Tao Te Ching, Ch 66

The Door of all Wonders: 

The Commentary on the Tao Te Ching

by Nirguna, Chor-kok Lam

 Chapter 66

The reason why the sea can be the King of hundred valleys is that

 it excels in taking the lower position.

Hence it can be the King of hundred valleys.

Therefore, the sage who wants to rule over people

must in his words humble himself before them.

When desiring to lead people, he must put his personal interest behind them.

Therefore, the sage takes his place over people,

 yet people do not feel burdened.

He takes his place ahead of people, yet people do not feel harmed.

Hence the world supports him joyfully and is never tired of doing so.

As he does not contend, no one in the world is able to contend with him.

Review

 

The Tao Te Ching tells us how the sage abiding in the Truth rules our world. The sage abiding in the Truth does not aim at making benefit for himself only. It is the ideal of Lao Tzu that the sage should rule the world by means of the Truth. Throughout the whole Tao Te Ching, there are many Chapters telling us how the sage should rule our world. Here is one of the Chapters.

 

Humility is the virtue of the Truth that all the sages should have. Lao Tzu tells us that all people especially those in high positions should be humble as a model for other people to follow. Here Lao Tzu uses an analogy of the sea and valleys:

 

 

“The reason why the sea can be the King of hundred valleys is that

 it excels in taking the lower position,

Hence it can be the King of hundred valleys.”

 

From the nature, we all can observe that water flows from high position to low position. All the rivers and streams of different valleys will naturally flow into the sea. The sea is the final outlet for all the branches of rivers and streams. The sea acts as the King of hundred valleys because the sea is their destination which all the water of the valleys will join together in the sea. The sea is vast and in low position that is why all rivers and streams will flow into the sea. This low position shows the humility of the sea to lower down itself for all the valleys to join into. If the sea is in the high position, then how can the water of the low parts of the valleys flow into the sea? The sea is vast which means it is also great though it humbles itself.  Though the sea is humble, it is still called as the King, not the servant because it has great capacity to hold all the waters together. Lao Tzu tells us that the sage should act as the sea, as the King of all valleys. The sage should humble themselves first when ruling people:

 

“Therefore, the sage who wants to rule over people,

must in his words humble himself before them.”

 

Lao Tzu tells us that the sage as the ruler should be humble in his words in order to let all people be truthful and honest to the sage as their trustee. We can communicate well with people who are humble and friendly, not the people who are harsh and unfriendly. When we are humble, we can prevent us from being corrupted by our power and position, our pride and arrogance. People who have pride cannot concern people as their own selves. Such ruler will suppose his people should work for himself only. He thinks he should get all the benefit and interest in the world as the world is belonged to him alone. We can see there have been many selfish rulers in our history, how they poorly treated their people for their own pleasure and enjoyment, therefore, Lao Tzu tells us:

 

“When desiring to lead people,

he must put his personal interest behind them.”

 

How can the ruler humble himself? Lao Tzu tells us that he must put his personal interest behind the people, let the interest of the whole public come first. In this way, he can lead the people well:

 

“Therefore, the sage takes his place over people,

 yet people do not feel burdened.

He takes his place ahead of people, yet people do not feel harmed.”

 

The real sage who is worth to rule over the world should consider the welfare of the whole public. When he leads people, people will not feel any burden. Such is the best ruler, giving no burden to anyone. People will never feel being harmed by their ruler. How can the ruler do so? The ruler, as the King, should act as the servant for the general public. Then he will not burden people for his own individual benefit. He will not order the public to build extremely luxurious castles and palaces for his enjoyment only. Instead, he will order people to build good facilities for all walks of life, for all people to have benefits. This is the Truth acting in the country when different groups of people can contribute and be beneficial. If all people can be benefited by the ruler, they will keep on supporting the ruler for their own benefit:

 

“Hence the world supports him joyfully and is never tired of doing so.”

 

How can the ruler be humble? How can the ruler never burden and harm people? How can the ruler put his own interest behind all interests of people? Here Lao Tzu tells us in the end that it is the virtue of the sage that he will never contend with anyone:

 

“As he does not contend, no one in the world is able to contend with him.”

Unlike our contemporary world which stresses on competitions of various types among people, the sage will never contend with anyone. He just does his best as his ordained duty to serve the country rather than competing for getting more benefits for himself. Who can be humble and great at the same time? Only the sage who acts according to the Truth can do.

 

Among all the sages in different religions and the great personages in our history, Prophet Muhammad is the one whose life meets the ideal of Lao Tzu as the sage ruling people in both religious and secular affairs. The western historian, Michael H. Hart, author of “The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History” ranked Prophet Muhammad as the number One among all the influential persons in our human history. In his book, he said:

 

 “My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world’s most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular levels.” 

 

The success of Prophet Muhammad lies on the Truth. He was humble, honest and friendly to all kinds of people in Mecca. People gave him the name, “Ahmed” which means the most trustworthy person. Though he was the ruler of the Arabs during his lifetime, he, his family and his companions never enjoyed any luxurious life but modest life and only worked for people. Scholars and great persons, after carefully studying the life of Prophet Muhammad, gave high compliments to Prophet Muhammad in their comments:

 

“Leadership glimpsed more than once in the life of the Prophet Muhammad accords well with what we know to be the universal truth about the nature and practice of leadership. You will judge for yourself how close Muhammad comes to this ideal.” [1]

 

“I wanted to know the best one who holds today undisputed sway (controlling influence) over the hearts of millions of mankind. I became more than convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement (humbleness) of Prophet Muhammad, the scrupulous regard (extreme care) for his pledges, his intense devotion to his friends and followers, his intrepidity (fearlessness) and his absolute trust in God and in his own mission. When I closed the second volume (of the book about his life) I was sorry that there was not more for me to read about his great life.” [2] 

 

“Head of the state as well as the Church, he was Caesar and Pope in one; but, he was Pope without the Pope’s claims, and Caesar without the legions of Caesar, without a standing army, without a bodyguard, without a palace, without a fixed revenue. If ever any man had the right to say that he ruled by a right Divine, it was Muhammad, for he had all the power without instruments and without its support. He cared not for dressing of power. The simplicity of his private life was in keeping with his public life.” [3]

 

“There is no doubt that Prophet Muhammad is one of the greatest reformers who served the social framework profoundly. It suffices him that he led a whole nation to the enlightenment of truth and made it more inclined towards tranquility and peace and prevented it from shedding blood and giving human sacrifice (though this was never proved against Arabs before Islam). He widely opened to his nation the gate to development and civilization. This is a great deed that only a strong man can do and a man like that deserves to be regarded with respect and admiration.” [4]

 

 

Note:

 

[1] John Adair, author of “The Leadership of Muhammad”, Chair of Leadership Studies United Nations System Staff College in Turin

 

[2] From Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948, the political and spiritual leader of the Indian independence movement

 

[3] From Revered Reginald Bosworth Smith, 1839-1908, Author of Mohammad and Mohammedanism, London, 1874, p.92

 

[4] Leo Tolstoy, 1828-1910, the famous Russian writer and novelist, Author of “War and Peace”