Maintain your originality

Lao zi : Chapter 33

(my interpretation)

    One who knows a lot about other people is a knowledgeable person. But one who knows about himself is a wise person. One who could win over another is a powerful person. But one who could win over himself is truly a strong person. One who could be satisfied in any kind of situation is a truly blissful person. When one has strong desires, one will tend to overdo. One who could keep his own pace will have the tolerance to continue one thing for a long period. In addition, one who lives his own path will live in eternity.

 


Original 
words:「知人者智。自知者明。
勝人者有力。自勝者強。
知足者富。強行者有志。
不失其所者久。死而不亡者壽。」



    My thoughts: Lao zi is saying:

 1. Learn about yourself. 

 2. Win over yourself. 

 3. Learn about enough. 

 4. Be yourself and then you will live an eternal life. 

    You might think you are living YOU. But often times, it is coated by other people’s perspective. You might be conscious about what others think of you. That is why you buy designers clothes, bags, shoes.. And you suffer from paying off your credit card bills. You think that your house looks old from the outside. And you make a loan and suffer from paying back. You might also hit your child’s head in front of others, because you thought it was the right thing to do. But the idea of the “right thing” may be coming from “what others might think of me.” And your whole life becomes an act of trying to become someone else. It is a good thing to look nice and have the etiquettes. But some people might even kill himself because they worry so much about the other people’s reaction. Did these people live his own life? Didn’t he create a whole imaginative drama through colored glasses of other people? Even in very poor countries, the eyes of the children are shinning. Once they become adults, they loose the shine. Isn’t it because they worry so much about what others are doing and thinking?  In the Japanese train during the rush hours, I see many people with gloomy eyes…

    So how can we change? What can we do to make our eyes shine again?  The solution is to become consciously aware on the four points mentioned above. Then you will get hints of how to maintain yourself. And once you will master these four, you will have an eternal life says Lao zi. In this chapter, Lao zi is talking about span of life and life after death. This is very rare. He became known as a person who wrote about the passage to become a mystic (an immortal). I think it was a false understanding. Some people had mistakenly read this chapter as a way to become an immortal. He did not explain such superficial idea. It is a bigger and more realistic meaning about life.

    We are capable of maintaining our own original magnetic energy field. And we are capable of nurturing our originality in all kind of situations in our lives. All unpleasant events that occur in our lives are also a place to learn and train ourselves in order to grow. When you truly know who you are, then all of the sudden you will understand the whole universe.  There are no steps. You will suddenly understand the whole.  When you buy other people’s energy and try to bring it into your body, your original energy will age faster and you no longer will live an eternal life. You will be stuck in a limited world. That's because you are not living your own life with your own will power and strength. Simply live your life with joy and gratitude. This is the only right answer and fastest way to reach the awake.

Ikashite-itadaite arigato-gozaimasu

Thank you for letting us live