Being Settled


80

Being Settled.


In the penultimate chapter of the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu paints a beautiful picture of a village full of happy and contented people. They have what they feel necessary for a calm and happy life. They live quietly and seem genuinely at peace with the world.

Life for them did not seem to be a continual hectic rush from one thing to another, instead, they did all that needed to be done each in its own time.

They had possessions, but these were put to use only when required. It seemed that they did not amass a hoard of belongings, some that were never put to use.

They enjoyed being well dressed but not ostentatiously. They grew cooked and ate good food.

Life has changed. Of course, it has but that does not mean that in this picture there is something to be learned. The important lesson of this chapter does not lie in ancient ways, but in the attitudes of the people.

If we can centre our lives in the Tao, we can learn to accept things as they come. There will be disappointments there will also be times of success and happiness, both can be accepted with a calm and gracious attitude. We can learn to see the achievements of others, not with a jealous look but with a positive sense of joy.

When we can learn to be happy with ourselves, content with things we cannot change no matter how bad they may seem, then we will have found how to centre our Chi. What the Tao Te Ching is telling us is that when we lose the art of finding contentment we have lost ourselves, we are no longer in touch with our inner being.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Be Calm

Image
63 Be Calm   Life seems to be lived at a frantic pace, everything has to be done, and everything has to be done now. It was, not so very long ago, that the attention span of a human being was considered to be twenty minutes. Recent figures say that now the attention span of a child is down to fifteen. Teachers have now to prepare lessons keeping this in mind, changing the activity more frequently than before to allow them to hold the students' attention. In sharp contrast, Lao Tzu tells us that nothing good is achieved from rushing around. A simple statistic seems to give some support to this. When the speed limit on motorways was reduced by ten miles an hour there was almost an instant drop in the number of deaths on the roads. We gain so much more when we take life at a slower and simpler pace. How can the mind be fed and inspired by the beauty of life around us, if we are in too much of a rush to see and take it in? How can we learn from one another if we do ...
Read more

Solitude.

Image
42 Solitude. "The sage takes such things and makes the most of it. Embracing his solitude." I could have made those two sentences into one by adding the little word, by. Lao Tzu on more than one occasion speaks of times of solitude, here he goes a stage further and says he embraces it as if it was a dear and precious friend. The creative person will be familiar with the thought of embracing solitude. Most creative things are accomplished after and during times of working alone. Some may find it helpful to be part of a group, working together and sharing the experience, but even those moments are just an interlude to the many hours closed away in the studio or at the workbench. The writer, sitting at the keyboard hour after hour putting words from the mind and moving them into flowing and captivating prose. It often seems that we live with a fear of solitude and silence. Some say it is the loneliness of such, but that may be too simple. We seem to be in...
Read more

Yin - Yang.

Image
28 Yin - Yang To be truly creative the artist of either painting, music, sculpting or composing must know the strength of the male and grasp firmly to the sensitivity of the female. To know and to sense both the Yin and the Yang. It is in knowing and sensing this marvellous harmony of the universe that the creative person finds the joy of the Tao as the creative process flows and streams. Lao Tzu says when we grasp both the Yin and the Yang we become again like a child. In this state of being, we can create with real freedom. He goes on to speak of the uncarved block of wood. In the hands of the creative, living with the Tao, it can become so many wonderful and useful things.                                                                               The artist who ...
Read more