What Humility Actually Means | Tao Te Ching Chapter 72 Explained

When men lack a sense of awe, there will be disaster. Do not intrude in their homes. Do not harass them at work. If you do not interfere, they will not weary of you. Therefore, the sage knows himself, but makes no show. Has self-respect, but is not arrogant. He lets go of that and chooses this. This chapter seems to be a bit of a grab bag of three different themes. The value of having a sense of awe, the value of governing with a light hand, and the balance of self-respect and others-mindedness. I think one of the great tragedies of our time is how much our sense of wonder and awe has declined as a human race. All throughout the history of mankind, humanity has always had a respect for something higher than the self. Whether it was a god, or gods, or nature spirits, or anything really, I just think it's really important for people to have something to look at that's higher than the self, and hold some kind of respect and reverence for something bigger than them. It's one of the few natural checks on human narcissism, and I think that we're starting to feel the effects of its absence today. Many people go throughout life with no purpose other than to be born, make money, and then die. This is such a depressing outlook on life. From talking to people, it seems like most people do believe in something, whatever they choose to call it, or choose not to call it. What I think might actually be declining is the tendency of people to allow these beliefs to influence their actions in some kind of tangible way. If we really do believe in something, such as the Tao, this belief should affect the way we live our lives. Whether this is in decline or not, a sense of awe and respect for powers greater than our own is an important aspect of humanity, and Lao Tzu agreed. One of the reasons for this is that it can help to nourish humility. Now, I know that sometimes humility gets a bad rap in pop culture. I guess this is only natural in a culture that is so concerned with asserting your own individuality. Our culture tends to scream a lot of me, me, me, but I don't think Lao Tzu would have been very impressed by this. Also notice though that Lao Tzu doesn't advise us to get down on ourselves, or to try to think of ourselves as worse than we are. This is not humility. Humility is not good-looking people trying to think they're ugly, or smart people trying to think that they're stupid. Humility has more to do with just spending overall less time thinking about ourselves in general, and spending more time and energy taking care for others. Humility means that you see yourself as objectively as possible, and that you don't waste energy either aggrandizing or deprecating yourself. It's less about how you evaluate yourself, and more about taking the focus off of yourself altogether. Did you do a really good job on that project? Yeah, you really did, and you should feel joy about that, in the same way that you would feel joy from seeing a sunset, or hearing a piece of music you like. The joy isn't in the fact that you were the one that did it, but in the fact that it exists. You could have been just as happy if it were done by someone else. Did you screw something up? Acknowledge that it happened, feel what you need to feel, make it right, and move on. Understand that while your mistakes may indicate something about your current capacity and skill set, they do not indicate something about your value as a human being. You are not your mistakes. Your mistakes are not you. They are just steps along your journey toward the Tao. Keep a sense of awe about the Tao. If you don't feel that sense of awe, study and meditate on the nature of the Tao. This can help you to more rightly see your path toward the Tao, and the place you can find in it. Now, as I wrap up this video, if you've been watching the Tao Te Ching series this long, and you're still not in the discord, I have only one thing to say to you. Get in the discord. I'm in there almost every day, and we're having cool discussions about Taoism that you're missing out on. So if you've ever felt like you wanted someone to talk to about Taoism, but you've never had the chance, here's your chance. And for all of you who have been watching these videos all this time, I really just want to say, thank you so much for watching. It's exciting for me to be finishing up this series, and to move on to new things, and I know that you guys will be along for the ride. So with that, join the discord, and I will see you all tomorrow for chapter 73. Peace and blessings.