Chapter 27 – The Essential Mystery
A good traveler leaves no track or trace.
A good speech leaves no flaws.
A good reckoner uses no counters.
A well-shut door needs no bolts, and yet it cannot be opened.
A well-tied knot needs no rope and yet none can untie it.
Therefore the sage is always good in saving men and consequently no man is rejected.
He is always good in saving things and consequently nothing is rejected.
This is called following the light (of Nature).
Therefore the good man is the teacher of the bad,
And the bad is the material from which the good may learn.
He who does not value the teacher,
Or greatly care for the material,
Is greatly deluded although he may be learned.
Such is the essential mystery.
Translation by Wing-Tsit Chan (1963)
Happy Thanksgiving!
You know, after studying a chapter of the Tao Te Ching and comparing translations, meditating on the words for a bit, and taking the time to write down my thoughts on the material, I always feel grateful when someone stops by the website and reads some of the words – I hope that each reader is able to learn something. I feel grateful, too, for the Tao Te Ching Daily’s concept of Tao Tuesdays for anyone who wishes to comment on a chapter of Lao Tzu’s work.
Mostly, though, I am grateful for you – yes, YOU, personally. You are a good person, and 2,500 years ago Lao Tzu wrote these words to remind you, and inform the rest of us, why you are in this world. You are “the good man [who] is the teacher of the bad.” So I would like to take this opportunity to thank you. I do value your teaching and care for the material.
It took an ancient Chinese master to show me the subtle ways in which you give guidance. He tells us first that a person who is good or skilled in some activity acts in such a natural manner that even the most amazing results seem to occur without effort. Imagine a traveler who passes by with no track or trace or a carpenter who builds such a perfect door that it can be secured without locks.
A sage like you has similar skills. You seem to be doing nothing but leading your own life, following the light of nature, while you are showing the Way (the Tao) to humanity and to the 10,000 things. Thank you for being just who you are. I had thought the good teacher would bring lectures or sermons. Those aren’t necessary, are they?
I also hope that you – yes, YOU – have learned something from what I have written or how I have lived. Following the light of nature does not require that you know who I am, or that I know you. That is part of the essential mystery. Perhaps one of us will soon learn the rest of that mystery. Then you/I can teach me/you to avoid the delusions.
WOW. Awesome post, Louis. It’s good on so many levels I’m adding it to the Chapters List of the work entitled “Louis’ Most Excellent Adventure”.
It’s a wonderful thing to give others (and one’s self) permission to be themselves, to extend honor and respect with such grace of spirit and wisdom. To reinforce the presence of honesty in another and encourage it, and to see worth and virtue in the experiences of others is the act of a sage. There are many paths, but they are not so far apart that we can’t hold hands with others on their own path. In truth I suspect we are all on the same path, and that when all is said and done there is only one path after all. Very, very cool, Louis.
BTW – I have learned many good things from what you have written and how you have lived. Things about you, things about myself in my reflections of what you share here in the Ralston Creek Review. In this moment I want to thank you for the revelations you have given of yourself, the windows into Louis which you have opened to us. In and also between the lines I see a good man, a human being, and a sage.
I once received a greeting card in the mail about a week after attending a 3-day, round the clock, intensive spiritual growth… interaction, I guess you’d say. There were only seven words in it, affirming what the sender beheld in me during that time. It was a powerful communique’, one I’ll never forget. So here are your seven words from me, Louis.
Wisdom. Learning. Caring. Loving. Kind. Servant. Brother.
This medium we communicate in has some advantages, the foremost for me being an opportunity to consider my words even though I often shoot from the lip anyway. What it doesn’t afford quite so well is the opportunity to express and develop kinship. Here, you have done just that.
Well said, and well done, Louis.
And, same as it ever was, an afterthought upon reflection…
Before I blogged it I took out a section of the poem “Words: Confusions on the Path to Parity of Mind (Part One)” because I felt it could be misinterpreted. In light of your post I realize it was an unfounded judgment. It seems the collective consciousness is in full bloom these days. The insight you give in your post is perfectly in line with the expression I omitted in the poem’s lament. I have no fear it will be misinterpreted here:
No longer am I Lao Tzu and Christ and Leonardo
No longer are the ageless myths my own story
No longer do I know how perfect I am
in the one small thing I have perfectly done.
No longer do I know that in all of history
no one, anywhere, has ever done what I have done
So perfectly.
I no longer know I have lived my own life better
than any other could have done
ever.
.
http://cascadianwanderer.wordpress.com/2013/11/23/words/
Thanks again, friend.
Thank you for your kind words. I feel humbled.
I re-read your “Words” poem and was wondering where the additional lines you have set out here are supposed to go. I thought what you had posted was quite good, and I can see the additional “words” in a couple of possible places.
Have a happy Thanksgiving.
De nada, Louis. I put the “lost stanzas” as follows, and wonder if you caught the haiku in the last three lines?
…this is a lament
the cry of victory by my adversary mind
twice removed from autumn’s truth
by language and sight
which traces, remembers and sees
instead of living, knowing, and beholding
that which is.
No longer am I Lao Tzu and Christ and Leonardo
No longer are the ageless myths my own story
No longer do I know how perfect I am
in the one small thing I have perfectly done.
No longer do I know that in all history
no one, anywhere, has ever done what I have done
So perfectly.
I no longer know I have lived my own life better
than any other could have done
ever.
i curse myself, consign myself
to pieces of mind and perfidy.
Words bag the fall leaves
stuff them into dark plastic
drag them to the curb.