Lao-Tzu's Treasures—Part 2

So, returning to my suggested list of alternative virtues that I offered earlier, it seems to me that most of them seem to be covered by Lao-Tzu's three treasures. For example, I asked about honesty. Well, that's one of the synonyms for simplicity. How about kindness? Compassion's got it covered. Moderation? Simplicity expresses it. Generosity? Both simplicity and compassion cover it. And so on.

So one might conclude that Lao-Tzu's three treasures of simplicity, patience, and compassion do provide a very good list of virtues that one may practice. When I look at my own behavior in light of these three treasures, I realize how they've long served as beacons for me, and I believe them to be excellent virtues to acquire or practice. My first reaction, when looking in the mirror, is to examine myself to see which one I fall most short on, and thus need the most work on. Patience is the one that usually calls for my extra effort. (Ask my wife.)

I also think that these three treasures can be a good bench mark upon which to evaluate society, for how rich or poor it is. When I consider the behavior of people, I have no doubt that a very generous proportion of them do exhibit these qualities. A great many people live simply—in the sense of being honest, sincere, humble, etc. Many people are patient—in the sense of being tolerant, restrained, diligent, etc. And a lot of people practice compassion—in the sense of being kind, considerate, lenient, etc. Maybe even most people often exhibit these virtues. (I often think that humanity has survived as well as it has, by dint of many of its members acting virtuously.)

Be that as it may, these three treasures do not get promoted very well at all by society's political leaders, popular figureheads, and the media. What is broadcast in our culture and modeled for us is, in fact, often quite the opposite:

Simplicity? Instead, we are bombarded by messages that promote unrestrained greed, arrogance and pride, insincerity, muddled thinking. These immoral behaviors contribute directly to injustice and poverty.

Patience? Instead, we are encouraged to be intolerant, to be aggressive and pushy. We are told we don't have to wait—we demand fast food, convenience stores, fast internet. Don't wait to earn what you want to buy; get it on credit and become swamped by debt.

Compassion? Hardly. We're encouraged not to care about the stranger, to be judgmental, to discount the humanity of some peoples, to shut out others and not care. Instead of reaching out to refugees and the poor, our politicians urge us to build walls—so barriers get erected, rather than charity practiced.

The reality of this lack of virtue in the public arena argues that society, rather than possessing Lao-Tzu's moral treasures, is rather poor. But it's not the case that most people in society are not virtuous. In their ordinary lives people do help each other and work towards building a healthy society. It's too bad that the public domain is so flooded with messages by the media and public figures to the contrary. It's too bad that society does not model a life of Lao-Tzu's three treasures for its members. But we do have an abundance ancient wisdom in the form of teachings like those of Lao-Tzu—as well as from Jesus, the Buddha, Muhammad, and others—to help us chart our individual moral course through a minefield of misdeeds.