61

When a country obtains great power,
it becomes like the sea:
all streams run downward into it.
The more powerful it grows,
the greater the need for humility.
Humility means trusting the Tao,
thus never needing to be defensive.

A great nation is like a great man:
When he makes a mistake, he realizes it.
Having realized it, he admits it.
Having admitted it, he corrects it.
He considers those who point out his faults
as his most benevolent teachers.
He thinks of his enemy
as the shadow that he himself casts.

If a nation is centered in the Tao,
if it nourishes its own people
and doesn’t meddle in the affairs of others,
it will be a light to all nations in the world.

Tao Te Ching by Lao-tsu, trans. by Stephen Mitchell

Today is Friday, named after the wife of Odin, in Norse mythology. The day is related also to dies Veneris, or “day of Venus,” the Roman goddess of love and beauty. Originally a day named after a goddess of love and fertility. It later became associated with misfortune and tragedy, particularly due to events in Christian tradition like the Crucifixion. 

Worth noting – Christianity casts a pall over the proper recognition of feminine energy as counterpoint to male testosterone. In a Taoist sense, a metaphor of reality, the female is compared to water, powerful because of water’s capacity to accommodate, enveloping drawing everything into her emptiness. 

The lines quoted from verse no. 61 are suggestive of a coastal estuary, the interface where a sea gathers many rivers into it’s vast expanse. The ocean dwarfs streams and rivers, and is receptive to the freshwater and nutrients provided. A delta functions as a nursery for many species of fish, shellfish, and birds too. The point of Lao-tsu:  the reciprocity between the greater body and the many intersecting relationships. The binary relationship, of the many smaller to the greater one, – the ocean affords restraint, manages the difference by accommodation, and by deference. Coercion being unnecessary, – is laid aside. 

By a Taoist standard this is win-win. “Winning” is respectively the opportunity to care and the opportunity to provide services, material goods in response to a conciliatory care. Both get what it desires.

However, that this scenario is no paradise must be emphasized. The enemy is the unacknowledged, the dimension of character, of which I am in denial, my shadow. Lao-tsu writes here that greatness is measured by taking a lesson from opposition which persists. 

I will conclude with the question that haunts every one of us. Is America a “great” nation? What do you think?

Any response is welcome, especially if you should disagree. 

I can use assistance to recognize my shadow!