How We Create Our Own Suffering | Tao Te Ching #2

Written by on June 14, 2021

“Favor and disgrace would seem equally to be feared; honour and great calamity, to be regarded as personal conditions (of the same kind).

What is meant by speaking thus of favor and disgrace? Disgrace is being in a low position (after the enjoyment of favor). The getting that (favor) leads to the apprehension (of losing it), and the losing it leads to the fear of (still greater calamity):–this is what is meant by saying that favor and disgrace would seem equally to be feared. And what is meant by saying that honor and great calamity are to be (similarly) regarded as personal conditions? What makes me liable to great calamity is my having the body (which I call myself); if I had not the body, what great calamity could come to me?

Therefore he who would administer the kingdom, honoring it as he honors his own person, may be employed to govern it, and he who would administer it with the love which he bears to his own person may be entrusted with it.”

In the Tao Te Ching there is an emphasis on the duality of reality. On this dualistic layer everything has its polar opposites. This is like the hermetic principle of Polarity which I wrote about here. Because everything has its positive and negative, it’s possession or lack of possession, like or dislike etc, the moment we allow our minds to attach a like or dislike, a want or desire for the positive or negative, we instantly open ourselves up to a 50-50 chance that we will not get that desired outcome. By allowing ourselves to want, desire, expect, we open the door to the chance of suffering. This is why Taoists and Buddhists, live simple lives with little to no desires or expectations. They realize the more you desire, expect, or want, the more doors you’re unlocking for suffering to enter into your life.

The moment you desire favor, you open the door to suffering through the chance of then losing favor. If you never desired favor in the first place it wouldn’t matter whether you had it or not. You are at peace either way.

By learning how to let go of your desires, you find more peace in life. When you are spending less time dwelling over how you didn’t receive the desired outcome, the easier it is to learn from the outcome and move on from it. The lack of desire leads to the lack of suffering which leads to you having a better chance of receiving the positive outcome.

This is summarized nicely when saying what makes you liable for harm, death or calamity is having a body, if you didn’t have your body then you wouldn’t have to worry about it being harmed. By having the desire, you open yourself up to not getting the desire and inflict suffering upon yourself.