In keeping the spirit and the vital soul together,
Are you able to maintain their perfect harmony?
In gathering your vital energy to attain suppleness,
Have you reached the state of a new-born babe?
In washing and clearing your inner vision,
Have you purified it of all dross?
In loving your people and governing your state,
Are you able to dispense with cleverness?
In the opening and shutting of heaven’s gate,
Are you able to play the feminine part?
Enlightened and seeing far into all directions,
Can you at the same time remain detached and non-active?
Rear your people!
Feed your people!
Rear them without claiming them for your own!
Do your work without setting any store by it!
Be a leader, not a butcher!
This is called hidden Virtue.
One reply on “10”
The final line in this passage identifies the overall message and ties into what this blog is about…the Virtue of Christ. All these things stated here are about this divine virtue mutually known and understood by men, but demonstrated in the fullest by only one man, Christ Jesus.
One line that has stuck with me through the years is, “In the opening and shutting of heaven’s gate, Are you able to play the feminine part?” The feminine part is gentle but stern, not giving way to things with no integrity. What could Lao mean about the “opening and shutting” of heaven’s gate? There are times when we receive glimpses of eternity and times when all we see is the temporal. I suspect that this could mean just that. When God shows you life through His eyes, you become gentle and stern at the same time.