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

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

CHAPTER XLIII.

Few indeed in the world realize the instructions of the silence, or the benefits of inaction. 3

Those who have heard the voice which speaks in the silence, and have learned the benefits of non-action know that no armour is so safe a panoply as the shield of weakness, even according to that strange word of the Apostle Peter, "Forasmuch then as Christ suffered in the flesh, ARM yourselves also with the same mind." The Christ conquered on the cross; His crown of thorns is a crown of crowns, and my greatest strength lies in my power to divest myself of self. Though indiscernible this power "penetrates where there are no crevices."

Footnotes

75:1 "Without and within all beings, immovable and also movable; by reason of His subtlety imperceptible; at hand and far away is That." Bhagavad Gita.

"For wisdom is more moving than any motion; she passeth and goeth through all things by reason of her pureness."—Wisdom of Solomon, vii, 24.

75:2 As the indiscernible meets with no obstacles, so the power of non-action is irresistible.

75:3 Chinese history supplies a severe, if somewhat crude example, of the doctrine of inaction. It is stated that when Ju-shih-ki (Tang dynasty A.D. 618-905) was on the eve of accepting an official position, his uncle called him and said that he felt ill at ease respecting him. "What will you do, Nephew," he asked, "if some one strikes you?" "Receive the blow in meekness" was the reply. "If you are reviled, what then?" "I shall be silent." "What if you are spat upon?" "I shall wipe away the spittle." "In doing that," answered his uncle, "you may be showing resentment to the spitter, and that would be a wrong."