And where the family it rulesIn our earliest years of existence, we soak up so much from our family environment. It becomes the foundation of who we are to become in later life. If love is lacking during the formative years, a lot of individuals struggle for the rest of their lives with learning to love themselves and others.
What riches will accrue!
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~
Cultivate it in the family,
And Virtue will abound.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~
Cultivate it in the family; its virtue shall be abundant
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~
If your family gets in touch
with the power of Tao,
the power will flourish.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~
Studies have clearly shown that children who are abused by their caregivers (parents or guardians) are much more likely to grow up to become abusers themselves! It's not that they want to be abusers, but the lessons gleaned from early life become so engrained in their brains that they often fall into the pattern of abuse without even realizing it.
If we turn this around toward a positive direction, children who grow up in homes where virtue is valued are much more likely to grow up to be virtuous adults and to pass this foundation of virtue down through the generations.
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This verse is the beginning of a Confucian sort of hierarchy of virtuous circles of influence. Kind of opposite of that weird Arab thing about enemies: me against my brother, my brother and I against my cousin, my cousin and I against the whole world....
ReplyDeleteMy teacher interprets this and the following related lines, as about disciplining the various identities one has in one's own heart.
There's kind of a boddhisatva thing going on, too.