Lao Tzu, literally translated as ‘old master’ was an ancient Chinese philosopher and writer
who is known to be the founder of Taoism.
Taoism is a philosophy which emphasizes living in harmony with the Tao.
The word “Tao” is defined as a path or way of virtuous conduct that, if followed,
leads to a life of harmony.
He is also credited as the writer of Taoism’s most sacred text, Tao Te Ching in which he
spoke of four cardinal virtues that when embraced would reveal the truth of the universe.
He believed that living and practicing these teachings can open you to higher wisdom and
greater happiness and that they bring a closer connection to our innate spirituality.
The old master’s teaching, even after 2500 years are world renowned, studied and practiced
by millions around the world and in this video we will be talking about how to be spiritual
by using Lao Tsu’s 4 cardinal virtues.
Reverence for life
Lao Tzu says “Living in the moment brings you a sense of reverence for all of life’s
blessings” This virtue manifests as having unconditional
love and positive regard for all creatures in the universe, starting with ourselves,
this will then naturally flow out to all others.
Taoist monks are said to have absolute reverence for life.
They refrain from taking any life, even the life of a cockroach.
They believe that the killing of weaker, relatively insignificant creatures is a greater wrong.
Unlike lions and tigers, small creatures have no ability to defend themselves, so we need
to be even more compassionate toward them.
This teaching holds that all life is sacred, so one must never kill or do any harm to any
living being.
The world in which we live, often forces us to ignore this virtue.
If there’s one word that defines our modern lives, it’s excess and in the name of profit
and excessive consumption, we have not only been extremely cruel to all the other life
forms on this planet, but we also have been stepping on our fellow humans for the sake
of our own selfish motives.
We strive to be the very best and loving version of ourselves, the version that looks good
on the surface.
The one that makes for fast-paced, exciting, Instagrammable lives.
How often do we put up an image of our dog on instagram for likes, yet eat meat the very
same night?
How often do we pass homeless individuals on the street without acknowledgement?
Between the business of our daily lives and going from one task to another, we forget
the world around us and others in it.
We must understand that we are dependent on other life forms for our sheer survival, and
this means we must treat them with respect, kindness, and gratitude.
Living in harmony with the natural world and thus respecting all forms of life is achieved
through balancing our Yin and Yang energies.
Put simply, Yin and Yang represent the opposite forces of the natural world.
Night and day, man and woman, birth and death.
In symbolic terms Yin is represented as feminine and yielding, while Yang is represented as
masculine and more aggressive.
In order to live with reverence towards nature, both men and women must balance their Yin
and Yang energies.
The integration of these two conflicted forces makes for a healthy soul, since there is no
Yin without Yang just like there’s no shadow without Sun.
This means that if we want to live in harmony and show love and respect to others and other
forms of life, we must learn to make a conscious effort to love and respect ourselves first.
When we come to see ourselves as the pure, wonderful and unique creations we are, we
find it difficult to ignore this purity in others.
Further to this, we seek to understand and appreciate them rather than judge and criticise.
In doing so, you will find you can show unconditional positive regard not only to people you like
but also to those you find irritating or people you don’t deem to be deserving of your love
or respect.
All living creatures are equally important, and they require equal respect.
Trying to dominate and control all life only leads you away from enlightenment and you
won’t find peace in the midst of a struggle for control and furthermore, a truly spiritual
perspective would tell us that love is freedom.
Natural Sincerity In the words of Lao Tzu “When pure sincerity
forms within, it is outwardly realized in other people’s hearts”
This particular virtue manifests itself as honesty, simplicity, and authenticity.
It basically states to stay true to who you really are, and not to allow outside forces
to sway you.
Lao Tzu suggests that the only way to live harmoniously with the Universe is to tell
the truth which can be anything but pleasant.
In our modern world, we are often so caught up in the daily grind, that we tend to easily
disconnect from our true selves.
It is very easy to get emotionally deprived in this fast paced society with a lifestyle
that leaves very little time for making truly deep emotional bonds.
In order to fill this gap, we tend to go around pleasing people while losing ourselves in
that process.
