Tao Te Ching, trans. Stephen Mitchell. New York: Harper Perennial, 1982, #78.
Nothing in the world
is as soft and yielding as water.
Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible,
nothing can surpass it.
The soft overcomes the hard;
the gentle overcomes the rigid.
Everyone knows this is true,
but few can put it into practice.
Therefore the Master remains
serene in the midst of sorrow.
Evil cannot enter his heart.
Because he has given up helping,
he is people’s greatest help.
True words seem paradoxical.
1 comment:
If I try to help others, thinking that this will make me good, I can become patronizing and superior. If I let myself flow like water into the places where I am needed, then I don’t even notice that I am making an effort. Our culture constantly encourages us to be hard, definite, and opinionated, not soft and flowing. When I let go of that hardness, I feel that I am becoming vague and am almost afraid that I will disappear altogether, but I think that is what God’s love is like, flowing into all the spaces, wearing down the hard. Let me give up the “helping.” Let me be soft and flowing like water.
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