The Tao is infinite, eternal.
Why is it eternal?
It was never born;
thus it can never die.
Why is it infinite?
It has no desires for itself;
thus it is present for all beings.

The Master stays behind;
that is why she is ahead.
She is detached from all things;
that is why she is one with them.
Because she has let go of herself,
she is perfectly fulfilled.

-Lao Tzu-
(Tao Te Ching, chapter 7, translation by Stephen Mitchell)

Lao Tzu has been kicking around this notion regarding the Tao being both infinite and eternal. Today is a good day to explain what he really means by those terms. Earlier, he said that he didn’t know who gave birth to it, saying it was older than God. Today, he comes to the logical conclusion that must then be drawn. If God didn’t give birth to it, since it predates God, then we can safely say that it was never born. It has no predecessor and no precursor. And, because it was never born, it can never die. This is what Lao Tzu means by eternal. That seems a reasonable definition to me. Everything that has a beginning, will have some ending. But something that has no beginning, can have no end.

His definition of infinite isn’t so obvious. When we think of infinite, we think of something that is immeasurably great; we think of something without limits, without boundaries; and, the Tao is definitely all that. But, Lao Tzu is wanting to stress something else about the Tao’s infinite nature in this chapter. Today, he wants us to see the Tao’s infinite presence.

And, I am reading along and he has been talking a lot about this, and I get it. Or, at least, I think I get it, the Tao is eternal and infinite. Why does he keep repeating himself? Maybe, it is because I don’t really get it. Maybe, I am still seeing myself as separate from the Tao. I mean, sure, the Tao is infinite and eternal; but, I am finite and temporal. How does any of this even apply to me?

And now, I am beginning to see why it is that Lao Tzu keeps repeating himself. I have been looking at me all wrong. I am seeing myself as separate; when Lao Tzu is wanting me to see myself as one with the Tao. How can I see myself as separate, as finite, as temporal, when the Tao is present within me, within you, within all things? We are all one. The entire Universe is one. All of nature is in an eternal, infinite dance. What separates me and you from this oneness, this unity and harmony, is desires which blind us to the reality, and keeps us trapped in the illusion of separateness.

It is that illusion from which we need to break free. As long as we are caught in desires, we see ahead and behind as two very different things. The Master gets it. She stays behind; and, that is why she is ahead. We can only see being ahead, or being behind. We want to be ahead and we fear to be behind. She is detached from all things. How very different is our attachment to all things. We aren’t one with them because of our attachment to them. It is only through detachment that we can become one with them.

So, how do we break free? From the illusion. From our attachment. From our fear of being behind. If it is perfect fulfillment that we seek, there is only one way. And, the Master understands it. She has let go of herself. She has let go of her separateness. She has let go of her fears. She has let go of her attachments. She has let go of her self. And, she is free to be one with the infinite and eternal, the Tao.

This is our journey. It is what Lao Tzu has been trying to teach us of the nature of yin and yang. Not their separateness, but their unity. Their oneness. Yin and yang are not two; they are one. And, we are one. I used to look at nature; and, I observed it all as separate creatures, separate things. Then, I started to realize that they were all one giant organism. The whole Universe, one giant organism. But, even then, I only saw the individual parts. We were all individual parts. But, Lao Tzu sees something a lot greater than that. We aren’t individual parts; we are all the whole. I am not some insignificant part. And, I am not even some integral part. I am the integral.

The Tao is called the Great Mother:
Empty yet inexhaustible,
it gives birth to infinite worlds.

It is always present within you.
You can use it any way you want.

-Lao Tzu-
(Tao Te Ching, chapter 6, translation by Stephen Mitchell)

Today, Lao Tzu expands on his theme of the infinite usefulness of the Tao. To me, it is significant that he doesn’t say it is like the Great Mother. Nor, does he say it is the Great Mother. He says it is called the Great Mother. Calling is just just another way of naming. And, that is significant because Lao Tzu has already given us caveats about naming eternal things. Still, there is significance in naming the Tao, the Great Mother. He is giving us something we can all understand, mother, and using that metaphor to point at what the Tao is.

