Tao Te Ching & The Bhagavad Gita

(thread for exploring common themes of eastern texts)

Unattached action:



in the Tao: "Wei Wu Wei" - "action without forcing"

"That is why the self-controlled man makes it his business to dwell in the Inner Life; / he teaches, not by words, but by actions; / he brings all beings into action, he does not refuse them; / he gives them life, but does not possess them; / he acts, but looks not for reward; / he works out perfectness, but claims no credit." ch.2

Bhagavad Gita: "Karma" - action.
As in the Tao, Krishna instructs the distressed Arjuna to perform his duty without attachment to the results, to perform action without thoughts about the fruit. One of the main themes of the Gita is how to perform action without getting stuck in the loop of karmic results (both 'good' and 'bad').

 

Seeing everything ‘outside’ as really connected to you:

He is a perfect mystic who, by comparison to his own self, sees the true equality of all beings, both in their happiness and distress. (B.G. ch 6)


Surrender humbly your self-interest; then you can be trusted to care for all things.
Love the world as your own self; then you can truly care for all things. (Tao, ch 13)


Being steady (in good times and in bad, seeing things more equally):

Reserve your judgments and words;
Smooth differences and forgive disagreements;
Dull your wit and simplify your purpose;
Accept the world.

Then, friendship and enmity,
Profit and loss,
Honor and disgrace,
Will not affect you;
The world will accept you. (Tao, ch 56)

Another translation:

Keep your mouth closed.
Guard your senses.
Temper your sharpness.
Simplify your problems.

Mask your brightness.
Be at one with the dust of the Earth.
This is primal union.

He who has achieved this state
Is unconcerned with friends and enemies,
With good and harm, with honor and disgrace.
This therefore is the highest state of man.


A person is said to be established in self-realization and is called a mystic when he is fully satisfied by virtue of acquired knowledge and realization. Such a person is situated in transcendence and is self-controlled. He sees everything—whether it be pebbles, stones or gold—as the same…. he regards all—the honest well-wisher, friends and enemies, the envious, the pious, the sinner and those who are indifferent and impartial—with an equal mind. (B.G. ch 6)

One who is not envious but who is a kind friend to all living entities…, who is equal to friends and enemies, who is equipoised in honor and dishonor, heat and cold, happiness and distress, fame and infamy, … always silent and satisfied with anything, who doesn't care for any residence, who is fixed in knowledge and engaged in devotional service, is very dear to me. (B.G. ch 12)

 

loving:

The sage does not distinguish herself from the world,
Therefore the needs of others are as her own.
She is good to those who are good.
She is good to those who are not good.
Her virtue is goodness itself.
She is sincere with those who are sincere.
She is sincere with those who are not sincere.
Her virtue is sincerity itself.
The sage is shy and humble, and thus at one with all.
While people use their eyes and ears to discriminate,
the sage behaves with childlike innocence, and sees all has her own children.
Tao, ch 49


That knowledge by which one sees the one, undivided supreme reality in all beings, although appearing divided into innumerable forms, is said to be knowledge in the mode of goodness.
B.G 18.20

"You must understand that imperishable state of God consciousness is residing in each and every being . . . In that way you won’t hate anybody."
Commentary by S. Lakshmanjoo


The sage never tries to store things up. The more he does for others, the more he has.
The more he gives to others, the greater his abundance.
The Tao of Heaven is pointed, though nourishing and does no harm.
The Tao of the sage is work without effort.
Tao, ch. 81

 

Being present:

As the dweller in this body passes into childhood, youth, and old age, so also does he pass into another body. This does not bewilder the wise.
Contacts of the senses with their objects give rise to the experience of cold and heat, pleasure and pain. Transient, they come and go. Bear them patiently, O Bharata! (B.G. 2.13-14)


Empty yourself of everything, let the mind become still. The ten thousand things rise and fall while the self watches their return...

Knowing constancy is insight, not knowing constancy leads to disaster.

Have an open mind and an open heart, and you will be at one with the Tao; being at one with the Tao is eternal. (Tao, ch 16)