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Tao Te Ching

Tao Te Ching

by Lao Tzu
 
The Tao Te Ching is one of the world’s great philosophical and spiritual classics, revered by millions. The oldest scripture of Taoism and a meditational text, it is also a timeless philosophy of power based on harmony with nature. It has been adopted as a modern leadership manual and is well suited to contemporary life.
The title means “The Way of Power” or “The Classic (Ching) of the Way (Tao) and Virtue (Te).” The tao determines the te, or the manner in which a person might act who is attuned to the tao. Whatever can be defined is not tao—it is the timeless spirit that runs through all life, creating the essential oneness of the universe. The tao is not even “god,” god being an entity that has sprung from the tao.
The Tao Te Ching paints a picture of a person in full attunement with the tao, and therefore with the universe. Martin Palmer, in his introduction to Timothy Freke’s excellent translation, says that it represents “a world of order that we must work with, not a world where we must just fend for ourselves.” In this world we no longer struggle, finding that it is attunement, rather than mindless striving, that delivers us what we need.
The idea of the tao is that as you get in harmony with it, your actions cease to seem like “action.” Csikszentmihalyi has documented this feeling as “flow” and the physicist Bohm talks of it as being part of “the unfolding.” In contrast, regular action involves an effort of will to accomplish something, usually involving manipulation or even exploitation. While tao action makes whole, its alternative fragments.
 

Tao leadership

Lao Tzu saw two types of leader: the conventional one, a warrior who uses force to achieve his ends, symbolized by the yang or masculine aspect; and the healer-leader, symbolized by the feminine yin. The latter is the concept of “servant leadership,” in which the leader blends into the background so that their people can star.
Some in the business world say that the more power a boss has, the less they should use. This is borne out by the teamwork, synergy, and flat hierarchies of today’s best-run companies, which aim to increase effectiveness by sharing power; these organizations have a better chance of creating ideas or products that genuinely improve life.
By 2020 the ideal leader may be very hard to spot, position or wealth no longer being good guides to impact or influence. In Lao Tzu’s words:
 
“The wise stand out,
because they see themselves as part of the Whole.
They shine,
because they don’t want to impress.
They achieve great things, because they don’t look for recognition.
Their wisdom is contained in what they are, not their opinions.
They refuse to argue,
so no-one argues with them.”
 
Listening, yielding, cooperating, being open, seeking the best possible outcomes—these yin aspects must balance the go-getting yang force that has given us civilization as we know it. The integration of the two will be a mark of the new leader, whose credibility rests not on what they say or even what they have so far achieved: “Their wisdom is contained in what they are.”
 

Tao success

For a book essentially about leading a successful life, the Tao Te Ching offers what seems to be very strange advice. Consider: “Give up, and you will succeed.”
How can we reconcile such a statement with so many other messages in self-help about the active steps one must take for success? Take Robbins’ Awaken the Giant Within, the archetypal modern personal development book. Subtitled “How to take control of your mental, emotional, physical, and financial destiny!” it encapsulates the ethic of total self-creation, based on the belief that we know what we want, what will make us happy, and our limitless potential.
The Tao Te Ching, on the other hand, is about how to lead a very simple life, not seeking power, fame, or riches. There is a quiet ecstasy to living in the moment, not trying to force anything to happen or get others to do things our way. This is a book about the power of timing:
 
“Be still, and allow the mud to settle. Remain still, until it is the time to act.”
 
Which way is better? Using focus and never-give-up intensity to achieve something, or going with the flow and “allowing” something to manifest itself? Ultimately, it boils down to where one’s faith lies: either in ourselves (reasonable enough),or in the intelligence governing the universe (tao). In Lao Tzu’s mind, the tao that created everything is capable of giving us peace, joy, and personal power. The compulsion to strive surely arises out of a perception that we must gain mastery of the world, or a little section of it, in order to feel whole. It is therefore more probable that striving, while a natural way to express our identity through creating something, is not actually the best path to success.
Instead, the goal for which we strive should be readily admitted to be only a symbol of the greater unity that the Tao Te Ching suggests. This unity is described as “the way of heaven.”
 

Final comments

At first the Tao Te Ching seems a strange voice, but it will change and probably enlarge your current ideas of life and success. You may find yourself needing to incorporate your world view into its, rather than the other way around.
Don’t read it from start to finish. There is no narrative, just meditations broken up into short chapters of a few lines, which don’t seem to relate to each other. Its hypnotic power is summed up in one of its own stanzas:
 
“A traveler may stop for nice food and good music, but a description of Tao seems bland and tasteless.
It looks like nothing special. It sounds like nothing special.
But live by it, and you will never tire of it.”
The Bigger Picture >Tao Te Ching
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