The Healing Starts Within

Jeff enjoying a moment of elation near Moss Point, CA. Photo by Stacie.

54.

Whatever’s deeply planted

will never get uprooted.

Whatever’s held tightly

will never be stolen.

Those are the things your descendants 

will commemorate, long after you’re gone.

Foster the way in yourself and Te will be genuine.

Foster the way in the family and Te will thrive.

Foster the way in the community 

and Te will be enduring. 

Foster the way in the nation 

and Te will flourish.

Foster the way all over the world 

and Te will be ubiquitous.

Therefore, look at your actions

to behold who you are.

Look at the family’s dynamics 

to behold that family.

Look at the community’s ethos 

to behold that community.

Look at the nation’s structures 

to behold that nation.

Look at the world’s systems 

to behold what that world 

is truly about.

How do I understand this cosmic reality?

Like this…

Written Reflection

These days, it seems like the world is out of hand. You probably agree, even if you don’t share our political or spiritual perspectives. The question then becomes: is there any way for us to bring our world into better alignment with the way and its power. Lao Tzu does not tend to encourage worldwide movements, at least if by that we think in terms of imperial conquest over the world or violent revolution.

He does believe, however, that it is a way forward if we want to bring a healing influence into our midst. We start with ourselves. Once we start down the Way, some will leave us. Others will mock us. A few will even actively oppose us. But the Way authenticates itself. Those on the Way win people to the Way by romancing people stuck in the status quo to the idea that another world is possible.

This coincides with our current interest in exposing and addressing the unjust systems of society. In the history of Western Christianity, this topic was discussed under the concept of the “orders of creation theology.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a theologian who recognized, during the rise of Hitler, that religious endorsement of the domination system, hierarchy, militarism, and blind obedience to power through the concept of Schöpfungsordnungslehre, something we discussed on a recent podcast. In light of this conversation, we think Lao Tzu would clearly be interested in observing a nation by beholding the structures of that nation. Some label it “Critical Race Theory” but ultimately it is the mark of any sage to evaluate and discern the nature of a society and the way it socializes members of that society into it’s system.

The Tao Te Ching is politically dangerous not because it advocates a frontal assault on the powers that be, but rather delegitimizes the foundations of their unjust systems. By ceasing to believe in the false way of hierarchy and domination, the sage is free to step aside from the dying world structures that are falling. Their fall is the apocalypse, or unveiling, of the reality that human attempts to construct their own fortresses of money, power, and glory can never be long lasting. But the little steps we take to bring our world toward happiness and freedom plant eternal seeds.

How do we know this to be the way to go? Try it and see what the results will be, like this…