It is empty yet inexhaustible. Yes, we already understood that from his earlier likening it to a well and a bellows. It gives birth to infinite worlds. That would make it great. What Lao Tzu is getting at is defining the Tao as the Source of everything. Yesterday, he said the Tao gives birth to both good and evil.

But, good and evil aren’t on our plate for discussion today. It is those infinite worlds that intrigue me. I can almost picture the Tao, the Great Mother, as being in some distant and remote “center” of the Universe, a cosmic star factory, birthing new stars and worlds for eons past and eons yet to come.

I say “almost” because that isn’t the image that Lao Tzu is trying to conjure for us. He isn’t wanting us gazing out to the nether regions of the observable Universe. He wants our gaze to be turned inward. Where is this Tao of which he speaks? “It is always present within you.” That is where “the Great Mother” will be found, giving birth to infinite worlds. Your world. My world. Our world. Infinite worlds. You can truly use it any way you want.

The Tao doesn’t take sides;
it gives birth to both good and evil.
The Master doesn’t take sides;
she welcomes both saints and sinners.

The Tao is like a bellows;
It is empty yet infinitely capable.
The more you use it, the more it produces;
the more you talk of it, the less you understand.

Hold on to the center.

-Lao Tzu-
(Tao Te Ching, chapter 5, translation by Stephen Mitchell)

One thing that can never be said about Lao Tzu, and that would be that he shied away from tackling the great questions that have always troubled humanity. The great question that Lao Tzu is tackling today is the problem of the existence of good and evil. Perhaps we don’t see the problem with the existence of good. Our problem is with the existence of evil. But, Lao Tzu tells us not to choose sides. The Tao doesn’t. The Master doesn’t. He even goes so far as to say that the Tao gives birth to them both. And I think that is about the boldest statement that anyone ever made regarding their philosophy. Most philosophers and theologians really wrestle with this. I know I do. We don’t like being forced to explain the existence of evil. Or, what to do about it. And, then there is Lao Tzu. He seems rather nonchalant about the whole thing.

Why is there evil in the world? Lao Tzu would tell us that the answer for that is the same as the answer for the question, why is there good in the world? And the answer is, drum roll, please: “It is the way things are.” I warned you (yesterday, I think it was) that sometimes we may not like the way things are. But, the way things are is the way things are. And, the sooner we accept that is the eternal reality, and work with the Tao, instead of against it, the happier we will be.

In the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu is showing us how the Tao governs the whole Universe. There are natural laws at work here. He tells us how to be in harmony with the way things are. And, thankfully, one of the lessons that we get to learn along the way is how to deal with the existence of evil.

Today, he tells us that our knowledge that both good and evil exist should not compel us to take sides. Whenever he starts talking about what the Master does, he is telling us, “Hey, this is how you should be.” Lao Tzu will be returning to this theme again and again throughout the Tao Te Ching; so don’t worry, we aren’t finished with evil. For today, he wants us to welcome both saints and sinners. Don’t take sides. Don’t prefer one to the other. Just welcome them both. Now, I know that is not going to be satisfactory to a good number of you. But I hope you will hang in there with me. Lao Tzu will have plenty more to say.

For now, he wants to talk more about this Tao; using similes, metaphors, and riddles. If we are paying attention, we may just get the answers we are looking for. Or, at least, the answers we are going to get; whether we were looking for them, or not.

Yesterday, we talked about the infinite usefulness of the Tao. He said it is like a well. And, like the eternal void. Today, he says it is like a bellows. Once I start thinking of bellows, I can finally understand how a void can be filled with infinite possibilities. For that is exactly what a bellows is like. If you don’t use it, it won’t be of any use to you. Go ahead, use it. It is empty, yes; but, look what it can do. The more you use it, the more it produces.

I suppose I could talk, on and on, about it. But, there is a danger. The more I talk of it, the less I understand. And, that is why Lao Tzu says just one thing more. Perhaps, the most important thing. “Hold on to the center.” And, I am going to say even less about that. It is an intriguing sentence that almost seems out of place in today’s chapter. Suffice it for me to say, that is what the art of living is all about. It is the practice of philosophical Taoism. It is the practice of wu-wei, effortless action. It is the practice of unknowing. It is something we will be talking about over and over again, until we find it as easy as breathing in and breathing out.

