65
put down this book
leave the university
sit by a still pond.
Lesson # 65
Take heed from the ancient masters.
They did not teach the Tao
to make people enlightened.
They taught the truth about reality
to make people more compassionate.
Teaching more and more facts and rules
only inflates your own narcissism,
as another spiritual expert.
Teach by being wisdom in action,
and you will make everything better.
From: 81 Lessons from the Tao Te Ching
Number 65 Cleverness
The ancient rulers who followed the Tao
kept people stupid simple
and close to the land
Because
urban clever and conniving people
are hard to rule
When rulers tried to be
more clever and cunning than the people they rule
they failed at ruling miserably
The ancient rulers understood the way Primal Truth works
Primal Truth eventually will lead people to deep understanding
beyond cleverness and cunning
and back to oneness
NUMBER SIXTY FIVE
Of Old, he who was active in Tao
did not use it to make people enlightened, but to make them more kind.
If people are difficult to govern it is because they have too much knowledge.
Therefore if you govern a kingdom by knowledge,
you will be an oppressor of the kingdom.
But if you govern a kingdom by wisdom,
you will give happiness to the kingdom.
If you know and do these things you will be a pattern for men.
Knowledge of how to be always a pattern for men is called profound Teh.
Profound Teh is in the very source of life,
it pervades the utmost limits of life, it returns and dwells in every being.
When fully manifested, it unites all beings in a great harmony.
Isabella Mears, The Tao Teh King, A Tentative Translation from the Chinese, William McLellan, Glascow, 1916.
Number 65 (commentary) Why did Lao Tsu want to keep people stupid?
Lao Tsu only knew a traditional, autocratic government ruled by kings and emperors. He lived in the dying moments of the Zhou Empire surrounded by corruption at the highest levels of government. He had been raised in a culture that idealized the past and he felt that people in his life were falling short of what had once been. He longed for an Ancient Golden Age when rulers were good and people were simple, kind and politically loyal (A little like how the media idealizes life in the United States in the early 1950’s, with everything getting better under the beneficent rule of government and industry.)
Today we understand that the “Golden Age” never existed. The 50’s spawned totalitarian governments more despotic that we had ever imagined. Enlightenment values of reason, tolerance, and the separation of church and state are being replaced by today’s Age of Opinion Influencers, and Media Hype. Today the scientific method of determining verifiable truth is mocked, doubted and even villainized. Opinions that attract thousands of followers are king and the more those opinions can induce fear, the faster they spread. The social fabric of trust that holds societies together is being torn apart by a social media that thrives on (and profits from) division. Happiness is being defined by how much you own, rather than how well you can love, or how much integrity you have.
In a democracy, a citizenry devoted to the act of seeking knowledge gained by investigation and thoughtful reflection is a necessity. Democracy thrives when a knowledgeable citizens support it. We desperately need those values for the sake of making our democracies work. And we may have created institutions that will swiftly undermine that effort. We, as a species, are becoming stupid and easy to rule, pawns of the rich and powerful.
Tangent and Tool #65, Lao Tsu’s legacy A question and a reflection: “Is this the End of Times?” Nope, just another ending. Lao Tsu lived in the era of a decaying dynasty. All around him he saw greed, corruption and the hunger for power. He decided to take a long view, knowing he could do little about the world he lived in. Instead, he sought to bring his learnings to future generations who might do a better job at ruling and at living. That was wise, because all empires decay. The Umayyad Caliphate, the Abbasid Caliphate, the Roman Empire, The Mongol Empire, the Russian Empire, the First Persian Empire, the Spanish Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the British Empire and the economic empire based in the United States, all have had their time in the sun. And all but the most recent have gone into decline and eventually faded away. Yet, in their heyday they believed that theirs was the ultimate form of governance and power and that their empire would last forever. Believers living while their empires are crumbling around them find it hard to accept the impact of entropy on their Empire. The best we can do in these times is, like Lao Tsu, to send forward what we have learned in the hope that our children and the children of the next empire to come might do a better job at living and at governing.