Restrictions, Laws and Poverty
The Tao Te Ching (Daodejing) is the second most translated book in the world today. Let’s take a look at a handful of translations of a particular part of Chapter 57 and see if we can determine what is being expressed:
Beck: The more restrictions there are, the poorer the people.
Chan: The more taboos and prohibitions there are in the world, The poorer the people will be.
Hansen: The more the social world has to elude, the more the people are impoverished.
Legge: In the kingdom the multiplication of prohibitive enactments increases the poverty of the people.
Mitchell: The more prohibitions you have, the less virtuous people will be.
Ta-Kao: The more restrictions and avoidances are in the empire, The poorer become the people.
This is not an opposition to all law. Certainly a society will have to take measures to protect the populace from harm. Those who cause physical injury to others and pose any threat to continue causing harm must surely be removed from the opportunity to continue. Laws create an authority to do this. An authority granted by the people to further their ability to live together in harmony.
Our society today, however, goes far beyond this, to an absurd extreme. Our prisons are overflowing. Why is that? Are there so many dangerous people today? Put in a DVD and read the initial legal threat. If you copy this, if you play it in a public place, you are breaking the law and you are subject to massive fines and five years imprisonment. We send people to prison for theft of “intellectual property”. In 2001, a Federal Prisoner cost taxpayers an average of $22, 632. That’s $113,160 just to punish someone for “stealing” something that, if purchased, would have cost $20. Let’s also not forget that health care for prisoners increases in cost about 10% annually.
In 1998, the U.S. “nonviolent prisoner population, alone, is larger than the combined populations of Wyoming and Alaska.”
The majority of the non-violent prisoners are being held because of drug use/possession. Consider this. In 2007, According to the American Corrections Association, the average daily cost per state prison inmate per day in the US is $67.55. State prisons held 253,300 inmates for drug offenses in 2007. That means states spent approximately $17,110,415 per day to imprison drug offenders, or $6,245,301,475 per year.
Six billion dollars a year of taxpayer money to keep non-violent criminals locked up. The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world at 754 persons in prison or jail per 100,000 (as of 2008). Another interesting fact: in 2002, bout 10.4% of all black males in the United States between the ages of 25 and 29 were sentenced and in prison, compared to 2.4% of Hispanic males and 1.3% of white males.
Six billion dollars a year could go a long way towards helping the population. Providing more training and opportunity for adults, education for children, etc. Not to mention you have millions of people who have felony imprisonment on their records, even further limiting their opportunities when they are released.
We have reached a level of litigation where the average American breaks numerous laws every day. From simple traffic laws such as speeding, to even more serious crimes like copyright infringement and illegal gambling (office sports pools are quite common). There are laws governing ideas and general concepts now. One doesn’t need to actually be innovative if they can work the system to gain a general patent on something. They need only sit back and wait for someone to do something somewhat similar to what their patent describes. Or better yet, get your patent then go out and find people who are already doing things which you might be able to link to your general patent.
These “laws” amount to nothing more than extortion. Instead of promoting ideas, ideas are being “locked up” behind patents and copyrights. The opportunities for the populace are being limited to those who understand the laws more.
Year after year, billions of dollars are spent to enforce growing restrictions on what we can do and say, cranking out new felons by the thousands and depositing them into society with less opportunities which translates to more dependencies.
All under the guise of protecting the people.
Smiling
Here’s a little exercise I use sometimes to give myself a mood lift. It’s especially useful in heavy traffic. Think of something that makes you smile. Not something that is funny and makes you laugh, but something that made you happy. Perhaps it’s a childhood memory. Perhaps it’s remembering a great moment with a pet. Or maybe it’s the first time you saw the love of your life. However you choose, find that special, genuine smile of happiness. Once you have it, hold on to it. If it was a big smile, let go of some of it until you have just a slight grin. Keep this expression on your face willfully, even after the moment of remembering has passed.
Now observe everything through the faint hint of smile. Did someone cut in front of you? A little bigger smile. It’s a shame they’re so stressed. Too bad they can’t be smiling right now like me, right?
Your face might not be used to smiling for a long time, so don’t try and keep it so long it becomes uncomfortable. The more you practice, however, the longer you can smile. We know facial expressions often reflect how we feel, and this connection can go both ways. How we feel can be affected by our facial expressions.
