Tao Te Ching, Ch 49

The Door of all Wonders: 

The Commentary on the Tao Te Ching

by Nirguna, Chor-kok Lam

Chapter 49

The sage has no special mind.

He takes as his own the mind of people.

Those who are good, I am good to them.

Those who are not good, I am also good to them.

In so doing, all people gain in goodness.

Those who have integrity, I trust them.

Those who do not have integrity,

 I also show my integrity to them.

In so doing, people will all have integrity.

The sage who is governing the world tends to be gentle without desire,

and makes the mind of people simple.

People all pay attention with their ears and eyes.

The sage can be their model making them as pure as children.

Review

    

Lao Tzu tells us that the sages are desireless. They do not have any worldly desires for themselves. They are contented with the Truth inside them. How can they hanker for the outward gains and interests? It is not their mentality. Thus, Lao Tzu says:

 

“The sage has no special mind.

He takes as his own the mind of people.”

 

The Truth is emptiness, like the space. The mind of the sage is the same as the Truth without anything, whether good or bad, hence Lao Tzu says, “the sage has no special mind.” The sage abiding in the Truth does not have any special favour to anyone or anything. He or she embraces the Truth as the One, like the sun shining to lighten the environment. The sage only concerns the welfare of people. He does not concern his individual self, i.e., ego, as his individual self has already dissolved in the Truth as the One, as the whole, therefore, he can take the mind of people. He can understand the feeling and concern of other people. He has the light to see more than the egoistic people. He knows himself very well and he also knows other people very well. His consciousness has widened to get the feelings and situations of other people. If people get peaceful, he will feel this peaceful stage. The same way if people are not in peace, he will also feel this calamity deep inside himself, thus the sage can be merciful to people and cannot be a hypocrite. It is their awareness and feeling that cannot be cheated by any pomp and show. The sage naturally acts for the benefit of people he meets. It becomes his natural instinct; thus, Lao Tzu says:

 

“Those who are good, I am good to them.

Those who are not good, I am also good to them.

In so doing, all people gain in goodness.”

 

The sage does not have any double character. How can he change his face when meeting different people? He is gentle and mild in nature no matter he meets good people or bad people. In this way, the bad people may be enlightened and learn to be gentle and mild. Therefore, it is always a great blessing for people to come close to the sage, so that they can learn good character and conduct by getting along with the sage that is what Lao Tzu is going to tell us. He further tells us how the sage makes all people become honest and trustworthy:

 

“Those who have integrity, I trust them.

Those who do not have integrity, I also show my integrity to them.

In so doing, people will all have integrity.”

 

People normally can trust honest people and be honest to trustworthy people. The sage told here can do more that he is honest to all people no matter they are good or bad. As learning from the sage here, we do not need to trust dishonest people, but we should be honest to them also. This is the point. To be honest is the virtue that cannot be ruined by telling lies and cheating. We should not trust any lies and cheating but we also should not tell lies and cheat dishonest people. In this way, whether people are honest or dishonest, they can experience the honesty of the sage and can be reinforced in their life.

 

The best example to show the teaching of Lao Tzu in this Chapter is the living teaching of Prophet Muhammad. He was named “Ahmed” by his people in Mecca before he got the revelation of Allah to be the Prophet to tell people the Truth. The name, “Ahmed” means “the most trustworthy person”. All the people in Mecca trusted him the most. The rich people including the Jews would give him their valuable belongings to keep in safety. They trusted Muhammad more than their own relatives. However, when Muhammad in his 40 of age, took up the mission given by Allah to proclaim the truthful religion, to worship Allah without any deities and to eliminate all the corruptions and evils in society, to the people in Mecca, many people joined together to persecute him and his followers severely. Those who had praised Muhammad before refused to follow his guidance and even plotted to murder him. Having persecuted unbearably, Allah revealed Muhammad to leave Mecca secretly. In the night Muhammad departed from Mecca in secret, before he left, he told his son-in-law, Ali, a strong warrior, to sleep in his bed at that night and fought against the murderer. He told Ali to return all the valuable belongings to the people in Mecca before he departed also. How trustworthy the Prophet was even facing the bitter enemies who allied to kill him! It is exactly the teaching of Lao Tzu here! Then Lao Tzu says further:

 

“The sage who is governing the world, tends to be gentle without desire,

and makes the mind of people simple.”

 

The sage is gentle and desire-less, so he is the best to govern the world. This is the ideal of Lao Tzu in political field. Lao Tzu always stresses that the ruling class in our world must be the sages who embody the Truth for people. As the sage is having no desire, what he needs to do is to make people become simple in nature. To be simple, without intrigues and cunningness, is closest to the Truth. Truthfulness and simplicity are the keys for opening the door of the great treasure, the Truth. Then how can the sage, as a ruler, make people become simple, without any complex for vices and evils? Lao Tzu tells us the answer in the end:

“People all pay attention with their ears and eyes.

The sage can be their model making them as pure as children.”

 

The sage becomes a model for people to follow. The sage cannot only speak without acting in life what he is teaching. The living example is far more important than merely words. Words and deeds are both needed for the sage to show how people should behave. People look at the sage with their eyes and hear the sage with their ears. People are all curious to know other people’s affairs. The sage must be their model in words and deeds. What should the sage do? He should make people learn from him to become as pure and innocent as children, the good nature of childhood, to be pure and innocent without any concept to become complicated to do vices. To teach a child is much easier than to teach a stubborn adult full of vices in mind. We all have that purity once when we are a child. How can a child do terrible crimes to anyone? Only the polluted adulthood can do severe vices to people.

 

Therefore, the sage is going to make people simple and pure as a small child. We all should be as pure as children. All children in good state look lovely and simple. It is their pure nature. It is Tao. It is the Truth.