Tao Te Ching Verse 5: Impartiality

Episode Art by @lianafinkTao Te Ching Verse 5Heaven and earth do not act from (the impulse of) any wish to be benevolent; they deal with all things as the dogs of grass are dealt with. The sages do not act from (any wish to be) benevolent; they deal with the people as the dogs of grass are dealt with.May not the space between heaven and earth be compared to a bellows?'Tis emptied, yet it loses not its power;'Tis moved again, and sends forth air the more.Much speech to swift exhaustion lead we see;Your inner being guard, and keep it free.The Tao is ImpartialFull disclosure - I used to serve in the US military.  For 11 years, I was a part of an organization designed to practice and inflict violence.  I’ve got no illusions about that! I don’t regret my time there, and I’m glad I’m no longer a part of it, because I’ve had the wonderful chance to experience life from many different angles.  And the experience taught me many useful things, one of which was - impartiality.  As a member of the military, part of my job was to lead others, and sometimes this meant enforcing the rules through negative reinforcement.  In other words, part of my job was to judge and punish those who did not perform their duties to standard.  I remember taking it seriously, especially the impartiality part.  While there, I was also fortunate enough to be able to mix with people that were different from me.  Different ethnicities, different socioeconomic backgrounds, different creeds, religions, and even world-views.  Paradoxically, being in this organization designed to do violence exposed me to the 5th Verse of the Tao Te Ching, though at the time I didn’t know it.I was able to connect with a feeling of suspending my personal judgement where others were concerned.  It was important to practice impartiality for a couple of reasons.  First, treating others with the dignity and respect that they, like every human deserves, was the right thing to do.  Second, having a leader that plays favorites is devastating to any kind of group of humans that need to work together.  Now, I think the most important reason to practice it is that in so doing, I can emulate the Tao.  Perhaps you’ve noticed that life just...happens.  Sometimes it’s seemingly good, and sometimes it’s seemingly bad.  I think the title of a book once read, ‘why bad things happen to good people.’  Could you imagine what would happen if the Tao played favorites?  My thought is that we would never have a chance to get along and love each other.  That seems to be hard enough, both in the annals of human history and the present.  The Tao plays no favorites.  It just is.  Tornados hit where they hit.  Hurricanes too.  Apart from natural disasters, there are other things that occur everyday: miracles of healing.  People smile at one another.  And more people are born.  There’s this mix of seemingly good and bad things that are happening constantly, and Lao Tzu tells us that this is because the Tao is impartial.  It’s this force of nature that just does what it does, and we are encouraged to follow the Tao by being impartial as well.