The Enlightened Life in Just 3 Words

The translation of the Tao to Ching that I cut my teeth on was the one (pictured) by Stephen Mitchell. I'm no Chinese scholar by any means but I've read several different translations and the one by Mitchell strikes me as having been written by someone who not only knows Chinese (and English) but who also embodies the Tao, as the Tao te Ching says all superior men do upon hearing of it.

But the translation by Gia Fu Feng & Jane English contains one phrase that is superior for what I would call its "arrestiveness,"that is, its ability to put thinking on hold for a moment, to arrest thought, one of the main goals, I would argue, of the Tao te Ching. This one simple phrase incapsulates the entirety of the enlightened life in just 3 words.

The phrase is this, from No. 13: "Accept disgrace willingly."It has become something of a personal mantra for me.

For my money, this is what it all comes down to. It's an oximoron, of course. A disgrace that is accepted willingly is, technically speaking, not a disgrace. Disgrace necessarily entails an internal resistance to something that has happened. But if you manage instead to accept whatever happens, your peace and joy will always remain undisturbed.

Mitchell translated the same line with, "Success is as dangerous as failure." Also true and helpful, but not as powerful as, "Accept disgrace willingly."