Chapter 68 – Reaching Heaven

A good soldier is not violent.
A good fighter is not angry.
A good winner is not vengeful.
A good employer is humble.
This is known as the Virtue of not striving.
This is known as ability to deal with people.
This since ancient times has been known as the ultimate unity with heaven.

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Let’s say ‘heaven’ is that perfect place containing all the things we value, we enjoy, and that we wish for. We are all doing the right and good thing to pursue it.

But what happens when two people’s pursuit of something that is good, leads them to conflict, where there can only be one winner and one loser? In a boxing match for example, both competitors have their heart set on winning, but only one will. What guidance does the loser refer to, or what principle of life can the loser find comfort in?

Should a boxer entering the ring be thinking that he might lose, and therefore, he might be more prepared for it if it happens? Probably not, most successful boxers appear to have an invincible belief in themselves and their ability to always win. There doesn’t seem to be much room for any doubt if a fighter intends to get through to the end of a boxing fight.

Sometimes we are told ‘time heals’. But this can mean carrying a lot of pain while we wait for time to do its trick. We know we are looking for some wisdom in this chapter that provides more helpful guidance when we have lost a battle we dearly wanted to win, or for when we have simply lost something dear to us and we did not even know we were in a fight.

The first four lines tell us that to be good at various things you have to NOT violate others in any way. Soldiers, fighters, winners, and employers, all perform their duties without taking what matters most from the people they deal with. ‘What matters most’ appears to have something to do with dignity, with independence, with respect and self-esteem.

All people in these situations will have the impulse to ‘strive’ for something, often at the expense of others’ sense of self-worth. To not follow that impulse, means to not strive, and probably also means to not act purely with an emotional response.

The path then is to act as though we will be victorious and to face our losses with an attitude of inquiry, an attitude of wanting to learn from the experience, and to become more wise because of it. In this way we can never really ‘lose’ but we can always be reaching heaven through all our experiences.

Chapter 25 (part) – Goal Setting

Man follows the earth.
Earth follows heaven.
Heaven follows the Tao.
Tao follows what is natural.

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We each consciously hold some of the Tao in us. But it is only a slither of something bigger, grander, and totally elusive. Like the Blind Men and The Elephant, we feel assured by the bit (tail, trunk, knee, ear, etc) we feel that it is what we ‘know’ (its a ‘rope’, a ‘hose’, a ‘tree’, a ‘leaf’, etc), while not knowing it is quite different to the whole (an elephant!).

More consciously, we have the earth in us: our own body’s flesh and blood remind us everyday that we are made of stuff that we experience intimately. Hungry, we eat; thirsty, we drink; tired, we sleep; energetic, we seek and do; all the time our earthly instincts guiding us.

In between the earth and the Tao, we have heaven. Less conscious than the earth’s presence, but more conscious than of the Tao, we sense not physical signals but spiritual ones. Emotions of joy, sadness, fear, and guilt, are triggered by our relationships while deep but clear yearnings and longings are triggered in us by anything at all. Scent, touch, and sensual attraction, are earthly signals, but all the time they are awakening in us an awareness of the ‘other’, and of the ‘other’s awareness of us.

We plot our life’s goals according to our dreams and to our earthly needs. If you are drawn to this talk of the Tao, or any of its similar forms, then you are already shaping your goals with its grand possibilities in mind. Our dreams become fueled by the deep happiness and rich freedom that a stronger connection with the Tao brings. Representing this freedom in clear heavenly and earthly goals is natural, and a challenge that makes us strong.

Goal setting sits in heaven, between two pulling forces. The force of the Tao, that we do not know and can not name pulls us from one direction, while our conscious earthly mind pulls us from another direction. Let’s take ‘wealth’ – for most of us it is the result of what we do. If we set goals around it we are consciously planning to do things. But everyone of us can only consciously plan to do things that our unconscious permits, not in a moral way, but in an energetic way.

Where the tension between these two forces is tightest, we are closest to our own inner truth. The strange thing is that it may consciously feel like we are at the farthermost point away from that truth.