The Tao Te Ching For Astrologers: Verses 3 & 4

Transcript:

Hi everyone this is Acyuta-bhava from Nightlight Astrology and today we are going to take a look at the third and fourth verses of the Tao te Ching. This is the second part of a series that I'm doing on this classic sacred text, I highly recommend that you check out the first part of this series that I did last week, if you want some background on this text, why we're reading it, how we're approaching it, and so forth. And today, we're going to dive into the third and fourth verses after looking at the first to last week. Also, don't forget that the text that we're using is the Tao te Ching by translated by Jonathan Stars as part of the Tarcher Cornerstone editions series. I happen to really like this series as it's very accessible. It doesn't give you that heavy scholarly approach that sometimes is pretty inaccessible for people. So we're using kind of a basic translation. I really like it, though, it's nicely done. And I've been reading this particular book for probably 10 years or so. So we're gonna take a look at the third and fourth, fourth verses and just offer some reflections on them today. This is something that I turn to very regularly as a part of my own daily spiritual practice alongside of the texts of my own bhakti yoga tradition. Of course, those are sort of primary in terms of where I align with my personal beliefs. But I find the Tao te Ching, nothing but complimentary to most of everything that I do. So I hope you guys will enjoy this as well. I have a presentation I'll put on the screen if you're watching on a larger screen that way you can read along with it if you want to. But these are just excerpts from the text.

Verse three. Putting a value on status will cause people to compete. Hoarding treasure will turn them into thieves, showing off possessions will disturb their daily lives. Thus the sage rules by stealing minds and opening hearts by filling bellies and strengthening bones. He shows people how to be simple and live without desires, to be content, and not look for other ways. With the people so pure, who could trick them? What clever ideas could lead them astray? When action is pure and selfless, everything settles into its own perfect place. And then verse four, and then we'll go back to the first one.

Verse four. Tao is empty, yet it fills every vessel with endless supply. Tao is hidden, yet it shines in every corner of the universe. With it, the sharp edges become smooth. The twisted knots loosen, the sun is softened by a cloud, the dust settles into place. So deep, so pure, so still, it has been this way forever. You may ask whose child is it? But I cannot say this child was here before the great ancestor.

Beautiful couple of verses today. Let's start by offering some reflections on the third verse. Putting a value on status will cause people to compete. Hoarding treasures will turn them into thieves showing off possessions will disturb their daily lives. Thus the sage rules by stealing minds and opening hearts, by filling bellies and strengthening bones. He shows people how to be simple and live without desires, to be content and not look for other ways. The people so pure, who could trick them? What clever ideas could lead them astray? When action is pure and selfless? everything settles into its own perfect place.

So a few thoughts on this verse. I love certain details about this verse that come to my mind. One of them is that in the early going of the verse, you might think that this is a verse that is anti status. In other words, status is not a good thing. Treasure is not a good thing. possessions are not good things. But actually if we read a little bit closer, it's not quite saying that. It's saying not that status doesn't exist in this world that it isn't a part of what we may naturally notice or observe in our human experience. But there is a way in which status is a part of how we see and experience things. It says putting a value on status, putting not that status doesn't exist, that putting any kind of additional glossy, sparkly value on it is what causes people to compete. For example, there are people who can run much faster than I can. And it's impressive to see people who can run like the wind. I mean, I remember being a little kid at school, and there were certain boys and girls who could run just way faster than I could. And I remember being appreciative of it. Right up until the moment that I remember this one little boy being like, I can run faster than everyone, then all of a sudden, it was a competition. Whereas in my natural, innocent childhood state, seeing people run faster than me, at least for me, I'm not saying it's this way for everyone. Without anyone putting a value on the fact that someone could run faster than me, was something I could actually appreciate and find beautiful. Wow, look at how fast that person can run, they can run like the wind.

I think what this verse one of the things that this verse reminds me of is that there are lots of distinctions in the world, people who are really good at things or who accomplish things, and so on and so forth. It's when I put some kind of additional value on a status distinction, that jealousy, envy, competition seemed to sneak in, whereas natural differences and aptitudes, behaviours, skills, abilities are going to exist, but what kind of value do I place on them, if I don't give them any additional value, and I just simply appreciate them for what they are. Competition doesn't really rise up in my heart. And I think that's an important distinction because some people again may read this. I remember when I first read this verse, I really thought it was saying their status is a bad thing. To be anti status, and Tao te Ching is never really anti anything.

