Number Fifty One The Natural Way

51
everything is born
nourished fostered harvested
love what does that

Lesson # 51

Everything that comes into existence
has an innate capacity to
express its true being.
Most conscious beings
can do this naturally.
“Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly.”
Plants and animals act
in alignment with the natural flow
and unfolding of the universe.
It’s harder for human beings.
We live in a season of discontent.
We want to fix and change things.

Reality is just there
inviting us to join its flow,
in right relationship to
the natural way.
.
From: 81 Lessons from the Tao Te Ching


Number 51 The natural way of things

With the creation of the universe
came certain natural laws
spin gravity complexity differentiation diversity
evolution ecological balance and homeostasis
entropy
to name a few
On this planet the environment shaped life
and then life also shaped the environment

Before Civilization erupted
all living creatures acted
inherently in coordination with nature
This is an expression of the Tao

Within the inherent harmony of nature
life is nourished
power is balanced
Over time cooperation is evolutionarily selected as successful
Excessive greed is evolutionarily de-selected as unsuccessful
There is no need for competition ownership or empire

To live simply
without harming others out of greed
is living in right relationship with nature and the Tao


NUMBER FIFTY ONE

Tao gives Life to all beings.
Teh nourishes them.
It gives to each being its form.
It gives the inward urge towards perfectness.
That is why there is no living creature that does not reverence Tao and honour Teh.
The veneration of Tao!
The honour of Teh!
No Master has decreed it,
But eternally it affirms the Self.
Therefore Tao gives Life to all beings,
It nourishes and makes them grow,
It rears them and perfects them,
It sustains, feeds, and protects them.
It gives them Life, but does not possess them.
It gives them activity, but does not depend on them.
It urges them to grow, but does not rule them.
This is called profound Teh.

Isabella Mears, The Tao Teh King, A Tentative Translation from the Chinese, William McLellan, Glascow, 1916.


Number 51 (commentary) Why is everything so messed up?

The evolution of the universe and the evolution of life follows certain immutable laws.
Expansion and diversity increase over time. Cooperation within and between species (over time) triumphs over competitiveness and domination.
These laws create a system of life that is self-metabolizing: when lions die, their bodies decompose, eventually becoming nutrients in the soil that give life to plants, which in turn are eaten by animals, who become prey to the lions.
Without conscious choice, everything lives in accordance with the principles of life, the Tao.
Then along comes Man; who lives by making unnatural choices; Man who intentionally exploits nature for personal gain; Man who cares little, or not at all, about the expense of his endeavors upon the environment.
How will we learn to live for the common good?
How will we learn to live in harmony with the natural way, the way of the Tao?

Tangent and Tool #51, Ancestors A question and a reflection: “What do my ancestors have to do with anything?” Lao Tsu does not mention ancestor reverence in the Tao Te Ching. That is because there was no need to. It was as fundamental to his life as breathing. The thought that someone would ignore, or even never know about the existence of their forbearers was unthinkable. Ancestors who lived generations past still influenced the life of anyone living in China in Lao Tsu’s time.
One aspect of Western consciousness is our temporal nearsightedness. Right now is what really matters. This perpetrates the belief that we can exploit nature to get what we want. The only relevant age group for most folks is 18-65. That is what we consider adulthood. Before that eighteenth birthday, any belief or opinion you might hold is held in disdain by “adults” as immature. Beyond that 65th birthday lurks elderhood, which is often thought of as synonymous with doddering, forgetful senility. And after death the knowledge and experience of the elder is quickly written off as extraneous and worth forgetting. We live in an envelope of time that is about 47 years long, anything before or after that is basically irrelevant to our lives. And so, we forget.
Listening to the wisdom of our ancestors is alive and well today in African spirituality. A Wise Woman guide, during my vision quest (Bukelwa), introduced me to an ancestor of mine who is still guiding this work. Our ancestors are a source of wisdom, if you choose to access them. What would our great-great-grandparents say to us about this world we created today? Of course, they would be wowed by the technological wonders. But what would they say about what we have done to the Earth?