CHANGE Your Thoughts – Change Your Life
Living the Wisdom of the Tao
48-51
10th Verse
Carrying body and soul
and embracing the one,
can you avoid separation?
Can you let your body become
as supple as a newborn child’s?
In the opening and shutting of heaven’s gate,
Can you play the feminine part?
Can you love your people?
And govern your domain
without self importance?
Giving birth and nourishing;
having, yet not possessing;
working, yet not taking credit;
leading without controlling or dominating.
One who heeds this power
brings the Tao to this very earth.
This is the primal virtue.
Living Oneness
This verse once again examines the paradoxical nature of life on earth.
-He encourages comfort with the seemingly opposites of body and soul.
This teaching takes the form of questions:
-Can you avoid seeing us as separate and bodies as separate from spirit?
-Can an adult body with the problems of aging remain “supple,” perhaps easily “going with the flow” of life?
-Is it possible to work and struggle, living with the positive and negative of life and still be in feminine spirit filled with creative energy?
-Can you succeed and be in positions of power and be free of “self importance?’
-Can you give birth and nourish and not attempt to possess?
-Can you work without taking credit?
-Can you lead without controlling and dominating?
If you live life without separating body and soul, you bring the Tao to earth, which is the primal virtue.
The 10th verse promotes living by “embracing the one” (Body and spirit in each of us and the same spirit in all of us.)
Dyer’s interpretation of Lao Tzu’s advice is:
Embrace oneness by seeing yourself
In everyone you encounter.
Practice awareness whenever you feel inclined to criticize or hate anyone or any group.
See yourself, the same spirit in all forms of life.
Take pleasure from what you possess without
Being attached to these things.
Let go of identification with your stuff and your accomplishments.
-Instead become an observer, enjoy what you do and all that flows into your life for the pleasure of doing and enjoying the flow itself.
Do the Tao Now
Today practice seeing oneness where you’ve previously seen separation.
Feel the invisible energy that beats your heart, that allows you to think and sense it doing the same for every being alive.
Contemplate the words from the Gospel of Thomas:” …the kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it.”
-Know that practicing oneness will help you see that kingdom.