when a ruler’s palace is full


 

Because

I have a little wisdom,

I choose to walk the great path of

tao, fearing nothing but to stray from

it. The great way is very smooth

and easy, but some people

are fond of getting

sidetracked.

 

When a ruler’s

palace is full of treasure,

the people’s fields are weedy

and their granaries are empty.

If the ruler wears fancy clothes and

his house is full of weapons, if his table

is laden with extravagant food and drink

and everywhere one looks he has more

wealth than he can use, the ruler

is a robber and thief. This

is not in keeping

with tao.

 

Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,

Chapter 53

 

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no power so great as modesty

release and flow and let go

 

The Creative acts

to empty what is full and

to offer abundance to

what is modest.

 

This hexagram suggests that a deepening of one’s modesty now is a sure means of improving the situation. There is no power so great as modesty for compelling the assistance of the Sage – nor one so hindering as immodesty. Those in high places who retain their modesty are loved by all and continually prosper; those below who cultivate modesty inevitably rise on the strength of their merits, without making enemies along the way.

But what does modesty mean? Certainly it entails a refusal to boast or act imperiously with others, even in small ways. But beyond this steadfast humility it also means that our effort to discern what is right and then do it is constant; we do not work against ourselves, and we do not indulge in doubts about the wisdom of correct conduct. This unwavering commitment to what is correct might be called “the modesty before the Sage”.

So there is in modesty a component of nonaction – that is, not indulging in arrogant, ego-centered behavior – as well as a component of active effort: looking for opportunities to correct ourselves, to assist justice where there is injustice, to feed where there is hunger, to give solace where there is pain.

Finally and most plainly, modesty means holding to innocence, sincerity, and openness in every situation. To do this is to empty ourself and make room for the blessings of the Creative to take root.
 

The I Ching, or Book of Changes

Hexagram 15, Ch’ien / Modesty

 

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dissolve all ideas of duality

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The teaching

of the Integral Way will go on

as long as there is a tao and someone who

wishes to embody it; what is painted in

these scrolls today will appear in

different forms in many

generations to

come. 

 

These things,

however, will never change:

Those who wish to attain oneness must

practice undiscriminating virtue. They must

dissolve all ideas of duality: good and bad, beautiful

and ugly, high and low. They will be obliged to abandon

any mental bias born of cultural or religious belief.

Indeed, they should hold their minds free

of any thought which interferes with

their understanding of the

universe as a harmonious

oneness. 

 

The

beginning

of these practices is

the  beginning of

liberation. 

 

Hua hu Ching, Chapter 7

 

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dissolve all ideas into the tao

returning to innocence

 

Good

and bad,  self

and others, life and death:

Why affirm these concepts? Why

deny them? To do either is to exercise

the mind, and the integral being knows

that the manipulations of the mind

are dreams, delusions, and

shadows.

 

Hold

one idea, and 

another competes with it. 

Soon the two will be in conflict

with third, and in time your

life is all chatter and

contradiction.

 

Seek

instead to keep

your mind undivided.

Dissolve all ideas

into the

tao. 

 

Hua hu Ching, Chapter 41

 

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