Verse 3
Putting a value on status
will create contentiousness.
If you overvalue possessions,
people begin to steal.
By not displaying what is desirable, you will
cause the people's hearts to remain undisturbed.
The sage governs
by emptying minds and hearts,
by weakening ambitions and strengthening bones.
Practice not doing...
When action is pure and selfless,
everything settles into its own perfect place.
My thoughts on the verse
A primary understanding in Buddhism is that desire is the cause of all suffering. And, so, by removing desire, we can eliminate our suffering and acheive peace.
Let's define desire as any feeling of want, need, or expectation. Suffering, I will define broadly as any sort of discomfort or negative feeling. In today's terms, we tend to think of "desire" and "suffering" in extremes, but in fact, when we apply more broad definitions, we can more clearly see how these really affect our everyday lives and interactions. (More on that in the next section.)
The key idea in the Tao is contentment. Contentment can be found in not placing an artificial value on things. The extent to which somehting is of value is equal to the degree to which is it practically useful. This sounds awfully dull and doesn't seem to leave any room for intrinsic or sentimental value, however, it is quite the opposite.
Some have interpreted this philosophy (prevalent in many religious traditions) to mean that we should shun all worldly possessions in order to be spiritual people. I don't believe this is the true intent behind this message. I believe that the real point is to understand the true value of a thing, appreciate it for it's true value, don't apply a false value to it, and most importantly, DON'T BECOME IDENTIFIED WITH IT. Don't give the thing so much value that you feel a part of yourself is lost if the thing is lost.
Empty your mind and heart of desire for things/ideas/concepts and apply your energy to strengthening your understanding of the true value of things.
The final stanza talks about "not doing". This is a key element of the Tao. I believe that what "not doing" means is to practice, as much as possible, to only act in the moment following our natural responses (see Verse 23). Most people act in response to their thoughts and the feelings generated by those thoughts, most of the time. This is acting from ego; that false voice inside our heads that we have come to believe is who we are. The process is: thought produces feeling, which produces action.
The key to practicing "not doing" is consciousness. If we are conscious of the thought/feeling/action process, we can consciously choose to not act on it. Thus, we can avoid feeding the ego and creating more suffering in our lives.
Practical application in our lives
The ego's sole purpose it to keep itself alive. In order to do this, it requires nourishment in the form of negative energy. It gets this negative energy by creating thoughts and feelings that are negative and we act on them (and actions from negative thoughts and feelings must only be negative themselves), thus creating negative energy around us that is fed back to us amplified. And when we are exposed to this amplified negative energy, we respond with more negative energy in kind.
For example, our ego might produce thoughts about our partner that say, "He's so lazy! He never helps me around the house or with the kids." This creates feelings of resentment and anger in us. When your partner arrives home from work, he is greeted with a dirty look and a cold shoulder. Your partner in turn thinks, "Geez, what the hell did I do to deserve this treatment! I just walked in the door after working hard all day." He feels rejected, hurt and angry and retreats to watch TV without even saying thank you for dinner or offering to help clean up or take care of the kids. You think, "Of course! There he goes, only thinking about himself again." You feel justified, self-righteous, as well as more resentment and anger...and the cycle continues...both egos being fed with enormous amounts of negative energy.
When the egos have had their fill, they settle down for a while. That is why this type of drama doesn't necessarily continue on a constant basis. (Though, for people with really strong egos, this pattern can seem to be constant...they are always finding or creating drama and suffering in their lives.) When the ego feels the need to feed again, however, it will come forward with more thoughts of a similar nature, but this time it could be negative thoughts about your job, kids, friends, finances...whatever is close at hand.
Conscious choosing is a process by which we are consciously aware of our ego, and therefore, can choose not to act on the negative thoughts and feelings it is feeding us. We may still have the thoughts and the feelings, but when we choose not to act, we don't put that negative energy outside ourselves and it can't get amplified and fed back to us. We are essentially cutting off the critical food supply of the ego and, thus, weakening it by degrees until we are able to live easily in our natural state of contentment and joy.
This is how we eliminate desire and suffering from our lives. It is all within our own power...the one true power we possess in this world; the power to choose.
WARNING:
When you first begin to practice this, things will seem to go very well and you will feel better than you have in a very long time. Then, suddenly, your ego will recognize it's diminished hold over you and will try to fight back. It will come out very strong and create very persistent thoughts and negative feelings in you. It may be very difficult for you to recognize your ego at this time, and even more difficult to not act on your feelings. DON'T DESPAIR! This is a good thing. It means that you are gaining ground and weakening your ego. It feels the need to fight for survival because it can sense it is losing control over you. This hit by your ego won't last forever, though, in the midst of it, you may feel you have lost all the ground you had gained. That is simply not the case. Try to be as conscious of your ego as you can be, take extra measures to take care of yourself, and try to talk to people who can remind you of this process (though it will be difficult for you to hear/believe them in the midst of this attack). When the attack is over, consciously look back on your thoughts, feelings and actions and identify your ego in all of them. This is a good and very productive exercise and will help you greatly in gaining back that ground and moving even further along the path of weakening your ego's hold on you.
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