Tao Te Ching Ch 3

 The Door of all Wonders: 

The Commentary on the Tao Te Ching (Ch 3)

by Nirguna C K  Lam

Chapter Three

Do not glorify the achievers,

so that people will have no jealousy and contention.

Do not treasure goods that are hard to obtain,

so that people will not become thieves.

Do not show what is desirable,

so that people’s heart will not be disturbed.

Thus, the sage governing people:

Purify their hearts,

Fill their bellies,

Weaken their ambitions,

Strengthen their bones.

Always keep people innocent of worldly knowledge and free from desires,

so that the clever dare not to act.

Act without actions, nothing will not be well-ordered.

 

 

Review

 

The Tao Te Ching tells us Tao and Te. Tao is the Truth, everlasting; Te is the Virtue, the embodiment of the Truth, the outward expression of the Truth. The Truth and its Virtues manifested can benefit people in their own spiritual life in the individual level, the relationship among people can also be harmonious in the social level, the livelihood of people in the whole society will be better off in the economic level, and the righteousness of governance can be attained in the political level. With the Truth and its manifestations as Virtues in different senses, people will have peace in the whole world. There are only a few words in this Chapter, but it covers the aspects of individual, social, economic and political views, how the Truth benefits us in all the levels.

 

The Truth mentioned as Tao in the Tao Te Ching is the wisdom totally different from the worldly cleverness for gaining fame, honour, achievement and success that is what Lao Tzu says the clever men want to acquire worldly achievements, benefits and profits as much as possible, but what we need is not much. We, human, only need to live in comfort with simplicity, being well fed for healthy body and mind, but need not have many material possessions, belongings, fame and honour. We do not need to live in a big castle with a lot of luxurious items and decorations where many people praise us with honor and admiration. No need! They are all burdens. What we need most is Tao and Te only, thus Lao Tzu says:

 

“Do not glorify the achievers,

so that people will have no jealousy and contention.

Do not treasure goods that are hard to obtain,

 so that people will not become thieves.

Do not show what is desirable,

 so that people’s heart will not be disturbed.”

 

With Tao and Te, everyone can live well. People all enjoy their simple life with the awareness of the Truth all pervading. They do not need to rob or steal anything for their satisfaction by being cunning. Truth is not a material item. Tao and its embodiment, Te, both are not commercial goods for transaction in the market for gaining money or material belongings. As Tao is not a material good, it is imperishable. It is the spiritual world of the Truth that we need to attain whereas no material products can be involved. On the contrary, less and less desire for material life is needed to attain the higher and higher spiritual level which finally makes people free from all desires. We should live well with simple life but never indulge in having luxurious life, thus Lao Tzu says:

 

“Thus, the sage governing people:

Purify their hearts,

Fill their bellies,

Weaken their ambitions,

Strengthen their bones.”

 

Lao Tzu tells us to avoid worldly ambitions and should be free from desire. Worldly knowledge is only needed for having simple life with a strong body and pure heart. It is why Lao Tzu says people should “purify the heart, fill their bellies, weaken their ambitions and strengthen their bones”. Then our spiritual level can be uplifted by not bothering too much about the material life and concentrating more on spiritual life. This is the advice Lao Tzu gives us. To purify the heart, Truth itself will prevail in us, no need to teach with a lot of words. To purify the heart, a simple life is needed. That is totally opposite to the global trend of materialism prevailing in the whole world since the western powers for these several hundred years have had successfully controlled the world leading people to enjoy material life as much as possible while neglecting the spiritual life which should be the master of the material life, not the slave of the material life.

 

From the 18^th century, the Industrial Revolution first started in Britain, followed the rise of imperialism among the western powers which enabled them to conquer the whole world. We humans began pursuing the life of over-production and over-consumption and hence our environment has been exploited and polluted. Our spiritual life becomes the servant for material life. As the material life becomes the master, all people aim at gaining everything they want in the material level. Some people can have much they want without limits while some people cannot. There are two groups of people in our society, those who have material affluence and those who have not. Those who have will try their best to maintain their material gain and even want to be more. It also means exploitation and setting the rule of games favorable to them only. Those who have not will also want to have but feeling disappointed by whatever they can try with failure; and being trapped in a stage of poverty, they are jealous of the rich people, and they just want to be one of them as their only aim in life.

 

Our society cannot be harmonious. Morality becomes hypocritical. People oppose each other in the real sense. They try to defend themselves by being cunning and dishonest rather than cooperating with each other with honesty and care. This is what our society forwarding in this way. There will be no use of whatever system or ideology if we do not have Tao and Te. The cleverer the people will be, the more cunning they can be and the eviler they can act with success. This society is the most troublesome as Lao Tzu warns us. Any act against the Truth, against humanity will become permissible and advisable by the rule of games the cunning people stipulated, thus Lao Tzu says:

 

“Always keep people innocent of worldly knowledge and free from desires,

so that the clever dare not to act.”

 

Lao Tzu tells us to be innocent and pure so that we may abide by the Truth in us, never to be clever in the worldly sense. When everyone is pure and innocent, without too many desires of material gains to disturb their mind and conscience, what they act is only according to their pure nature, hence, will not harm anyone and anything. To act with the Truth, to act with their pure nature without selfishness and harmful purposes, is called “act without actions”. Only in the society in this sense, Lao Tzu says:

 

Act without actions, nothing will not be well-ordered.

 

Lao Tzu tells us how to govern the world starting from the individual level. People should be pure and innocent. They do not have desire to gain fame and honour. They do not have desire to have luxurious life. They do not have desire to have precious goods. Then no one will become a robber or a thief, to be a very great person or a very poor person. What they need to attain is their purity in heart, “Tao” in their heart. We all can have simple and sufficient life to live in harmony together. If the ruler can provide the environment for people to attain their purity, then all actions can be taken according to “Tao” without cleverness aiming to cheat to be higher than someone and let some people down. To act truthfully with their pure nature is called “action-less action”. This is the ideal. Everything will be naturally in their order.