I am really no good at math, and word problems really kick my ass. So when reading the Tao Te Ching and chapter 50 shows up talking in riddles about 3 in 10, I was super lost.
Then I was working out and listening to the Tao Te Ching being read by Wayne Dyer, when all of the sudden as I am counting reps it hits me, “this chapter is giving me the stats on people.”
Don’t laugh (to hard), I know its stupid but I really finally understood what they were saying.
Coming into life, entering death
The followers of life, three in ten
The followers of death, three in ten
Those whose lives are moved toward death, also three in ten.
Why? Because they live life of excess.
TTC 50 (Lin)
See! A word problem. Word problems always gave me so much trouble but I figured this one out.
9 out of 10 people in life are attached either to life, death, or allowing life to blow them in any direction. Meaning things outside of ones life control them.
Amazing, I am a genius. Haha, sorry. I could not believe how dense I had been about this one.
I have been and sometimes still am one of the 9 of 10. There are times when my positivity towards life exceeds the bounds of human capacity. A doctor would call this manic. Then there are time when I am attached to death, and nothing in the world has any meaning. A doctor would call this depression.
Then there are times when I am nothing but a victim, attached completely to what others are doing, how others are making my life difficult. A doctor would call this, good drama for a reality TV show (funny doctor).
Then there is the 1 in 10. Those holding to the Tao
I’ve heard of those who are good at cultivating life.
Traveling on the road, they do not encounter rhinos or tigers
Entering into an army, they are not harmed by weapons.
Rhinos have nowhere to thrust their horns
Tigers have nowhere to clasp their claws
Soldiers have nowhere to lodge their blades
Why? Because they have no place for death.
TTC 50 (Lin)
The 1 in 10 are those cultivators of the Tao. The ones that practice being a channel for what ever is needed to flow through. In so many ways, this last paragraph reminds me of The Saint Francis Prayer of Assis.
Lord make Me an instrument of Your peace
Where there is hatred let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness joy.
O Divine master grant that I may
Not so much seek to be consoled as to console
To be understood, as to understand.
To be loved. as to love
For it’s in giving that we receive
And it’s in pardoning that we are pardoned
And it’s in dying that we are born…
To eternal life.
St. Francis of Assis
Becoming a channel for all that is needed, of peace, love, light, joy we walk a different path. No longer held to a reality in which we are offended by those that are attached to death because we are attached to life. We are not offended by those that have lost their way because we believe we have found ours. We are simply and beautifully a tool of divine grace, to be used by all of creation.
In this way we are the 1 in 10. No man or beast shall come against us as we remain open as channels in this way because we no longer belong to ourselves. We no longer fight for our egoic desires. We remove the block holding us from our divinity and open ourselves to eternal life. Because we have no place for death.
Beautiful.
Happy Day
Seeking Purpose Today 