Verse 29: Sacredness

Verse Twenty-Nine
Do you think you can take over the universe and improve it?
I do not believe it can be done.

The universe is sacred.
You cannot improve it.
If you try to change it, you will ruin it.
If you try to hold it, you will lose it.

So sometimes things are ahead and sometimes they are behind;
Sometimes breathing is hard, sometimes it comes easily;
Sometimes there is strength and sometimes weakness;
Sometimes one is up and sometimes down.

Therefore the sage avoids extremes, excesses, and complacency.
~ Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English translation ~

Of the 81 verses in the Tao Te Ching, this is my favorite. For years, I used the second stanza as my signature on emails. This verse resonates with me so much because it could easily be the rallying cry for the Green and environmental movement.

I hear echoes of this verse in three popular songs: Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell, Mercy, Mercy Me by Marvin Gaye, and Rocky Mountain High by John Denver.

They took all the trees and put them in a tree museum.
And they charged all the people
A dollar and a half just to see 'em.
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone?
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
from Yellow Taxi

Ah oh mercy, mercy me
Ah things ain't what they used to be, no no
Radiation under ground and in the sky
Animals and birds who live nearby are dying
Oh mercy, mercy me
Ah things ain't what they used to be
What about this overcrowded land
How much more abuse from man can she stand?
from Mercy, Mercy Me

Now his life is full of wonder but his heart still knows some fear
Of a simple thing he cannot comprehend
Why they try to tear the mountains down to bring in a couple more
More people, more scars upon the land
from Rocky Mountain High

For all our vaunted intelligence and all our fancy technology, we can't make our planet and universe any more perfect than it already is. Every time we get really full of ourselves to imagine that we can improve on nature, we set off a cavalcade of unintended consequences that, almost always, generates a very negative domino effect.

As John Lash explains it,

Only human beings seek to interfere with nature, to change it according to our own desires. Such interference can only lead to disaster. The universe is a Oneness and when there is no interference with its principles, everything works in harmony...Because of our separation from nature, we see it as something plastic that we can mould and shape as we wish. The creation of deserts, the destruction of rain-forests, the destruction of the ozone layer, the extinction of animal species, the depletion of the water resources, etc. are all results of this egotistical assumption. And in the process of all this destruction we are destroying ourselves because, whether we realise it or not, we and nature are one.

For me, that last clause is the key. Even for those in this world who care about nothing more than vulgar self-interest, messing with Mother Earth ends up being like ripping off our own head and tossing it away!

The universe is sacred.
You cannot improve it.
If you try to change it, you will ruin it.
If you try to hold it, you will lose it.

This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.