67
guard these treasures well
simplicity humility
and a mother’s love
Lesson # 67
I have three treasures,
guard them and keep them close:
The first is a love as deep
as the love a mother feels
towards her child. From my love
comes my courage.
The second is a simple frugal-minded
approach to life. From my simple life
comes my generosity.
The third is not needing to excel or
triumph or impress. From my humbleness
comes my leadership.
Come to everything from deep love.
From: 81 Lessons from the Tao Te Ching
Number 67 Three treasures
Some people think I’m awesome
Some people think I’m a nutcase
That is because I am talking about something
greater than the universe and beyond compare
If I were talking about anything less than that
my teachings would have been forgotten long ago
I have three treasures
Guard them and keep them close
The first is a love as deep as the love a mother feels towards their child
The second is a simple frugal minded approach to life
The third is not needing to excel or triumph or impress
From my love comes my courage
From my simple life comes my generosity
From my humbleness comes my leadership
These days people try to be courageous without love
they try to be generous without frugality
they try to lead from arrogance
Come to everything from deep love
It gives you the strength to defend your truth
and connects you with the source of Creation
which is the best protection
NUMBER SIXTY SEVEN
In the world many call me great, yet I seem to have no intelligence.
The Master indeed is great, yet he also seems to have no intelligence.
As regards our intelligence, its smallness is of long continuance.
The Master and I have three treasures,
We hold them and prize them.
The first is called “Deep Love,”
The second is called “Protectiveness,”
The third is called “Not planning to be first.”
Having Deep Love, you then can have courage.
Having Protectiveness, you then can give freely.
Not planning to be first, you will be a perfect instrument that will endure.
Now, men neglect Deep Love and seek courage,
They put aside Protectiveness and see extravagance.
They leave the second place and seek the first, Then death comes.
The Master fights by means of Love, then he conquers.
He keeps guard by means of it, then he is impregnable.
Heaven will save him and Love will defend him
Isabella Mears, The Tao Teh King, A Tentative Translation from the Chinese, William McLellan, Glascow, 1916.
Number 67 (commentary) Why is love so important?
In the Henry Wei’s translation, The Guiding Light of Lao Tsu, he says of Lao Tsu, “… he prefers the word tz’u (here translated as compassion) to the word ren (benevolence) preferred by Confucius. Tz’u essentially means motherly love.”
The power of the bond between a parent and their child can be profound. When I held my newborn daughter, just out of her mother’s womb, I could feel deep instinctual relays click at the core of my being, transforming me into the protector of this precious being for as long as I took a breath.
Love of the Tao is not some abstract concept. It is a profound commitment to life itself, ultimately a commitment so deep that you are willing to give up everything. You are even willing to give up clinging to your precious, manufactured identity.
Tangent and Tool #67, What spiritual enlightenment isn’t (Reflective exercise) The problem may have begun with Paramahamsa Yogananda’s book The Autobiography of a Yogi, published back in 1946. He wrote a powerful description of what the enlightenment breakthrough experience was like. I believe that many of us who read his work went on to infer that this burst of light was all that was needed. It seemed that, after enlightenment, you can just go on living in that enlightened state for the rest of your life. This was an irresistible drug to the goal-oriented, hard-driving, Western psyche. Questing for that mind-blowing opening became an industry. Meditation, yoga, fasting, esoteric drugs, anything to get to that permanent state of enlightenment and to let go of the ego and to know that you are everything, hopefully in psychedelic technicolor. This way the ego can parade as an enlightened ego.
Lao Tsu was much more practical. He knew that spiritual growth took a long time and a lot of hard work. Any experience of spaciousness and connection needed to be incorporated into a lifetime of integrity, leadership and generous kindness. Otherwise, it would be just another in the long line of fleeting experiences that you have over a lifetime.
Of course, the enlightened experience can support spiritual growth. In it we get a taste of being much more than our ego, a taste that extends far beyond the boundaries of our skin. It is a taste that we are not who we took ourself to be.
But blinding enlightenment is not necessary for spiritual growth, and it can’t replace the time, dedication, inner self reflection and outward service and kindness that is at the heart of spiritual work.