The Tao is like a well:
Used but never used up.
It is like the eternal void:
Filled with infinite possibilities.

It is hidden, but always present.
I don’t know who gave birth to it.
It is older than God.

-Lao Tzu-
(Tao Te Ching, chapter 4, translation by Stephen Mitchell)

Here we are, already to chapter four, and Lao Tzu hasn’t really told us much yet about the Tao. It is almost like he is following his own advice from chapter one. “The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name.”

But, of course, he has already told us a lot. We know it is eternal. We know it is a mystery. We know it has manifestations. So, he hasn’t been entirely elusive. What he has been talking about is how the Tao is manifest in our universe. Not so much what the Tao is, as what it is about. And, what it is about is bringing about balance and harmony; order, if you will, in what would otherwise be a chaotic universe.

Today, Lao Tzu begins describing the mystery. He is going to point at it with his finger, and if we don’t get distracted by his finger, we might just see what he is pointing at. Today, he begins using similes and metaphors and riddles to tell us about the Tao. He says it is like a well. It is there to be used, but is never used up. I like that imagery. Then he says, it is like the eternal void. When I think of a void I think of a vast open space, a vacuum, all empty inside. How can the Tao be like a well which can’t be used up; and, like a void which should be empty?

I said yesterday, that we are going to encounter paradox, over and over again, on our journey through the Tao Te Ching. The paradox yesterday was that naming things is both the origin of all particular things and not an accurate representation of what is eternal. That is a clue to how to interpret what Lao Tzu is saying to us today. He didn’t say the Tao is a well. He said it is like a well. It isn’t finite. It is infinite. It is meant to be used. But it can never be used up. He didn’t say it is the eternal void. He said it is like the eternal void. And, in the case of the Tao, this “eternal void” is filled, with infinite possibilities.

Lao Tzu kept this chapter brief and I am wanting to keep things brief today, too. I simply don’t need to try to say everything that I have to say about this today. I have 81 chapters worth of days to do this.

With that said, Lao Tzu does have some closing words for us for today. The Tao is hidden. Yet, it is always present. What does he mean by that? I think he is merely pointing out that it is us that have put the blinders on. It is hidden in plain sight. Why can’t we see it? Back in chapter one, Lao Tzu told us what our problem is. Caught in desire we can only see its manifestations. But, once we are free from desire, then we will realize the mystery.

And, then Lao Tzu tells us a joke. He has already said that the Tao is eternal. But there is one more thing that Lao Tzu wants to make clear. And, he uses humor to do it. The way he has been describing the Tao is using the same kind of language and imagery which is often used to describe a deity. But the Tao is not God. That is why he says, “I don’t know who gave birth to it. It is older than God.”

In talking about the Tao, Lao Tzu is imagining a Universe, and a Principle governing that Universe, which is older than God. That governing Principle, he calls the Tao. Continue with me on this journey and we will learn more and more about how the Universe works. And, as an extra added bonus, you, and you alone, get to decide where, or if, God fits into the picture.

If you over esteem great men,
people become powerless.
If you over value possessions,
people begin to steal.

The Master leads
by emptying people’s minds
and filling their cores,
by weakening their ambition
and toughening their resolve.

He helps people
lose everything they know,
everything they desire,
and creates confusion
in those who think they know.

Practice not-doing,
and everything
will fall into place.

-Lao Tzu-
(Tao Te Ching, chapter 3, translation by Stephen Mitchell)

Yesterday, we were talking about naming in the context of ascribing a particular value to things. We may esteem something as beautiful or good; but, the Tao is always there to provide the needed balance. Today, Lao Tzu warns us about over esteeming great men and over valuing possessions.

The key word here is that word, over. It is excess that Lao Tzu is concerned about. Great men and women are to be esteemed. Lao Tzu will have plenty to say about what makes a person great. He highly esteems them. But, we mustn’t over esteem them. Because when we do that, we end up creating a situation where others become powerless.

