71
get over yourself
you can’t figure this out
you are the problem.
Lesson # 71
To realize how much
you do not know
is spiritual strength.
To pretend to know more
than you actually know
is spiritual disease.
The first step is to realize
how much of that disease
you already have.
When you get sick of being sick,
you start towards spiritual health.
That is the never-ending path
of a pilgrim
From: 81 Lessons from the Tao Te Ching
Number 71 Sick of being sick
To realize how much you do not know
is spiritual strength
To pretend to know more than you actually know
is spiritual disease
The first step
is to realize how much of that disease you already have
When you get sick of being sick
you start towards spiritual health
That is the path of the pilgrim
NUMBER SEVENTY ONE
To know that we are ignorant is a high attainment.
To be ignorant and to think we know is a defect.
The Master indeed can cure this defect.
That is why he has not this defect.
The self-controlled man has not this defect,
He takes hold of his defect and cures it.
That is why he has not this defect.
Isabella Mears, The Tao Teh King, A Tentative Translation from the Chinese, William McLellan, Glascow, 1916.
Number 71 (commentary) Why I need to become a problem to myself.
All of us human beings share this disease called Compulsive “I”-ness: I am, I know, I act, I accomplish, I fail.
Symptoms of this illness of Compulsive “I”-ness include aloneness, isolation, a sense of meaninglessness, a hunger for control, a satisfying sense of specialness, a desperate need for others attention and/or a desperate hatred of others, a sense of entitlement of others attention and caring, a separateness from everything and everyone else, an idea that you end at the boundary of your skin, a fear of death and a fear of the termination of this precious “I-ness”. We are glad to collude with everyone else to spread the disease. We eagerly infect our children with it by teaching them their own special name for themselves.
The truth of the matter is that you are merely one point of perception, swirling around in an infinite ocean of other points of perception, with no lasting distinction from any other point besides the reality of your present location.
You are just another sensory organ of the Tao as it dances in an eternal dance of self-awareness.
Marge Piercy ended her poem “Councils” with these words:
After each speaks, she or he
will repeat a ritual phrase:
“It is not I who speaks but the wind.
Wind blows through me.
Long after me, is the wind.”
Tangent and Tool #71, The fight goes on A question and a reflection: “Isn’t this my fight to fight?” We think we have to fight for the Earth (or social justice, survival of our species, animal rights, or any of the many important battles we can take on). But what if we have that backwards What if it isn’t one hero against the multitude of enemies? What if you begin to see yourself as just another one of the many hands doing the work of a much larger body? What if we start to see ourselves as Earth taking the next necessary step? Or we see ourselves as Humanity struggling to mature? Or as Kindness and Compassion manifesting as social action? What if it isn’t all about me as an individual and my own struggles and victories