Chapter 7 – The Tao of Mirabehn

 Heaven and Earth are Eternal
because they do not live for themselves.
This is the reason
they exist consistently through time.  

The sage puts herself last and ends up first.
She identifies herself with the Universal Self
and thus remains constant.  

Isn’t this so
because she lacks personal self-interest?  

This is why she will succeed
in all of her personal endeavors.

Every system of philosophy or belief has its own tao or way that coincides to a greater or lesser extent with the “True Tao” to which Lao Tzu has tried to point us.  Each society, each community, each family and even each person follows his, her or its own tao.    For this Tao Te Ching Tuesday, I would like to look at the way of one of those people.  Out of the billions available for consideration, I have chosen a woman named Madeleine Slade.

Ms. Slade was born to an upper class British family in 1892.  Her father was a naval officer who served for a time as commander of the British East Indies Squadron in Bombay.  Madeleine spent only a small part of her childhood in India, but the sub-continent did make an impression upon her young mind.  For the most part, though, she experienced a traditional, privileged English education while living on her grandfather’s large country estate.  She showed a healthy intellectual curiosity and developed a passion for the life and music of Beethoven.

In the mid-1920s, as she was in her early 30s, Madeleine became fascinated with what she had heard of the non-violent revolution being waged in India under the leadership of Mohandas Gandhi (who had been named “Mahatma,” or “Great Soul,” by India’s Nobel Prize winning poet Rabindranath Tagore and others).  Her fascination became so great – especially after reading a biography of Gandhi by Beethoven biographer Romain Rolland – that she traveled back to her one-time home to meet the great leader. Continue reading →