The same can be said for over valuing possessions. Things have value to us. If they didn’t we wouldn’t have them. But we mustn’t put too high a value on them, because where there is excess there is going to be a need for balancing. When possessions have too high a value placed on them, people will begin to steal.

Lao Tzu is not justifying stealing. Stealing is wrong. But, Lao Tzu is saying that we can, and often do, create situations where the outcome is not what we expected; though we should have expected it. Call it the law of unintended consequences, if you like.

This comes back to the yin and yang that we were talking about yesterday. We may not always like the way the Universe operates, the way things are. But, we best understand that the way things are is the way things are; and, learn how to work with it, rather than trying to work against it.

That is what the Master is all about. At one with the way things are. In harmony with how the Universe operates. Now, I said yesterday that the Master is a strange one. What I meant by that is that she, or he, is often going to be doing things that seem strange to us. We are looking at things in a completely different way. All I can ask is that you give the Master a chance to show you why her strange ways do work.

Lao Tzu will have lots of explaining to do. He can begin with explaining what he means when he says that the Master leads by emptying the people’s minds and filling their cores. And, what is with that weakening their ambition; while, at the same time, toughening their resolve?

The nice thing is that if we let Lao Tzu finish what he is saying, instead of interrupting him with my objections, like I just did, Lao Tzu does explain exactly what he means. Remember, we have been talking about the problem of over esteeming and over valuing. The people have become powerless. And, they have begun to steal. What is the Master leader going to do in this situation?

He, or she, is going to help the people to lose everything they think they know. I know I am taking liberties here. I added a couple words. But I have the benefit of having read to the end of the Tao Te Ching many times before. I know that is what Lao Tzu means here. The people have become powerless because they “know” that they are powerless.

The Master also helps the people to lose everything they desire. Ultimately, the reason the people have begun to steal is they desire things that are over valued. The Master is dealing with the problem of desire.

Where things get confusing is that we think we know better. We think that we can “fix” things without doing it the Master’s way. The Master wants to empty minds of all that presumption. The Master is about weakening ambition. We like to think that ambition is a good thing, and complain about a lack of ambition. But, the Master sees ambition as being the problem. And, where ambition is a problem, resolve is the solution.

I always look at the difference between the two as the difference between something that is focused on outward circumstances vs. something that focuses on who we are on the inside. When the Master is working on filling people’s cores he is talking about toughening their resolve on the inside. We want to change outward circumstances. The Master wants to get to the heart of the matter.

And, then Lao Tzu really confuses us. “Practice not-doing…everything will fall into place.” I don’t want to spend a lot of time on this today. Because we are going to be returning to it again and again in the days and weeks ahead. And, this post has already gotten long. But, the practice of wu-wei, which is here translated not-doing, would be better translated, effortless action. That is better, because not-doing sounds like, well, not doing. And that isn’t what wu-wei is. Effortless action is going with the flow, being in harmony with the way things are, and working with the Tao instead of at odds with it. When we do that, everything will fall into place.

When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.

Therefore, the Master acts
without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has, but doesn’t possess;
she acts, but doesn’t expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.

-Lao Tzu-
(Tao Te Ching, chapter two, translation by Stephen Mitchell)

In yesterday’s chapter, Lao Tzu told us that the eternally real is unnameable. That was immediately after he named the Tao. We could then decide that Lao Tzu was just messing with us. But, I don’t think he was just messing with us. I think he was introducing us to the first paradox. We will encounter a lot of them on our journey. But, here is the first.

Because anything that can be told about the Tao is not the eternal Tao, and any name that can be named is not the eternal Name, it would seem pointless to talk about it at all. And ascribing a name to anything would, likewise, seem an exercise in futility. But that is the paradox. Because naming is the origin of all particular things. It simply must be done. Do you see the paradox? If only the unnameable is the eternally real, why would we want to even begin naming? The paradox occurs because the way things are is not the way things seem to be.

Today’s chapter is all about naming particular things. It is no surprise to me that creation myths tend to include some naming ceremony. The creation myth from my own childhood is found in the book of Genesis, where Adam names all the animals; and, whatever name he gives them is the name they get stuck with. We have a naming ceremony in today’s chapter, as well. But, it isn’t about animals.