This is the exact situation in which some of Lao Tzu’s wisdom can truly help us grow
and heal.
Being true to yourself means making choices that reflect a respect and affection for your
nature.
We often make choices that do not honor our nature, which Is the real you.
In Taoism, these are called dishonest choices.
It’s easy to go with what others think or want as opposed to what you feel you should
be doing.
However, as soon as you make a dishonest choice, you start to feel an inner discomfort and
before long, you are worried, anxious and resentful.
This is because caring too much about what other people think of you goes directly against
the flow.
By doing that we are trying to bargain with the sacred universe by forcefully and perhaps
subconsciously trying to manipulate others into liking us, so we can get our emotional
needs met.
The only right way to go about things is by being sincerely able to walk the walk and
talk the talk, meaning being able to live out what you believe in with your speech and
your actions.
Being sincere and telling the truth might not get you many friends, but it will get
you the real ones, and only real friends can satisfy your emotional needs for belonging
and intimacy.
Lao Tsu also thought of sincerity as the most important attributes of leadership.
He thinks that if the leader of the people is sincere and truthful, it will reflect in
all of the community.
He thinks that if the people disobey their leaders and rebel against them, it is purely
because their leadership is not sincere enough.
A good leader preserves the ultimate reality, embraces the Tao and thus promotes sincerity,
and so the whole world follows him joyfully.
The inspiring leader doesn’t tyrannically impose orders, but he rather clarifies the
instructions on how to act to reach a common goal that serves the greater good.
The goal of Taoism is to be true to yourself.
By accepting the truth about ourselves and others, we not only find peace in this life,
but we can help others along their paths as well.
3.
Gentleness To quote Lao Tzu “The first is gentleness;
the second is economy; and the third is shrinking from taking precedence over others.”
Gentleness means simply being kind to all life, and not coming from a place of egotistical
desires.
When we practice gentleness, we give up the need to be right, because being kind is more
important than being correct.
Lao Tsu put gentleness before everything else and thought that a spiritual person is the
one that does not interfere with the natural flow of the Tao.
To understand this natural flow, Taoists often use the metaphor of water to observe its effortless
capacity for following its own pathway, formlessly and shapelessly adjusting to whatever it meets
along the way.
Water also sustains life.
For humans and animals alike, water has a cooling effect on the body, dissolving impurities,
driving nutrients and waste around the body, replenishing the balance within its energy
systems and its reserves.
Similarly, gentle people are often therapeutic people, less punishing of others, more empathetic,
flexible and adaptive.
As with flowing water, they can preserve their own character.
On the other hand if you have been going against the flow, acting on ego and trying to fight
the will of the universe, then you will most probably find yourself in a very dark corner
feeling desperate and depressed.
Since there is no happiness without sorrow, as the Taoist principle of Yin and Yang would
suggest, Lao Tzu emphasized that every spirited individual who has come out of the dark period
has embraced the Tao and as a result has the capacity to understand other people that are
stuck in their own trials, hence the gentleness arises as the core virtue in relation to other
people.
If you scour the writings of Lao Tzu and Taoist monks, you will come to a conclusion that
gentleness is the umbrella term that encompasses forgiveness, acceptance and love.
As an individual who accepted the ways of the universe through your own trials and tribulations,
you will be much more ready to forgive because you understand the suffering of others.
You have been there!
You will learn to accept the differences and treat every person as the messenger that conveys
a spiritual message with their own mission in life and treat them with respect they deserve.
In today’s world we get so easily carried away with our own ego and desires that we
forget to be gentle and attuned to other people’s needs.
With all of the social media attention we get, we turn into mini false celebrities each
with our own spotlight that allows us to broadcast our idealized phantom selves, while losing
touch with real life and continuing to inflate our own egos.
Since power, influence and number of followers, or Facebook friends is the currency we respect
and the language we understand, we can oh-so-easily forget to tune in into other people’s needs
because we are encouraged to be so self-centered.
To be truly emotionally healthy and happy you need to form close bonds with good people
and the best way to do that is to be gentle and understanding of other people’s needs,
struggles and tribulations.
