Flow with The River of Life (Tao Te Ching 28)

28

Understand the masculine (Yang)
but treasure the feminine (Yin).
Let a river of life flow out of you.
Be this river of life and Te
will spring up all around you.
Then you can breathe deep in faith,
like a little baby.

Understand the white
but treasure the black.
Be an example for the whole world.
Serving as an example for others,
you’ll still have sufficient Te
to rest in the infinite.

Understand glory
but treasure humility.
Make yourself lowly, like
the deepest valley.
Do this and you can harness
enough of TE’s natural flow
to move mountains.

Special instruments are carved
from a single piece of natural wood.
The Sage understands how to orchestrate
something beautiful
with these various instruments,
yet she treasures the organic whole from
which they come.

Written Reflection

This chapter reminds us of a church song we grew up singing, which included the following lyrics:

I've got a river of life flowing out of me
Makes the lame to walk and the blind to see
Opens prison doors, sets the captives free
I've got a river of life flowing out of me

Spring up Oh Well.
Within my soul.
Spring up Oh Well
And make me whole.
Spring up Oh Well
And give to me
That life abundantly.

Sometimes, when we recall old church songs we cringe. But this one holds up well in retrospect, especially the “opens prison doors” part. We live in a world that’s stingy about life. It assumes that there isn’t enough for everyone to have an abundance of it. Unfortunately, this perspective is impoverishing for all.

The river of life flowing out reminds us of an image of the goddess of mercy Guanyin, when we were touring a temple dedicated to her near Foshan, China. There are many various motifs of this popular but enigmatic goddess. But one that caught our attention (in addition to one that looked like the Virgin Mary with the Christ child, something Jeff suspects may have been influenced by early Nestorian Christian missions), there’s an image of her pouring out a jar of mercy, and the outpouring mercy is inexhaustible.

While we don’t share the religious beliefs of those who built the Foshan temple, the archetypal depiction of mercy and grace as an unyielding vessel is apt. For Christians, unconditional love is also unlimited love. This doesn’t mean we have to keep working hard to be loving and have an inexhaustible power source in our own bodies do good. It’s not about us in the first place, only how we are able to treasure the yin in everything, and allow our knowledge of how things work to tap effortlessly into a power that is outside of us but can flow through us. This is the virtue (Te) that flows perpetually from the source of all things (Tao).

Lao Tzu clearly favors the feminine principle, the negative space, and the faith of a child. This last preference is especially resonant with the teachings of Jesus about being childlike. Over and over, we’ve been pointing to teachings from Jesus but not to create a syncretistic new way of thinking. Instead we are showing how Jesus and Lao Tzu often were teaching similar things. This has little to do with what is known as doctrine in Christian theological circles, however.

He said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3 NIV)

But Lao Tzu doesn’t just go to the image of a young child, he turns our attention to a resting baby. This reminds us of a prayer by Kierkegaard.

"Teach me, O God, not to torture myself, not to make a martyr out of myself through stifling reflection, but rather teach me to breathe deeply in faith.” (Soren Kierkegaard, The Prayers of Kierkegaard, Edited and with a New Interpretation of His Life and Thought (Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1956), 36.)

In anxious times, one can breathe deep in faith only when there is a connection to the everlasting power of the Tao, which flows through humble places. If you’ve ever stepped into a flowing river, you can get a better sense of what this chapter is conveying about the power of yin. The lowly valley channels a natural force that cities now use to generate electricity. It’s a power that long ago carved out the Grand Canyon. It’s a power that we can surf to our destination of love.