Still, just like animals, they do come in pairs. Here is our introduction to yin and yang. Being and non-being. In the past, I have made the mistake of referring to these as opposites. You name one thing, you get its opposite, too. Oh, be careful little tongue what you speak. But, like I said, calling them opposites was a mistake. They aren’t opposites. They are complements. Not to be confused with compliments.

What is a complement? It is something that completes something else, or makes it better. This is important for us to understand, because we tend to think of beautiful and ugly, or good and bad, as opposites. They are not. Like yin and yang, female and male, dark and light, negative and positive, passive and active, closed and open… they sometimes seem to be opposites, but what they really are are complements of each other. They complete each other. One is not complete without the other. You can’t have one without the other.

If we see some things as yin, then other things must be yang. And, we really must not be confused on this point. Yin is not good and yang, bad. What would be bad is if there was not balance. Yin and yang create each other. They support each other. They define each other. They depend on each other. They follow each other. That is what Lao Tzu is meaning when he talks of being and non-being, difficult and easy, long and short, high and low, before and after.

When we think of them as opposites, we think of them as being in conflict. What Lao Tzu is wanting us to do is to embrace them as complements of each other. Welcome the balance. People may wish to argue whether what Lao Tzu is talking about is subjective or objective. For instance, people have long argued whether or not there is an objective standard for beauty. Is beauty merely in the eye of the beholder? And, my question is, why does it have to be one or the other? Why can’t it be both?

The same goes for good and bad. Lao Tzu isn’t talking about good and evil here. He isn’t saying that for there to be good in the world there has to be evil. He will help us address the problem of evil, later. But today’s good and bad is an entirely different thing. He is saying that for someone to see something as good, like, you are good at something, there must be a way to be bad at that something. There wouldn’t be any way to measure it, objectively or subjectively, otherwise.

Those last two paragraphs are going to hopefully spawn messages in my inbox. As long as humans have had the mental capacity to think about these issues, people have been arguing about them. For now, let’s move on to the rest of today’s chapter. Lao Tzu introduces us to the Master, today, for the first time. She’s a mysterious one, that one is. And, she will be reappearing throughout the Tao Te Ching to help us to flesh out what Lao Tzu is teaching us.

Today, she is helping us to understand the concept of being and non-being complementing each other. He says that she acts without doing anything. That is yin and yang in perfect balance. She teaches without saying anything. Things arise and she lets them come. Things disappear and she lets them go. I see it as a dance. She doesn’t interfere with the Tao. She merely lets nature take its course. She has, without possessing. She acts, without expectations. She does her work and then forgets about it. When Lao Tzu says she forgets about it, he isn’t talking about some short term memory problem. She forgets about it like when a mafia don says “forget about it.” You best forget about it. Because all the fussing and fuming and stressing and worrying are never going to help you. Just forget about it. And, you know what? It lasts forever.

The Tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.

The unnameable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same Source.
This Source is called Darkness.

Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.

-Lao Tzu-
(Tao Te Ching, chapter one, translation by Stephen Mitchell)

And, so we begin anew. For many of my followers this may be a little old hat. I go through the eighty-one chapters, one chapter at a time, each day. I don’t even know how many times I have been doing this. But, for some of you, I know, this is the first time that you are looking at chapter one with me. To all of you, I say, welcome to my journey. I have a special bond with Lao Tzu, which has been forged over the course of many cycles of moons and seasons. I certainly don’t consider myself an expert on philosophical Taoism. I think of myself only as an apprentice; with Lao Tzu as the Master. But, I am learning so very much. And I hope to share a little of what I am learning along the way. Join me as a fellow apprentice, and find where this journey will take us.

Let’s get the rules out of the way first. Actually, I can only think of one rule. I don’t have any problem with reblogs. I know some of you like to reblog just the quote without my commentary. That is also no problem. The only thing that I ask is that you give Stephen Mitchell the proper recognition as the translator of Lao Tzu’s work. There are a bazillion different translations of the Tao Te Ching. Yes, I counted them all. But Stephen Mitchell’s is my favorite one, by far. I don’t know Stephen; but, I appreciate his work on translating, almost as much as I appreciate Lao Tzu for originally writing it. He deserves to be cited for his work. Oh, and if you don’t mind mentioning that you got it from me, I wouldn’t mind a little promotion, either.