We as modern people are also often guilty of thinking that gentleness is weakness since
we do not grasp the concept of sensitivity the way we should do but we need to understand
that the key to true strength, the one that dissolves the limitations of our own ego is
sensitivity itself.
Again, as the staple of Taoist ideas, the Yin Yang symbol would suggest, there is no
night without a dawn, so therefore, to be truly strong you need to be vulnerable and
sensitive first and without all those qualities integrated, we cannot be truly spiritually
healthy.
The key to global change begins with the individual, so start with your own life and surroundings.
Be gentle to the planet, recycle all of the plastics we use in our daily life.
Go and donate some of your less used clothes to the people in need.
Instead of fulfilling your superfluous consumerist desires, go and donate some money for a good
cause.
But first, start with the small steps.
Be gentle to yourself and your loved ones.
If you happen to get in an argument, do remember that kindness is more important than being
right and when you remind yourself of this, you will no longer have a strong ego-inspired
desire to dominate or control others, which will allow you to move into a rhythm with
the universe.
4.
Supportiveness As we learn from Lao Tzu “Giving to others
selflessly and anonymously, radiating light throughout the world and illuminating your
own darkness, your virtue becomes a sanctuary for yourself and all beings”
This virtue manifests in your life as service to others without any expectation of reward.
This virtue is the basic tenet of humanity as it is about cultivating the spirit of service
to others.
Instead of thinking only of one’s own good, supportiveness is about channeling all the
good things you find within yourself and sharing them to other people so you make their lives
better.
Our modern lifestyle and our connections are often represented as a ‘’rat race’’
in pop culture.
We are all guilty of going our own way without much care for our fellow man.
For the first time ever, we have developed enough technology and scientific solutions
that we generally have more leisure time and options than ever before, but despite all
of the superabundant goods we have at our disposal, in doing so we have sunk into selfishness
and self-centeredness, resulting in a counterintuitively large amount of people reporting feeling depressed.
Through the lens of Taoist teachings, the problem is quite simple to define.
In search of their greedy wishes, the people have turned against each other.
This whole civilization was built upon human interaction and cooperation.
Nowadays, that very pillar of our society is crumbling and people feel more and more
desperate and alienated.
The diagnosis is very clear.
Instead of letting excuses or selfishness like I’ don’t have enough money, I am
too tired, I don’t have time or what will I get back in return dominate our life, we
need to shift our attention off of ourselves by asking this one simple question: How may
I serve?
When you do so, the message you’re sending is: I’m not thinking about myself and what
I can or can’t have.
Your attention is on making someone else feel better.
Supportiveness is not just related to giving away your money.
It is also about simple gestures like being there for someone, listening to somebody’s
problems, or donating things that you no longer need.
The very thing that fuels our goal-getting Yang energy is the nice feeling of belonging
and togetherness.
There is no better way to belong than to be supportive of your fellow man.
There are many ways you can connect with people in order to work for a greater non-profit
cause.
Regardless of your religious beliefs or political ideology, there is certain common ground we
can all agree upon.
For instance, there is a very low probability of finding someone that disagrees that something
must be done in order to preserve our natural world, and that it has been compromised for
quite a long time now.
As a result, there are now many eco-activist groups in the world, known for being a great
source of adventure and bonding time, while doing it under a flag of a great cause.
When you concentrate on what good you can do to others without thinking of getting anything
in return, you will find joy in serving other people.
Sometimes, just being there for other people, is already enough for them.
The basic need of human kind is to be spiritually healthy and you cannot be spiritually healthy
without relying on others and therefore supporting others.
These four virtues, if fully embraced, will bring much happiness to your life.
Each one of them brings a powerful way of being that illumines a path to happiness.
The four cardinal virtues are a road map to the simple truth of the universe.
So, if you enjoyed this video, please do make sure to check out the full Philosophies for
Life channel and for more videos to help you find success and happiness using ancient philosophical
wisdom, don’t forget to subscribe.
Thank you so much for watching.