Tao Te Ching Meditation - Chapter 74: Live And Let Live
Reading:
74.1 If people usually don't fear death,
how can death be used to scare them?
74.2 If people are made to fear death,
and you catch them
and kill them when they act oddly,
who would dare?
74.3 There are always executioners.
And to kill in the place of an executioner
is taking the place of a master carver.
Those who take the place of a master carver
rarely avoid cutting their hands.
Tao Teh Ching - Cleary Translation
Meditation:
Superficially, this chapter seems to be an argument against capital punishment. Apparently the first Han emperor, guided by the Tao Te Ching, thought so when he abolished executions and replaced them with hard labor.
"There are always executioners" does not refer to official agents of the state or even human beings. Natural consequences are the "executioners" and those who do not follow nature (the Great Teacher of the Tao) will do more harm than good when they try to take such matters into their own hands..
Many do see the TTC as a treatise on politics; but i prefer to use it as a spiritual guide. Since i am not an executioner or even a politician, i must look for other meanings here for myself.
People have their fear of death because they have lost the Way. They lose their fear of death for one of two reasons. They may acquire a spiritual outlook which comes from taming the ego and becoming one with nature which allows them to enjoy life while accepting death. Life is eternal because, if for no other reason, it is lived in the moment and the moment is eternal. I.e. they reconnect with the Way.
The other reason for not fearing death is that life is cheap and not worth continuing. When Goanzu became the first Han emperor he discovered that if ten criminals were executed in the morning, a thousand more crimes would be committed before evening. Instead of killing those thousand, he stopped executions altogether which allegedly, together with an improvement in life chances generally, brought peace to the empire.
The spiritual lesson is the same as the political lesson: Do not resist evil, but repay evil with good. Compassion withheld from the most vile examples of our species is compassion withheld from humanity as a whole and from beings as a whole. Turning grief into anger is turning gold into garbage.
Prayer: Wholly Loving: Let my prayer be for mercy, for myself and "for the whole world." May i give mercy as i have received it, may i receive it as i give it. Let me not doubt its source and let me not be cut off from the Source. Amen
Contemplation:
74.1 If people usually don't fear death,
how can death be used to scare them?
74.2 If people are made to fear death,
and you catch them
and kill them when they act oddly,
who would dare?
74.3 There are always executioners.
And to kill in the place of an executioner
is taking the place of a master carver.
Those who take the place of a master carver
rarely avoid cutting their hands.
Tao Teh Ching - Cleary Translation
Meditation:
Superficially, this chapter seems to be an argument against capital punishment. Apparently the first Han emperor, guided by the Tao Te Ching, thought so when he abolished executions and replaced them with hard labor.
"There are always executioners" does not refer to official agents of the state or even human beings. Natural consequences are the "executioners" and those who do not follow nature (the Great Teacher of the Tao) will do more harm than good when they try to take such matters into their own hands..
Many do see the TTC as a treatise on politics; but i prefer to use it as a spiritual guide. Since i am not an executioner or even a politician, i must look for other meanings here for myself.
People have their fear of death because they have lost the Way. They lose their fear of death for one of two reasons. They may acquire a spiritual outlook which comes from taming the ego and becoming one with nature which allows them to enjoy life while accepting death. Life is eternal because, if for no other reason, it is lived in the moment and the moment is eternal. I.e. they reconnect with the Way.
The other reason for not fearing death is that life is cheap and not worth continuing. When Goanzu became the first Han emperor he discovered that if ten criminals were executed in the morning, a thousand more crimes would be committed before evening. Instead of killing those thousand, he stopped executions altogether which allegedly, together with an improvement in life chances generally, brought peace to the empire.
The spiritual lesson is the same as the political lesson: Do not resist evil, but repay evil with good. Compassion withheld from the most vile examples of our species is compassion withheld from humanity as a whole and from beings as a whole. Turning grief into anger is turning gold into garbage.
Prayer: Wholly Loving: Let my prayer be for mercy, for myself and "for the whole world." May i give mercy as i have received it, may i receive it as i give it. Let me not doubt its source and let me not be cut off from the Source. Amen
Contemplation: