MEDITATIONS: TAO TE CHING CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

focus and forget

learn to understand the outside world by looking inward
and you will access true and authentic wisdom
learn to understand the inside world by looking outward
and you will access true and authentic knowledge

when true and authentic wisdom and true and authentic knowledge
intermingle, you will see
wise force at work and know how to employ it

control the useful parts with it
control the border between the inside world and the outside world
with it

be aware, alert, and relaxed as you are the crux of the moment

the tao will take you by surprise
flame, light, fog, and cloud appear
as boundaries are dissolved
and senses burned away

employ wise force to manage the moment
deliver confusion to the earth
rest comfortably
weep if you must but only in joyousness
and you will secure a silent and gentle victory

the tao source of life reaches out for you as you reach out for it
effortlessly flow into one another
feel the divine force spinning and oscillating to and from every quarter
and be content to know that
the plan upon which all of the universe is built
is perfect and complete
benevolent and giving

we have all that we require
protect the moment with the will, thought, and imagination
project yourself boldly in space and time
as you fortify all that has preceded it

remember where you are

remember where you came from

remember your significance as a facet of the tao source of life

you are everlasting

you can not die within the tao source of life

—Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching; An authentic Taoist translation. translated by John Bright-Fey

As we have learned through the course of these meditations, we should start this chapter’s lesson by focusing our attention and forgetting. Empty your cup, and make room for counter-intuitive insight that you might otherwise reject without ever entertaining it—without listening, considering—without thinking.

With our minds open, Lao-tzu suggests that we can better understand the external world through self-reflection, and that the opposite is also true, that we can better understand ourselves by looking from an outside perspective. These are not paradoxes but sage advice.

Often times, when dealing with external stimuli—whether that be people or circumstance—we don’t actually see what is in front of us. Instead, we project our own worries and insecurities onto others. If we are weak or lack aptitude, we view a competition as unfair. If we are jealous of another’s success, we say he or she is deceitful or undeserving. If we cannot bear to love ourselves, we believe that neither can anyone else, when really, in each of these cases, these are our own feelings coloring the world.

But it is not only the external world which we see obscured. This applies to ourselves as well. It is not uncommon for us to apply a double standard when it comes to judging and caring for ourselves. This can apply in one of two extremes, though both are equally destructive. On one end, to hold ourselves to no standards at all means that we will forever remain helpless children, dependent on others, holding back their development. On the other end, if we judge ourselves like a cruel taskmaster, we will never admit to any progress; we will always be failures in our own eyes and will thereby crush our desire to try at all. This is why it is useful for us to look at ourselves as though we were stranger. By placing our point of view outside our own heads, we have a better chance at judging ourselves fairly. We are more likely to admit to our faults and to let go of false guilt.

Combining these two perspectives is the merging of conscious knowledge and unconscious wisdom. It is part of self-knowledge—integration—individuation—the manifestation of human potential which allows us to see where our power lies. We become aware of what we’re responsible for, what is in our control, and what is not.

Again, Lao-tzu reminds us: this epiphany will come only by letting go. We cannot force a revelation. We must instead walk the Road slowly, one step at a time. And then, before we know it, we are in accord with the Tao, moving forward. In this state, stultified conceptions can be dissolved, confusion passes over the ego and is absorbed by the unconscious—for the ego is master of what is known, and the instincts master of novelty. In this state, we face life, affirm it, express our gratitude for it despite our inevitable suffering. And even that we turn upside down. The suffering is also a to be affirmed insofar as it is a part of bringing forth who we could be. For the manifestation of potential is the incorporation of the Tao source of life—it is the becoming “like God” or “like the transcendent,” each of us playing our part in the play of the universe.

Lao-tzu. “Chapter Thirty-Three”. Tao Te Ching; An Authentic Taoist Translation, translated by John Bright-Fey, Sweetwater Press, 2014. pp.65-6