Verse 57: Letting Go

Verse Fifty-Seven
If you want to be a great leader,
you must learn to follow the Tao.
Stop trying to control.
Let go of fixed plans and concepts,
and the world will govern itself.
The more prohibitions you have,
the less virtuous people will be.
The more weapons you have,
the less secure people will be.
The more subsidies you have,
the less self-reliant people will be.
Therefore the Master says:
I let go of the law,
and people become honest.
I let go of economics,
and people become prosperous.
I let go of religion,
and people become serene.
I let go of all desire for the common good,
and the good becomes common as grass.
~ Stephen Mitchell translation ~

If this verse had been written in contemporary times, it would be directed at the Radical Right in every nation. The conservative zealots of every belief system talk about love and compassion, but they advocate and support policies that are authoritarian, restrictive, regressive and, often, draconian!

In the US, the Radical Right is all about limiting other people's rights and waging war. They desire to erect a rigid set of laws that seem unnaturally focused on what people do inside their own bedrooms. What's worse is that they believe that crafting a society of this nature will force people to toe the line of their arbitrary sense of morality, but, as Nina Correa points out, "The more strict society tries to be, the more people will rebel."

No one, including these same zealots, likes to be confined in a small area with no elbow room. When people feel stifled, the number one thing on their mind is to be set free and so they spend an inordinate amount of time and energy hatching schemes to escape. So, the very thing the conservatives want to accomplish is thwarted by the strategy they want to employ. It's like thinking that the best way to quell a fire is to pour gasoline on it!

Correa warns us, however, that we err if we don't realize that Lao Tzu concurrently is directing this verse directly at each of us. She writes that "the more strict and demanding you are of yourself, the more problems you'll have to deal with."

And, you know, she's right! When we try to make ourselves feel or do things against our nature -- too often utilizing strict external controls -- we become sick and diseased. In essence, we're attempting to confine ourselves in a little box which causes our natural center to want to break free.

When any of us represses our natural inclinations and flow, this bottled up energy builds and builds. At some point, we find that we can't contain it any longer and it spills out of us in torrents. We blow up in a rage or we engage in self-destructive behavior. The fury of the energy can't be managed and that's why we have a strong tendency to act like a mutant roman candle spewing sparks in every direction.

It is only when we loosen the reigns that the tension abates. When we allow ourselves the freedom to flow as we may, there is nothing in our being that gets bottled up. There is no tension that must be released.

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