty
not weak
not obsequious
the ancient child asks
why must they be resolute
because there is no other way to enter the tao source of life
the ancient child asks
who acts with resolve and determination
a good man
who protects his essential nature and abhors unwise force
but acts when it is time to act
acts resolutely
stops and withdraws
—Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching; An authentic Taoist translation. translated by John Bright-Fey
The wise traveler is first and foremost a leader, an example, a pioneer and ideal. He teaches not through lectures nor dialectics, only by showing what we all ought to be. Thus can he teach anyone, even those who do not share his language or values. They can see for themselves his virtues and the fruits produced by those virtues. Likewise can the wise traveler learn from anyone or anything. As the ideal exemplar, he must be the ideal learner as well, open to the wisdom hidden in even the dullard’s or the madman’s ravings.
And what is the highest virtue that the wise traveler can teach? To “be resolute—” but what does that mean? Lao-tzu defines for us what the resolute man is not: violent nor arrogant (he does not rely on force and self-deception), boastful nor haughty (he values humility over arrogance), weak nor obsequious (he is competent and self-determined). In this way, Lao-tzu describes the resolute man as he who is reasonable, honest, humble, able, and independent—he describes the essential qualities of a wise traveler who leads others into becoming leaders themselves. For the only Way in accord with the Tao source of life is just that, the Tao.
How the Tao appears to each man depends on that man’s time and place, the current state of Nature, and his internal nature as well. However, whatever the appearance of the Road to each individual, it shows itself only to the resolute man—he who accepts his nature, who does not resort to forcing the world to conform to his will (a suicidal endeavor which can only result in self-deception and self-destruction). He is the man whose eyes are open, ready to act when opportunity presents itself; and he is the man who lets go when that opportunity passes. He clings to nothing, traversing moment to moment.
Lao-tzu. “Chapter Thirty”. Tao Te Ching; An Authentic Taoist Translation, translated by John Bright-Fey, Sweetwater Press, 2014. pp.57-8
