San bao,
The three treasure of Taoism:
Compassion, Frugality and Humility
Presented
by
Karine
Martin, PhD
French
Daoist Association Chairman
at
2nd
Christian-Taoist Dialogue Colloquium
Christian and Taoist Ethics
in Dialogue
4-8 November 2018 in Singapore
Fourth Session: Spiritual
Development and Self-Cultivation
Speech content
In the daodejing chapter 67, Laozi the founder of Taoism tells us that
he has three treasure compassion, frugality and humility; he holds them dear
and keep them consistently with him. He adds that it is why people considers
his Dao great.
The reason everybody calls the Dao great
Is because there is nothing quite
like it
It is exactly because it is great
that there is nothing quite like it
if there were something that were consistently like it
how could it be small
I have three treasures that I hold and cherish
The first is compassion
The second is frugality
The third is not daring to put myself ahead of others (humility)
Having compassion, I can be brave
Having frugality I can be generous
Having humility I can take the time to perfect my abilities
Now if I am brave without compassion
Generous without frugality
Go to the fore without putting my own concerns last
I might as well be dead
If you wage war with compassion you will win
If you protect yourself with compassion you will be impervious
Heaven will take care of you
Protecting you with compassion
In our modern society where the main message diffused consistently by
ways of advertisement is over consumption and excessive competition the
usefulness of those three qualities seem outdated and out of place.
How can my child succeed at school if he does not compete? How can my
husband rise up to the top in his field if he stays humble and compassionate?
May a householder ask herself.
For many, while having these qualities sounds nice, fear of failing or
falling below others by using them grasp one heart. How can we get the
motivation to apply those three qualities in our life if we fear that they do
not serve us well?
Our Original nature is
Good and benevolent
First it is important to observe within oneself that indeed the thought
of having those qualities feels nice. Why does it feel nice? Because the Taoist
teachings tells us that indeed that kind of qualities mirror those of heaven
and as such are part of our naturalness; they are the qualities of our true
nature. According to Taoism, man is born good, his original nature is good, and
it is the conditioning of society that leads him down the stray path of fear,
competition and other defects.
Furthermore, in Taoism, we believe that to be happy, one must stay
closer as possible to its original nature. It is in this natural state that Man
feels most at ease and can find delight in life.
Desires and
environment meddle with our original nature
In the Qingjing (Classic of Pure and Tranquil), Laozi tells us that the
heart spontaneously likes clarity and tranquillity, but that desires meddle
with it. According to such a concept, we thus are inherently born with the
positive qualities of compassion, frugality and humility.
The society we live in based on consumerism has very early on understood
the power of desires and how to make use of it to generate more money.
When our stomach is full we are naturally meant to stop eating, but then
desires meddle with us and that nice picture of that creamy dessert on the menu
overstimulate our senses and makes us believe that we need more food….so there
goes our frugality, victim of marketing advertisements.
In the same way, we spontaneously lead towards compassion, but fear of the
competitive atmosphere in the company we work for meddle with it. When our colleague
asks us for help on a project our first movement is to answer yes, but then the
fear that he might get better appraisal than us or the fear of loosing our job
strikes us… and there goes our compassionate nature.
The list of such examples is long, and the power of desires to leads us
down stray lanes is not to be undervalued; nor is the power of advertisements
and other marketing tools.
This kind of conditioning starts very early on in one s life. At school,
the youngsters are trained to be better than their classmates to get higher
marks. Competition to enter good university is getting harder every year. Helping
one’s friends in such an environment becomes then a risk to see the friend get
a higher score then his. That environment of competition leads the child away
from is natural state of compassion and fraternity.
This description is all well interesting but then what are we to do?
Changing society is not a matter of simply observing and discussing about it
and does not depend on the brief speech of a Taoist such as myself.
Changes starts within
each individual’s heart
Well, we could summarize the solution by the simple sentence: “change
starts within one’s heart”. For people to be able to live in a society that
mirror the cosmic harmony, each must first get reconnected to their innate
benevolent nature. This means overcoming the fear of lacking. It is the fear of
lacking material sufficiency that very often drives one to competition, lies
and malevolent action. The fear meddles with the heart.
How to overcome fear in for example an environment of competition,
rivalry at work or in business?
Improving one’ condition or career is not about competing against other
but competing against one’s fear, desires and malevolent thoughts. Laozi tells
us that:
“clever
is the man who understands others but even more wise is the man who knows
himself and thus is able to control himself”.
To know oneself is to understand the mechanism of our thoughts and
emotions and then be able to transcend them to reconnect to our pure and
benevolent nature.
The whole process of marketing is based on a deep understanding of man
thoughts process. A car sells better when it is publicised through family
pictures, associated with nice music and natural background. Marketers spends a
lot of time studying people’s mind to create the best advertisement campaign.
If each and everyone would starts taking a few minutes a day observing their
thoughts and emotion, gazing inwards instead of outwards, they would then be
able to appease their heart and recover their natural blissful state. A
peaceful heart and mind do not crave the latest car or the highest position in
the hierarchy. True contentment is within and the mind stays still when faced
with external temptations.
Laozi, in the Classic of tranquillity and Purity (Qingjing jing) tells
us:
The
human spirit is fond of purity, but the mind disturbs it; the human mind is
fond of stillness, but desires meddle with it. If the mind can be constant
without desires, then the mind will become still; when the mind has settled,
then the spirit will be pure. Naturally the Six Desires will not be born, and
the Three Poisons will perish. Those who cannot accomplish this have minds not
yet settled and are not yet rid of desires.
Therefore, it is
impossible for living beings to attain the true Dao with deluded minds. Since
they have deluded minds, their spirits are frightened; because their spirits
are frightened, they are attached to the myriad phenomena. Because they are
attached to the myriad phenomena, they give birth to greedy seeking; due to the
birth of this greedy seeking, they encounter confusion and anger.
Conclusion
Compassion, frugality and humility are indeed the three treasures of
Taoism; more so because they are the reflection of the innate nature of Man on
the clear water of a tranquil mind.
While greedy companies entice us to ever more consume and compete by
playing on our fears and desires, a simple method of turning inwards would
bring a halt to their strategies.
A tranquil heart feels complete and content by itself. Tranquillity
appears through inner observation and meditation. These techniques do not
belong to Taoism alone; most religions including Christianity do have their own
form of inner observation, may it be through prayers, meditation and
confessions. If religions such as Taoism and Christianity are to participate
into solving the problems that society is now facing, they should bring forward
their ancestral technique of appeasing the mind and comforting the heart of
each individual.
Thank you
KARINE MARTIN