Okay, with that out of the way, where to begin… Today, Lao Tzu introduces the Tao. He begins with a warning that anything that can be told about it isn’t actually it. This is just Lao Tzu saying, what I am talking about is infinite and eternal. My words are finite and temporal. I can point at it. I can use metaphors to give you an approximation of what it is. But the real, eternal Tao is shrouded in mystery. You can’t really know it. Even the name which I give it, the Tao, is just a name that I am giving it. The name isn’t important. It isn’t the eternal name.

But, maybe I already need to back up. What is this thing that Lao Tzu is ascribing with the name the Tao? It could be translated as the Way, or the Path. I like to think of it as the way things are. What gives order and balance to the Universe which we inhabit. It is the Source from which everything springs into existence. I will often refer to it as the Natural Law. And, even the Invisible Hand. But all of these are just manifestations of what the Tao is. They aren’t the eternal Tao.

Because we immediately have problems when we start to talk about the Tao. We have to differentiate between the mystery, which is the eternal Tao; and, the manifestations of the Tao in the Universe. The mystery is what we can only hint at. Lao Tzu tells us that is because we are caught in desire. Free from desire, we can realize the mystery. Caught in desire, we can only see its manifestations.

Don’t let that discourage you. Whether we are talking about mystery or manifestations, they arise from the same Source. Today is only day one of the eighty-one day journey ahead of us. Most of the time we will only be able to see the manifestations. And, that will have to be okay. Why? Because those manifestations do reveal to us a whole lot about ourselves and the Universe in which we find ourselves. Along the way we will have plenty of opportunities to peer into the Darkness within darkness. And, that is good, too. Because that is the gateway to all understanding.

We have lots to understand. Come join me. I post this at approximately 7 am central standard time each and every day. And, I always love to get messages from you with your thoughts and your questions. One final note: Some of my newer followers may be wondering what’s up with the “libertarian” in “libertariantaoist” Continue on with me and you will find that Lao Tzu was the original libertarian.

True words aren’t eloquent;
eloquent words aren’t true.
Wise men don’t need to prove their point;
men who need to prove their point aren’t wise.

The Master has no possessions.
The more he does for others, the happier he is.
The more he gives to others, the wealthier he is.

The Tao nourishes by not forcing.
By not dominating, the Master leads.

-Lao Tzu-
(Tao Te Ching, chapter 81, translation by Stephen Mitchell)

I think this chapter is a fitting ending to the Tao Te Ching. And, I never know how to add anything to it. Will I try to be eloquent? Nope, that doesn’t seem like such a good idea. Do I think there is some further point to prove? Again, no, nothing to be gained by that.

Lao Tzu has that gift that I don’t have. He can say so much with so few words. And, today, I am really going to leave it at that.

Tomorrow is another day. For my newer followers, that means starting the cycle all over again with chapter one. The words that Lao Tzu will be saying remain the same. My commentary will hopefully reflect that I understand a little better, since the last time I went through this cycle. I look forward to sharing my journey with all of you.

If a country is governed wisely,
its inhabitants will be content.
They enjoy the labor of their hands
and don’t waste time
inventing labor-saving devices.
Since they dearly love their homes,
they aren’t interested in travel.
There may be a few wagons and boats,
but these don’t go anywhere.
There may be an arsenal of weapons,
but nobody ever uses them.
People enjoy their food,
take pleasure in being with their families,
spend weekends working in their gardens,
delight in the doings of the neighborhood.
And, even though the next country
is so close that people can hear
its roosters crowing and its dogs barking,
they are content to die of old age
without ever having gone to see it.

-Lao Tzu-
(Tao Te Ching, chapter 80, translation by Stephen Mitchell)

We are nearing the end of another cycle through the Tao Te Ching. Throughout the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu has been telling would be leaders how to govern a country wisely. Today, he doesn’t tell us how. If we have been paying attention, we already know the how. But he does tell us what the consequences will be if a country is governed wisely. Its inhabitants will be content.

