The Tao Teh King: A Short Study in Comparative Religion: Chapter XXXIX

The Tao Teh King: A Short Study in Comparative Religion, by C. Spurgeon Medhurst, [1905], at sacred-texts.com

CHAPTER XXXIX.

The things which from of old harmonized with the One are:—The heavens, which through the One are clear; the earth, which through the One is reposeful; the gods, which through the One are spiritual; space, which through the One is full; whatever has form, which through the One develops; princes and monarchs, which through the One adjust the empire: these are all effects of the One.

Were the heavens not thus clear they would be liable to rend; were the earth not thus reposeful, it would be liable to frothiness; were the gods not thus spiritual, they would be liable to imbecility; were space not thus full, it would be liable to exhaustion; were that which has form not thus developed, it would be liable to annihilation; were princes and monarchs not thus regulated, their dignities and honors would be liable to a downfall.

Hence humility is the root of honor; lowliness the foundation of loftiness. It is on this account that princes and monarchs style themselves "kithless," "friendless," "unworthies." Do they not thus acknowledge humility as their root?

When the senses rule they become vehicles of death and deceit. The emotions when uncontrolled, impart their color to every conclusion; when the desires are unregulated they compel the reason to think that their wishes are without

blame, so that, until he has risen above sensation and desire, and can view himself as a being apart, man is unable to discriminate the true from the false and is liable to destruction. Until he rests in the undivided harmony of his spirit, and knows that pleasure and pain exist only in his phenomenal self, without any counterpart in his real life, man regards virtue and vice with blurred eyes, but "if thine eye be single, thy whole body is full of light." A truth-seeker must be selfless or he will fail in his search, an eye to personal results will vitiate his every inference and cause him to mistake parts of the carriage for the whole. Seek, therefore, THE ONE alone, and do not be drawn aside by desire, whether desire for the beauty of the gem or the roughness of the stone. Be identified with the spirit, not with the form. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not upon thine own understanding." Humility is the root of honor, lowliness the foundation of loftiness.