CHANGE Your THOUGHTS – Change YOUR Life
Living the Wisdom of the Tao
By Wayne Dyer
Pages 60-67
13th Verse
Favor and disgrace seem alarming.
High status greatly afflicts your person.
Why are favor and disgrace alarming?
Seeking Favor is degrading:
Alarming when it is gotten,
Alarming when it is lost.
Why does high status greatly afflict your person?
The reason we have a lot of trouble is that we have selves.
If we had no selves,
What trouble would we have?
Man’s true self is eternal,
Yet he thinks, I am this body and will soon die.
If we have no body, what calamities can we have?
One who sees himself as everything
Is fit to be guardian of the world.
One who loves himself as everyone
Is fit to be teacher of the world.
Living with an Independent Mind – Summary
The essential message of the 13th verse is that it is crucial to remain independent of both the positive and negative opinions of others.
-Being in other’s favor or disfavor cause equal worry.
-Winning favor burdens one with fear of losing it.
-Pursuing status stops Divine energy from entering your independent mind.
-Status causes your mind to depend on external signals, not inner voice.
-Both favor & disfavor are part of the perfect alignment
-Both success and failure are equal ailments.
-Ego & self importance are troublemakers energized by your material self.
-With no body & no ego our invisible soul is independent of other’s opinions
-One who knows his lot to be the lot of all men is safe to guide them.
One who recognizes all men as members of his own body is sound to guard them.
Practice trusting your own inner nature.
Every passionate thought you have about how you want to live your life is evidence you’re in harmony with your unique nature.
-If you’re insecure when others disagree with you, remember “seeking favor is degrading” and will lead you out of touch with your true self.
-Remember you are not just your body, and seeking the approval of others who are also not their body doubles the illusion that the physical is all we are.
Practice being the person Lao-tzu describes.
Affirm: I am guardian of the world and am fit to be teacher of the world; because you are connected to everyone and everything through an independent mind whose Source is Love
Do the Tao Now
Work at living in complete harmony with your own nature, ignoring pressures to be otherwise
14th Verse
That which cannot be seen is called invisible
That which cannot be heard is called inaudible.
That which cannot be held is called intangible.
These three cannot be defined;
Therefore, they are merged as one.
Each of these three is subtle for description.
By intuition you can see it, hear it, and feel it.
Then the unseen,
Unheard, and untouched are present as one.
Its rising brings no dawn,
Its setting no darkness; it goes on and on, un-nameable,
returning into nothingness.
Approach it and there is no beginning;
Follow it and there is no end.
You cannot know it, but you can be it,
At ease in your own life.
Discovering how things have always been
brings one into harmony with the way.
Living Beyond Form
We are encouraged to live with a total awareness by not relying on our senses.
-Living beyond form (without eyes, ears or holding) allows awareness of spirit, or Tao.
Some scholars consider the 14th verse to be the most significant of the 81 because it stresses the significance of living “in spirit.”
-Learn to abandon ego which identifies with things, possessions and achievements.
-Immerse yourself in inspiration instead of information.
The Way has no conflict, no darkness, no light.
The Source that has always been gives only peace and harmony.
Lao-tzu is relating:
Use the technique of walking meditation to
obtain knowledge of the absolute.
See the unfolding of God in everyone you encounter.
-This is the alignment that brings you into balance and restores your ego-less nature.
Improve your vision by looking beyond what your eyes see.
Ask yourself, “What is the true nature of what my eyes see and my ears hear?”
-Your mind is freed from the transitory world and you’ll see the eternal in all things.
The poet Rumi wrote, “Every tree and plant in the meadow seemed to be dancing, those which average eyes would see as fixed and still.”
Do the Tao Now
Take note of the invisibleness in all the natural world & for the same in your own existence.
Take note of how you feel connected to your Source of Being.