35.

Hold fast to the Big Picture

and all will be drawn to you.

They will not harm you

and will join with you

in peace upon peace.

There will be joyful music

and vibrant street food,

wayfarers will want to stop

and join in the fun.

The Tao

that is mere talk

is bland.

Look for it: it is invisible.

Listen for it: it is inaudible.

Yet, if you embody it,

you’ll discover

that it’s inexhaustible.

Reflection

While organized religion seems to be on the decline, at least in terms of official membership, those who see their congregations and adherents dissipating wring their hands and try to figure out how to lure folks back into their communities.

Our main mission isn’t to proselytize for any group, but it is worth noting that if one wants to draw friends into a healthy spiritual community, this chapter has some advice. Browbeating people into attending a dreary temple for rote and life-draining devotional acts is not likely to be viable in the long run. It is definitely not likely to be salutary and life-giving.

Lao Tzu offers a picture of a community that is as universally attractive as it is elusive in most human experiences: a world of joyful invitation and love. Any emphasis on doctrine that is devoid of vibrant, abundant life is probably not worth the effort—or as one young person put it to us, it isn’t worth the wager. Getting drawn into religious communities can turn into cult traps at worst or burdensome energy wasters at best.

Seekers of spiritual community should thus consider looking for places that aren’t overly sectarian, narrow, and closed off. They should instead seek places that are inviting and warm. Even that, of course, can turn out to be a bait and switch, so to all our friends who are coming out of unhealthy religious communities, we always advise “detoxing” for a good long while, at least in terms of memberships, commitments, and high-intensity involvement. Our exploration of the Tao Te Ching was partly an attempt to help folks who experienced toxic religion to stay thoughtful and seek what might otherwise be called spiritual healing, but in a way that didn’t require acceptance of any guru or prophet. If you want/need a guru or prophet down the line, that’s your call. But again, be steady and circumspect in all this.

If, on the other hand, you are part of a life-giving community—civic, religious, or otherwise—and you do want people to know they are welcome to your party, the point of this chapter is that it’s best to embody and model the joyful party and let all be drawn to your glow.

In our rendering here, made a move that almost no one else made to our knowledge, when it comes to depicting the imagery of this chapter. Most put the music and cakes or fun fair food in a second paragraph and seem to suggest that it is all vacuous. Their renderings tend to depict something like the Pleasure Island of the Disney version of Pinnochio. We, however, put it with the first stanza and say that the reason people are drawn to the sage is the same reason they stop for a fair.

Our recommendation is that you ought to keep your wits about you at all times, but when ready to branch out and find your true tribe, look for one that brings you life, lets you breathe deep and grow, and helps your true self shine.

The Big Picture (Tao Te Ching 35)