Next verse is very similar hoarding treasures will turn them into thieves. It's not saying treasures don't exist or that you won't have things that you treasure. The next verse says similar something similar about showing off possessions according treasures, showing off possessions, hoarding a treasure is different than being anti treasure, having a possession. Showing off a possession, right? That's different. It's a different teaching here than getting rid of your possessions. So hoarding a treasure, what does that mean? I think it means sitting on it like a greedy dragon. Now, the dragons a lot often sit on top of wealth and guard it with their lives and will kill people there's a sense of this is mine, and nobody else is clutching with some greedy eye for someone else who may try to take it or have have it or something, storing them up, sitting on them with some kind of greed. It attracts thieves, and it turns people into thieves. This is one of the core lessons of the book and the films that came out, The Hobbit, the dwarves become greedy with their gold in the mountain and it attracts a dragon, a thief who steals it. And then the dragon sits on it and attracts Bilbo who is a thief, a burglar. And he steals something. And on and on it goes. So hoarding treasure not the same as saying that there are no such thing as treasures, or that treasures are an illusion or that you shouldn't have them. It's about how you have them. Same thing with possessions, showing off possessions will disturb people's daily lives.

So if you have something, it's like, be careful about showing it off because it will disturb you and it will disturb others. It's not that you can't have something or that you don't have things or that there aren't things that are not beautiful. It's about what we do with them. And that's a big distinction. It would be unnatural. Similarly, I think, and there's many other places like this in the Tao te Ching that I think allude to this, it would be unnatural to try to eliminate things just because they can become problematic. For example, let's just say I had conversations with people in my family and extended family who are alcoholics in recovery. I think I don't know if that's the appropriate phrasing. But I believe that's right. So one of the things that would be said is like, I can't eliminate alcohol from the world, I can't bar other people from having it or having a relationship with it that maybe I can't handle. I just have to live with the fact that some people may have a healthy relationship with something that I can't because of the way that I'm wired.

So there's a way in which part of the training as far as I've understood it of 12 Step programmes, is really about saying, you know, you know, I can't, I can't try to eliminate the problem once and for all, I have to take a day at a time. And I have to also allow for other people to be in their own lane, as I'm in my own. There's something about the Tao te Ching that is constantly like that. Is it bad? Is there such a thing as status, treasure and possessions? Yes, there are. It's what value we place on them, whether we hoard them, or whether we show them off, that really determines whether these things will be the source, poison, and problems. So going on. The sage rules by stealing minds and opening hearts by filling bellies and strengthening bonds. First of all, I think it's important to recognise that in the ancient world for as many problems as it had, one thing that we know is that there was more of an emphasis on sage wisdom and philosophy having an influence on the ruling class. So in some ways, that's a gross oversimplification. But, for example, ideally, in Vedic civilization, the Brahmins are at the top of the society helping lead alongside of the kings. And I'm not suggesting that we return to something like that. But I think it's important to recognise that the Tao te Ching is giving us advice that, I mean, if there's any, there's anything that could attract me back into the political arena at this stage in my life at all. It would be seeing the the ruling class in our society, let's say, start to adopt or embrace or speak openly about perennial spiritual wisdom when it comes to making decisions leading and uniting diverse people with diverse opinions and interests.

At any rate, I think it's interesting here that you have advice for people who are leaders, the sage rules, by stilling minds and opening hearts by helping people calm the mind and open the heart simultaneously, we're not talking about a cold, mental calculated form of control. We're talking about a quiet mind and an open heart. And also by filling bellies and strengthening bones, a simple way of saying, let's make sure that everybody's needs are basically met. And that we encourage a culture in which a quiet mind and a big open heart are encouraged. Those are goals. Think of if you heard a political leader say something like that, seriously, that this is behind any policy that this goal is behind any agenda. That this is the goal of human life itself. Anyway, the sage shows people how to be simple and live without desires. I like that phrase live simply so that others may simply live, it's not again, saying let's get rid of possessions, or let's get rid of treasures, let's pretend like status distinctions of any kind don't exist. We know that that's not what the Dao De Jing is saying. But it is saying that there is a way in which we can be simple and heart and mind and to live without the burning, agitating fires of desire. And to be content not looking for other ways. The grass is always greener, there's something always missing.

