The things which from of old have got the One (the Tao) are:
Heaven, which by it is bright and pure;
Earth endowed thereby firm and sure;
Spirits with powers by it supplied;
Valleys kept full throughout their void;
All creatures which through it do live;
Princes and Kings who from it get
The model which to all they give.[36]
The Tao may produce and nourish all things and bring them to maturity, but it “exercises no control over them”.[37] [[315]]
Man must begin by taking control of himself: he must make use of the light that is within him. The wise man “does not dare to act” of his accord. When he has acted so that he reaches a state of inaction, the Tao will then drift him into a state of perfection. He must guard the mother (Tao) in himself by attending to the breath. “The management of the breath,” says Dr. Legge, “is the mystery of the esoteric Buddhism and Taoism.”[38] “When one knows,” Tao Tze has written, “that he is his mother’s child, and proceeds to guard (the qualities of) the mother that belongs to him, to the end of his life he will be free from peril. Let him keep his mouth closed, and shut up the portals (of his nostrils), and all his life he will be exempt from laborious exertion.”[39]
By giving “undivided attention to the breath” (the vital breath), and bringing it “to the utmost degree of pliancy”, he “can become as a (tender) babe. When he has cleansed away the most mysterious sights (of his imagination), he can become without a flaw.”[40]
The doctrine of Inaction pervades the teaching of Lao Tze, which is quite fatalistic. Salvation depends on the individual and the state allowing the Tao to “flow” freely.
“If the Empire is governed according to Tao, evil spirits will not be worshipped as good ones.
“If evil spirits are not worshipped as good ones, good ones will do no injury. Neither will the Sages injure the people. Each one will not injure the other. And if neither injures the other, there will be mutual profit.”
A native commentator writes in this connection:
“Spirits do not hurt the natural. If people are natural, spirits have no means of manifesting themselves, and if spirits do not manifest themselves, we are not conscious of their existence [[316]]as such. Likewise, if we are not conscious of the existence of spirits as such, we must be equally unconscious of the existence of inspired teachers as such; and to be unconscious of the existence of spirits and of inspired teachers is the very essence of Tao.”[41]
The scholarly sage thus reached the conclusion that it is a blessed thing to know nothing, to be ignorant. Good order is necessary for the workings of the Tao, and good order is secured by abstinence from action, and by keeping the people in a state of simplicity and ignorance, so that they may be restful and child-like in their unquestioning and complete submission to the Tao. “The state of vacancy,” says Lao Tze, “should be brought to the utmost degree.… When things (in the vegetable world) have displayed their luxuriant growth, we see each of them return to its root. This returning to their root is what we call the state of stillness.”[42]
There would be no virtues if there were no vices, no robberies if there were no wealth.