CHANGE Your THOUGHTS - Change YOUR Life
Living the Wisdom of the Tao
82-86
18th Verse
When the greatness of the Tao is present,
Action arises from one’s own heart.
When the greatness of the Tao is absent,
Action comes from the rules
of “kindness and justice.
If you need rules to be kind and just,
If you act virtuous,
this is a sure sign that virtue is absent.
Thus we see the great hypocrisy.
When kinship falls into discord,
piety and rites of devotion arise.
When the country falls into chaos,
official loyalists will appear;
patriotism is born.
Living Without Rules
This verse is the mental meandering of Lao-Tzu stating that you don’t need rules to be kind & just.
When people function from within, they don’t need rules from without.
When our viewpoint is a Tao centered one, we cease to see our dominant reason for being and doing as dictated by our nation, school, or religion.
You can choose to live from your heart and see the virtues as individual responsibilities you adhere to without anyone telling you to.
In the Tao orientation, joy, kindness, abundance & well being flow through all.
Make love the bedrock of your motivation to be loving rather than an obligation to be kind.
The existence of codes of conduct are evidence we aren’t living in the Tao.
Learning it is each person’s responsibility to live without governing will demonstrate that when you change your thoughts, you change your life.
Rules and laws are created to impose penalties to control or govern people who haven’t learned their individual responsibility as part of the group.
A national sense of unity, or patriotism needn’t be imposed, for the Tao oneness is greater than any group on earth.
Let your actions arise from your Tao-centered heart.
Don’t act virtuous; be virtuous
The Tao instructs you to be authentic in all interactions.
Be pious.
Be spontaneously generous
Hafiz the Sufi poet said:
Everyone
Is God speaking.
Why not be polite and
Listen to
Him?
And everyone means everyone, not just those subject to your rules and laws.
Do the Tao Now
Spend time connecting to the underlying reason for following rules and laws like stopping at red lights, wearing a seat belt, not drinking and driving.
See if your ego enjoys “breaking rules” for its purposes by listing all the laws and rules you break in a day, and then identify your most important “heart rules.”