One of the best ways for everything to fall into its own place and to have its own unique, perfect value, no matter what the distinctions may be superficially, is for people to live with an open heart and a simple acceptance of whatever is even delighting in and taking joy and what is the people so pure who could trick them? I love that. If we're in this mindset, we can't be tricked or duped. If we're in a simple, quiet mind, open heart kind of mindset, which is not saying you can't laugh or have fun or that there can't be lots of fun, playful energies that we experienced in our lives either, by the way, but when we're in this mindset, we can't be tricked. We're duped into things that we don't actually need or want. We're into competing or hoarding or showing off. things fall into place. Love that. It's gone to verse four. Tao is empty, yet it fills every vessel with endless supply. Tao is hidden, yet it shines in every corner of the universe. With it, the sharp edges become smooth, the twisted knots loosen, the sun is softened by a cloud, the dust settles into place. So deep, so pure, so still, it has been this way forever. You may ask, whose child is it, but I cannot say this child was here before the great ancestor.

As I reflect on this verse, I think a lot about my daily meditation practice. Every day, my meditation takes me to a place that I would say is relatively empty. Even if I'm chanting the names of God on my beads, I find that my mind is empty, my heart is open. And I would say that there's a way in which in meditation, an empty mind allows everything, so many variegated, beautiful things to flow through. There's a strange way in which the universe seems to work that way, through this kind of openness or emptiness, everything flows through. And if we aren't in putting ourselves into the position of becoming a conduit for that open emptiness, it's hard to remember that everything is constantly being supplied and flowing through in the same way universally. It's as though we are part of God's, the outpouring of a deep meditation of love that God is in the midst of, and through the empty, open, mind and big heart of God. Everything's just flowing through all the time. I often think about God when I think about the word Tao.

From the hiddenness, of Tao light shines, and I find that one of the qualities of the most humble people that I've ever met teachers, sages, fellow parents, friends, that it's that humble, quiet quality, that the biggest and most spectacular lights pour out of him by light, I mean, that which illuminates dazzles I find both beautiful and true at once. It's the hidden quiet, humble things that everything shines forth from. These are just beautiful teachings. It's hard to be reminded of these teachings if we don't take time ourselves to be empty and hidden. Sometimes if you're a parent, you literally have to like lock yourself in a closet. Just to like, have a few minutes. At any rate, this gentle hidden quiet quality. It does some things to it smooths rough edges. I think about that in terms of speech and mental patterns for me in particular. It smooths rough edges, it untangles complicated situations, if we can get in touch with this nameless, empty hidden source of all things, then there's a way in which complicated situations become untangled. The twisted knots loosen. The sun is softened by a cloud, think about a harsh hot sun being softened by a cloud. And everything again finds its place. What a beautiful teaching.

I love the last part. Where does this come from? Where in the heck does this come from? And the answer is, can't say it is a causeless sourceless source the cause of all causes the source of all sources, the ancestor of all beings. It's the ever present origin. So that's what we've got for today. I hope you guys enjoy taking a look at the third and fourth force verses of the eaching. Hopefully, it gives us some wisdom. I know that as an astrologer, the number one way in which these meditations and these teachings that we visited today have had an impact on my own work tends to be most practically when it comes to reading charts every day. I read charts every day year round, and I think probably an upward of about 600 to 700 charts a year. And every time that I sit down, if I want to experience a moment in which real divination happens, which means the chart somehow speaks, and it gives the client, something to take home, an insight, a nugget of truth, an experience that sparks something spiritually, that as the reader, I have to be in a place that's quiet minded, and open hearted at the same time. If I want to say anything true on my YouTube channel that actually inspires people, I have to be in a state that is empty, hidden, gentle, quiet, and allow for something else to come through when I'm writing the lesson plan for the day, or whatever else.

So I don't know how we accomplish anything good in our lives, what to speak of our astrological lives are practices without the same exact teachings, and I've come to realise in my life, that these teachings are the basis, if they are the basis of every day, there's about a 90% chance that more of that day will go well than poorly in terms of how I feel, my relationships and interactions, the quality of the work that I do, my heart and my mind. And so I really encourage all of you guys who are listening to this, to make it a practice to read the Tao te Ching every day or other spiritual texts as well. For me, it's the Bhagavad Gita every day, the Bhagavat Purana. And to perhaps even carve out some time, quiet time to reflect to meditate. I use mantra meditation. If you look back in my bhakti series, there is a video called Easy practices of surrender mantra meditation, and you can learn about it there. But do something every day because it's amazing how everything tends to find its place when we settle in and become some of what these verses are talking about. Especially the open conduit of the quiet mind and the open heart. Alright, that's what we've got for today. Take it easy, everyone. We'll see you again soon. Bye.