Daodejing, Verse 34

Daodejing - Other Voices

The great Tao is universal.
All beings depend on it for life;
even so, it does not take possession of them.
It accomplishes its purpose,
but makes no claims for itself.
It nourishes infinite worlds,
yet it doesn’t seek to dominate even the smallest creature.
Since it is without wants and desires,
it can be called humble.
All of creation returns to it as to their home,
but it does not seek to master or control;
thus, it may be called great.
The Master imitates this conduct:
by not claiming greatness,
she is able to accomplish truly great things.

The key to true ‘greatness’ is to witness the natural Way of life -- the infinite, invisible and indivisible flow of the Tao -- and to embody, model and imitate this as much as we can in our daily lives. And so, in embodying the Tao we become universal in scope; we do what we do but make no claims for ourselves and we take no possession of anyone or anything (because this immediately creates a duality; the possessed and the possessor). By our actions and natural being, we nourish and sustain others, but we never seek to dominate anyone or anything. We’ve mastered our tendency to relate to the world through a screen of wants and desires and express a true and authentic humility.

Perhaps one of the key lessons in this verse is to stop trying to ‘be great’. Instead, if we simply come into alignment with our true nature and quit trying so hard to ‘be’ and ‘do’, we find that a very natural and authentic greatness occurs all by itself. There’s really nothing we have to do in order to achieve this greatness; it comes spontaneously when we loosen the reigns and relax into a deeper, fuller expression of that which we already are.
~ from Daily Tao, author Rory, original post date: 12/3/09 ~

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