He has also devoted a lot of time to what it means to be content. Today’s chapter, with its idyllic picture of what Lao Tzu thinks true contentment looks like, encapsulates everything he has been saying all along.

I have always found this chapter fascinating. For me, it brings to mind Tolkien’s Shire. Simple hobbit folk content with their very ordinary lives. This is Lao Tzu’s picture of true contentment. And, it is mine as well. But, I never am quite satisfied with leaving it at that. We are all individuals. A hobbit’s life isn’t everyone’s ideal for being content. So, I always temper my own delight with one simple question to my readers. “What is it going to take for you to be content?”

I actually have two reasons for asking this question. First, I think that sometimes we can’t see the forest for all the trees. I just imagine that a whole lot of people are going to be reading through this chapter and getting bogged down with objections like, “What is wrong with labor-saving devices?” And, “What, I can’t love to travel?” Like I already said, it isn’t everyone’s idyllic picture of contentment. But, I do think you are missing Lao Tzu’s point.

The second reason I have for asking the question is that Lao Tzu has been very diligent all along about describing where true contentment is to be found. And it isn’t based on our outward circumstances. It comes from the inside. So, I am going to ask you all, once again, “What is it going to take for you to be content?”

In the midst of all these trees, there is bound to be a forest here, somewhere. I happen to love labor saving devices. My own life, along with countless millions of other lives are enriched by them. But, how might we be wasting our time inventing them? The question Lao Tzu is asking of us is, “Why aren’t you content?” And, there isn’t anything at all wrong with traveling. It is actually a shame I feel the need to affirm that. Because that isn’t the point. The point is, why don’t you dearly love your home? Why do you not find enjoyment in the food that you eat? Why don’t you take pleasure in your family? These, and other questions, are begging to be answered by you as you read through today’s chapter.

Because we know we are not content. And we aren’t quite sure what it is going to take for us to be content. And Lao Tzu just wants you to know if you are looking for contentment in outward circumstances, you aren’t going to find it there. No amount of labor-saving devices is going to change that. And no matter how far you roam from home, you won’t find it there, either.

It is tempting to just blame it on the government. After all, if a country is governed wisely, its inhabitants will be content. And, that is true. But, even that is something that we really can’t do much about. If having your country governed wisely is what it is going to take, you might never be content. No, I am going to go back to what Lao Tzu has been saying all along. True contentment is something you can only find deep inside yourself. Find it there. Keep it there.

Failure is an opportunity.
If you blame someone else,
there is no end to the blame.

Therefore, the Master
fulfills her obligations
and corrects her own mistakes.
She does what she needs to do
and demands nothing of others.

-Lao Tzu-
(Tao Te Ching, chapter 79, translation by Stephen Mitchell)

Yesterday, I was musing on the impossibility of remaining serene if you have never been serene. I think I may have been a bit melodramatic. I can’t really say that I have never known serenity. Still, I don’t want to confuse something that is fleeting with something that is eternal. Real serenity isn’t something that merely comes and goes. If you are serene, you can remain serene.

The truth is that we, as humans, do screw up. And, we screw up a lot. Whether we are going to remain serene is going to be put to the test over and over again. And the real test is going to be how we handle failure.

The challenge before us is to see failure as an opportunity. And, not as an opportunity to be pointing the finger of blame at others. Once you start going down that road, warns Lao Tzu, there is no end to the blame.

This right here is what separates the merely average from the truly great. Because blaming others is the easy way out. Or, so it seems to be. For that is all mere illusion. If we are to remain serene in the midst of failure, we need to keep it real. Do you have obligations to fulfill? Are there mistakes which you need to correct?

I have been in a downright funk the last few days. It has really affected me. Both emotionally and physically. If I am going to get out of this funk, I know exactly what I am going to have to do. I am going to have to turn and face the difficulty. I need to own up to the mistakes I have made. I still have obligations which I need to meet. And, there isn’t anyone else that I can expect is going to fix this for me. I need to do what I need to do and make no demands on anyone else.

I can do this.