Number Seventy Seven: The Bow

77
the beggar in the street
and the king on his balcony
watch the same moon rise.


Lesson # 77

Imagine stringing a bow,
and you can understand
how the Tao works in the Universe.
You increase or decrease
the length of the string,
until it is just the right length.
You bend the bow
until it is at just the right curve.
You find the correct balance.

The best path towards our survival
is to start providing for the common good,
to find the right balance,
and to follow the guidance of the Tao.


From: 81 Lessons from the Tao Te Ching


Number 76 Suppleness

At birth
everyone is tender supple and weak
At our death
our corpses are hard rigid and stiff
All living things begin their life
as moist soft and tender
and at the end of their life
they are withered dry and desiccated
Therefore, the soft supple and tender are the companions of life
and the unyielding rigid and inflexible are the companions of death

An army that becomes inflexible is likely to lose the battle
A tree that is unbending cracks and topples in the high wind
The rigid and unyielding will eventually fall
The tender, open and flexible will eventually come out on top


NUMBER SEVENTY SEVEN

Heavenly Tao is like the bending of a bow.
That which is high is bent downwards,
That which is low is raised up,
That which is too much is lessened,
That which is not enough is increased.
Heavenly Tao takes from those who have too much,
And gives to those who have not enough.
The way of man is not thus,
He takes from those who have not enough,
And gives to those who already have too much.
Who is able to hold his wealth in order to give it to men?
Only he who has the Tao.
That is why the self-controlled man acts without looking for reward,
he brings to perfectness without claiming credit,
he desires not to let his wisdom appear.


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


Number 77 (commentary) What can I do?

I believe that, only after a series of catastrophic climate, environmental and social catastrophes, will the people in power either change or get replaced with folks who have new priorities. Until then, the plague of greed and the unrestrained capitalistic orientation towards exploitation, (rather than towards what is healthy for both humans and the environment) will continue unchecked. And things will get worse. So how can you live your life, many years of which may be spent in these plague times? All you can do is live your life as an example of a person who honors life and the natural unfolding of creation.
From one perspective the physical universe can be seen as a cold and unfeeling place. Should pollution, war and the end of all life on a tiny planet in a backwater galaxy in one of the many universes come to pass, it will not matter in the least. The Universe will continue to unfold. Eventually, our solar system will vanish into a black hole, just like everything else. And perhaps re-emerge in another reality.
The universe can also be seen as a vast experiment in the evolution of consciousness. For all our destructive potential, we evolved as a species that can experience beauty and awe. We evolved as a species capable of loving so much more than our own survival. We evolved into a species that can experience compassion, kindness and wisdom. We evolved knowing the truth of our own personal death. These are the gifts we bring to lay before the wonder of creation. Live your life in accordance with these gifts. That will probably be the best you can do. Therefore, it will be enough.
Tangent and Tool #77, What if we fail? (Reflective exercise) Let’s imagine four of the many future scenarios:
1- The autocrats end up ruling the world. They impose martial law to restrict everyone else’s greed and exploitation of the Earth. They impose regulations and things stop getting worse. Or things don’t stop getting worse. Then they will also pass away.
2- Social order breaks down in the face of unrelenting flood, drought, storms, pollution and topsoil loss. This becomes a lawless world of small bands of humans struggling to survive in a toxic world. Then that shall pass away.
3- Nuclear war breaks out and we bomb ourselves into a massive loss of life, and we cease to continue to exist as the dominant species on Earth. Then the radiation will fade and something new will happen.
4- Somehow, we managed to create a world of semi-cooperative nation states who agree, reluctantly, to endure international inspection and regulation for the sake of bringing this planet back to some form of health. And that too will pass away.
Ok, so some variation of these scenarios may occur. And other scenarios will emerge that you may not be able to imagine may occur (I like aliens landing, but that’s just because I am a geek). Anyway, whatever happens, you will be long dead.