The Dao Is Open website is devoted to the cultivation of Dao (Tao) and De (Te), as exemplified in the works of Laozi (Lao Tzu) and Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu).


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

Translation by Nina


	Dao De Jing Chapter 80 The smaller the nation, the less the population.  Provide the people with tens of thousands of tools, but they don't find a use for them.  Threaten them with death, but they'd have little thought of changing their residence. They may have boats and cars but seldom have reason to use them.  They may have weapons and shields but seldom have a reason to display them. Offer them the opportunity to go back to the old practice of tying knots for record keeping and they'll find a use for that.  They're satisfied with the food they eat. They find their clothing to be beautiful. They find joy in a rustic life. They feel safe in their homes.  They look forward to hearing the sounds of their neighbor's chickens and dogs as a means of learning news about each other. They're allowed to get old and die naturally without being carted to and from foreign places. Commentary:  80 ~ The Advantages Of Being Small The Laozi might be talking about how much nicer it could be for people if they lived in small communities without the stress of big cities, but not everyone can do that - and if everyone moved to small communities, they wouldn’t be small any more, would they? I’m going to use this chapter as an analogy to something we all could benefit from wherever we live. The small nation could refer to how each one of us could be a lot happier if we stayed small.  -The smaller the nation, the less population. Many people change the faces they present to the outside world more often than they change their clothes. They usually do that because they’re trying to manipulate others by showing a face that will get them what they want. They rarely even know who they are under all those disguises. That’s a lot of different personalities to deal with - a big population contained within one person. By getting rid of all those different personalities, it can be much easier to simply be who you are.  -Provide them with tens of thousands of modern conveniences, but they don't find a use for them.  Modern conveniences can make our lives much easier. None of us in this modern world would want to give up our washing machines or vacuum cleaners. But, as wonderful as those things are, we don’t need them to survive. If our needs are small, we can enjoy all the things modern science has provided for us, but we wouldn’t need to over-use them or have too many of them. -Threaten them with death, but they'd have little thought of changing their residence. When a person is small, rather than acting like they’re some powerful force in the world, they don’t feel threatened by those in power who would want to kill them to usurp their power. They can live anywhere that suits them, and wouldn’t feel a need to move.  -They may have boats and cars but seldom have reason to use them. Instead of feeling a need to be constantly on the move - traveling all over the place looking to fulfill an emptiness they feel in the huge cavity they’ve created within themselves - a small person can find enjoyment right in their own back yard. The cars, boats and planes are there if they’re needed for shopping, visiting with friends and running errands, but someone who doesn’t have a big vacuum within them they’re trying to fill would simply enjoy using them.  -They may have weapons and shields but seldom have a reason to display them. When a person is small, that doesn’t mean she wouldn’t have weapons at her disposal. It just means she wouldn’t need to use them often because other people rarely attack someone who doesn’t present themselves as having a great deal. If she pranced around showing off her weapons, people would figure she had something she was trying desperately to protect.  -Offer them the opportunity to go back to the old practice of tying knots for record keeping and they'll find a use for that. -They're satisfied with the food they eat.  -They find their clothing to be beautiful. -They find joy in a rustic life. -They feel safe in their homes.   There’s no reason for a small person to be competing with everyone around him. Since he doesn’t feel the need to own more things to make himself feel bigger to others, he’s satisfied with simply getting what’s due him for his work. He doesn’t need to max out his credit cards, borrow large sums of money or deal with tons of bills that need to be paid at the end of the month. He’s not concerned with going to fancy restaurants, buying the latest fashions or having envy for those who live in mansions. Since he’s small, he finds more than enough happiness in what he has.  -They look forward to hearing the sounds of their neighbor's chickens and dogs as a means of learning news about each other. We live in a time where people get much more involved in what's going on around the world - what they learn from newspapers and other media - than they are in what's going on in their own closer environment. People tend to ignore the needs of their neighbors, while becoming infuriated with horrible things they hear are happening on the other side of the world. A small person, who isn’t being lambasted with news from around the world, would find much more enjoyment in learning that their neighbors were healthy and happy.  -They're allowed to get old and die naturally without being carted to and from foreign places. In ancient China, the strongest men were taken from their homes and families by the government to go fight whatever war the rulers thought was essential at the time. That’s not much different than the armies formed by modern countries today - they look for the biggest, strongest men to go to battle for their country. A small person, who was either frail physically or shuddered at the idea of using a weapon against another human being would be left alone. They wouldn’t lose their lives on some foreign soil fighting, but would simply grow old and die a natural death. Many people look at this chapter of the Dao De Jing as describing a Utopian society, as though something in the outside world could create a place like this where people could reside and live a simple life. However, maybe The Laozi was suggesting that each one of us has the ability to create this type of environment for ourselves. As long as we look for someone else to make the rest of the world a happy place for us, how could we ever get there? If we allow everyone to feel comfortable and satisfied with being small, wouldn’t that create a Utopia within each of us? \| BY: Nina \| Guodian Laozi \| DDJ Concordance \| Comparisons \| Who was Laozi \| \| 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 \|