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Translation by Nina


	Dao De Jing Chapter 60 Ruling the largest nation can be like cooking a tender piece of fish if Dao is established in the world. The demonic ghosts don't have spiritual powers. Not only do demons not have spiritual powers, those powers don't hurt anyone. Not only do those powers not hurt anyone, a wise person also wouldn't hurt anyone. Then a balance occurs where neither would cause harm to the other. Therefore, De is intermingled with their reliance on each other. Commentary: 60 ~ Spirits, Demons and Supernatural Powers In ancient China, it was believed that the spirits of the deceased could affect the lives of people in beneficial or harmful ways. Many rituals were performed in an attempt to appease the ghosts of those who had died in order to curry their favor. Demonic ghosts were believed to be the spirits of those who had died without leaving offspring to offer them sacrifices, thus they prowled the world looking to seek revenge on those who were still alive. The ruler of a nation was very careful to insist on sacrifices being made to all the spirits in an effort to gain their favor. In the process, the ruler had to mandate these rituals throughout the whole nation. We receive a different outlook on what types of powers those spirits and ghosts really have from Laozi. -Ruling the largest nation can be like cooking a tender piece of fish if Dao is established in the world. If the natural progression of Dao is accepted throughout the world, the rulers can patiently allow things to take their natural course. When cooking a tender piece of fish or meat, one has to wait patiently for the flesh to congeal before trying to turn it with a fork. If one is too impatient and tries to move the tender piece of flesh too soon, it will just fall apart. -The demonic ghosts don't have spiritual powers. -Not only do demons not have spiritual powers, those powers don't hurt anyone. -Not only do those powers not hurt anyone, a wise person also wouldn't hurt anyone. -Then a balance occurs where neither would cause harm to the other. Demons and ghosts have no power over people. They can neither harm nor bring benefit to anyone. Those who would claim that demons have power are using it as a ruse to get others to give them what they want - to create fear in others. If a magician curses you, the only power he has is through your fear of what he can do to you. If you realize that there's no spiritual being that can cause you harm, then the power of the magician vanishes. A wise person would never claim to be able to use powers to harm anyone. One who claims to have those powers isn't a wise person. With that realization, we can all come to an agreement not to harm each other. No one can harm your spirit, and you can't harm another person's spirit. -Therefore, De is intermingled with their reliance on each other. When there's no sense of one person being able to hurt another, we can see how interdependent we all really are. Instead of fearing evil forces, we can see to the root of why someone would try to show us how powerful they are - they really feel as though they have no power, and that makes them feel ineffective and fragile. Nourish that part of people rather than feeding into their power plays, and each of us can intermingle our hearts. \| BY: Nina \| Guodian Laozi \| DDJ Concordance \| Comparisons \| From the DIO Forum \| BY: Bao Pu \| By: Joshua \| \| Return Home \| Laozi's Dao De Jing \| Your Dao De Jing \| Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu) \| Links \| Meditation \| Dao (Tao) is Open Forum \| Book List \| Other Stuff \|