When I was a child, I listened to a song that said “laugh, laugh, laugh, and the whole world laughs with you. Smile, smile, smile, and the sun keeps shining, too!“. When you smile, it changes how you feel. The way you feel affects how you see things and how you respond to them.
This simple, FREE exercise can help you avoid stress and actually leave you feeling more energetic instead of being emotionally drained by anger and frustration.
To Be Who You Want
So often these days we spend a lot of time and effort striving to make changes in ourselves. Many of us are trying to kick bad habits such as cigarette smoking. Even more are attempting to lose weight and keep themselves in good shape. Why is it such a struggle for some people?
Part of the answer is self-image. Self improvement is a total process, both physical and mental. Far too often we focus on the physical aspect and neglect the mental. For example, to lose weight, you need to develop good eating habits, stay active and see yourself as losing weight. The mind will attempt to maintain its self-image of the body. If you see yourself as overweight, then you are struggling against yourself when you try to lose it. Truthfully, changing your self perception can be the most challenging part for some and can be a reason leading to people giving up on their diet.
Self-image is not only about seeing yourself thinner. It’s important with all aspects of our life. We can see ourselves as being lucky, successful, happy and those things we will naturally promote with little to no effort.
So the real hurdle for us, between who we are and who we want to be, is who we think we are.
Our understand of who we are is dynamic and changes over time. However there are some things we cling onto that hinder positive development. Sometimes these things are even carried over from childhood. Were you teased in school and felt like an outcast? Obviously during our early years we learn a lot about who we are. However, sometimes what we accept is not always true. Our teenage social interactions can have lasting effects on our self-image for decades if not an entire lifetime. If those events were negative, they can have unwanted effects on our goals and decisions.
So how do we change our self-image? The most important thing is the desire to do so. Others can help you with positive encouragement, but ultimately, your own will to change is what’s required. Beyond desire, a powerful tool is visualization. You want to be thinner? You have to see yourself as thinner. If you need to lose 100 pounds, don’t try and see yourself as 100 pounds lighter. Start thinking of yourself as 10 or 20 pounds lighter. Even seeing that as a number and seeing that as where you are will help your mind to try and correct this difference between self-image and actual being.
Make a list of positive things about yourself. Make a list of things you have accomplished. Keep these positive things in your mind. Change your thoughts about yourself, and you will change yourself.
Exercise: Experiencing Tao
I think one of the best ways to learn about Tao is to sit in a city park on a busy (and comfortable) day. Watch people. Watch nature. Listen to all the sounds. Don’t think about what the people are doing. Don’t ponder their intentions. Just watch the movement as a whole.
You will start to see how all the interactions cause constant chains of events, like raindrops in a lake. For example: the man tells the woman something she finds amusing. She laughs out loud. Her dog perks up its ears and wakes up from its sunny nap. It then notices another dog being walked by another woman and barks at it. This startles the birds in a nearby tree and they fly overhead. One of the birds drops a bird bomb as it passes over you, but you dodge it due to your awareness.
Nothing is being focused on, you are experiencing it all as one thing. It’s like listening to a symphony. Sure, some of us can focus on a particular instrument, but experiencing the whole is what is intended.
This is helps you get a sense for the “flow” of Tao and how things are intimately connected. It’s even a useful way to just get yourself back “in sync” when you’re having a bad day, too.
Life and Death
I am often asked questions such as “Do you believe in the soul?” or “Do you believe in an afterlife?” First, I make it clear that Taoists as a whole do not all share the same views on this subject. Views can range from a type of reward or punishment existence to reincarnation. What follows are my own personal views:
Tao is the source of all things. What this means is that I consider all matter, all energy, all things and the emptiness between things to be part of the Tao. It’s similar to saying, “everything in the universe”.
To quote Carl Sagan, “We are made of star stuff.” We understand matter to the point where we can trace everything down to protons, neutrons and electrons. These same basic building blocks can be found in everything from a grain of sand to the brightest star.
Support The Blog!
LOOKING OUT SOMEONE ELSE'S WINDOW
High quality, landscape, 24 page collection of poetry, printed new just for you, $34.95.
Translator
Suscribe
-
-
Recent Comments
Brian on Goals
MreboucasW on Goals
Past 30 Days
129Unique
VisitorsPowered By
