Tao Te Ching Verse 38: Just Being Ourselves

The Tao Te Ching for Everyday Living

Tao Te Ching Verse 38

translated by Ch'u Ta-Kao
The superior virtue is not conscious of itself as virtue; Therefore it has virtue. The inferior virtue never lets off virtue; Therefore it has no virtue.

The superior virtue seems inactive, and yet there is nothing that it does not do. The inferior virtue acts and yet in the end leaves things undone.

The superior benevolence acts without a motive. The superior righteousness acts with a motive. The superior ritual acts, but at first no one responds to it; Gradually people raise their arms and follow it.

Therefore when Tao is lost, virtue follows. When virtue is lost, benevolence follows. When benevolence is lost, righteousness follows. When righteousness is lost, ritual follows.

Ritual, therefore, is the attenuation of loyalty and faith and the outset of confusion. Fore-knowledge is the flower of Tao and the beginning of folly.

Therefore the truly great man keeps to the solid and not to the tenuous; Keeps to the fruit and not to the flower. Thus he rejects the latter and takes the former.
Photo by Frans Hulet on Unsplash
The Tao and Authenticity

Do you remember being a teenager? I do. Like any other time in my life, I have fond memories and not so fond memories of that time. The fond memories were bonding with other people my age and discovering things about life together. Having some deeper understanding of how the world worked and still very innocent about a great deal. Those were tender moments.

Then, there was all the angst that came along with being an adolescent. What would they think? How should I be? How should I dress? What music should I listen to? Who should I be? There were so many social questions, none of which I knew the answers to but desperately wanted to. I remember being so unsure of myself and my relationships, so when people told me to just ‘be myself’ in situations, I hated that. What did that even mean?

Well, looking back, I think it meant, ‘don’t worry about how messed up you think you look. Accept what you are, which is something you don’t know, and own it. Be that. Don’t try to be another person that you’re creating. There’s no need to get ahead of your own, beautiful development.

Great advice. I think that’s what I would tell me if I had the chance. I’m almost certain that the teenage me wouldn’t have even heard it. Ha. But what could it have looked like if I had owned all that turmoil? How much better off would I have been now had I started practicing ‘being myself’ years ago?

Eh, who knows? I think the point with the first part of this verse is to realize that it’s not just ok but also productive to just...be yourself.

And how? By being myself in the moment.

I’d like to read from Brian Walker’s Hua Hu Ching, copyrighted in 1992 and published by Harper Collins. In the paperback edition on page 44, it says,

“Why scurry about looking for the truth?

It vibrates in every thing and every not-thing, right off the tip of your nose.

Can you be still and see it in the mountain? The pine tree? Yourself?”