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.

Lao-Tzu's Treasures—Part 1

I was given a Zen calendar last winter by a friend. Each day is a tear-off sheet that offers a quote from a wise teacher—many of them from the Zen Buddhist tradition, but many of them also are sayings from a wide variety of teachers of other traditions. The offering from a July sheet was a quote attributed to Lao-Tzu: “I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, and compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.”

Lao-Tzu has for many years been an inspiration for me. He was not a Zen Buddhist, but preceded Zen wisdom teachers by a few centuries. He was a Chinese Taoist sage. He gave us an abundant set of pithy messages in the classic book Tao Te Ching. His enigmatic and succinct verses have given me much food for thought over the years, as I chew on a passage, and often find that his concise message, initially enigmatic, eventually speaks volumes to me. I think that was precisely Lao-Tzu's intent.

I will take it on faith that the above quote is an accurate one. (I'm a bit skeptical, because Lao-Tzu never claimed to teach, as I recall. Similar to Socrates, he simply offered his ideas to people who could then mull them over and use them to teach themselves.) Assuming that it's a valid quotation, what did he mean by listing these particular three teachings: simplicity, patience, and compassion? I am aware that when we read English translations of an ancient master's writings from an other culture, many of those English words do not really capture the essence of the original word. But let me assume that these English translations from Chinese—simplicity, patience, and compassion—are accurate translations.

What do these three words describe? I think they express virtues. My dictionary describes virtues as “behavior showing high moral standards; a quality considered morally good or desirable in a person.” OK, so simplicity, patience, and compassion appear to be pretty good examples of virtues. But surely there are many more kinds of virtues that a person may exhibit, than just these three. How about, for example, honesty, kindness, courage, moderation, generosity, and dependability, to name just a few?

Did Lao-Tzu contend that his three treasures covered all the moral bases? He did call them the three “greatest treasures,” so maybe they are just his three greatest hits—if you strive to exhibit them, then maybe you've accomplished 90% of what it means to be a good person?

Whenever I ponder questions like these, I like to turn to a good dictionary for clarification. So here's what my Oxford American Dictionary tells me about Lao-Tzu's three treasures.

• Simplicity: the quality or condition of being easy to understand or to do; the quality of being plain or natural. Some synonyms: lucidity, clarity, unpretentious, restrained, honest, sincere, humble.
• Patience: the capacity to accept or tolerate delay and suffering without getting upset or angry; staying cool. Some synonyms: calmness, composure, equanimity, restraint, tolerance, perseverance, diligence.
• Compassion: the sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings of others (accompanied by the urge to help them). Some synonyms: gentleness, mercy, understanding, concern, kindness, charity, benevolence.

After that bit if dictionary research, it seems to me that Lao-Tzu's three treasures sure cover a lot of moral ground—and I would bet that even if the three English words aren't exact translations for the three Chinese words he used, surely some of those synonyms must capture his meaning.

More of Lao-Tzu's treasures next time...