The Power in Desirelessness

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The Power in Desirelessness

"The Tao never acts and yet is never inactive. If leaders can hold onto it, all things will be naturally influenced. Influenced and yet desiring to act, I would calm them with Nameless Simplicity. Nameless simplicity is likewise without desire - and without desire there is harmony."

"The world will then be naturally stabilised."

Lao Tzu believed that the best leaders are those with the intellectual and emotional strength to guide rather than rule. Enlightened leaders put all their strength into leading the way and into not interfering in the lives of those they lead. Thus their followers are influenced naturally, without resistance, resentment or reaction.

When people don't follow, it's because the leader is moving against the grain of human nature and against the direction of social evolution. Such leaders bring chaos to the world.

Enlightened leaders hold to the Tao when leading and are always active in their own internal growth. In order to align themselves to the emerging trend s in society and the movements of Nature (Tao), they practice simplicity in their lives and work. In this way they avoid the distorted intellectual and emotional growth that comes with any fixation upon material possessions or self-aggrandising social systems.

Because the enlightened leaders free themselves from irrelevant or misleading desires, they receive insights that bring harmony and stability to everything they touch. (37)

Good leaders guide rather than rule - they perceive purity, embrace simplicity, reduce self-interest and limit their desires. Thus they “avoid the distorted intellectual and emotional growth that comes from fixation upon material possessions and/or self-aggrandising social

Published by: David Tuffley (January 2000) | Home Page