Heaviness is the root of lightness.
Serenity is the master of restlessness.
Therefore, the Sage, travelling all day,
Does not part with the baggage-wagon;
Though there may be gorgeous sights to see,
He stays at ease in his own home.
Why should a lord of ten thousand chariots
Display his lightness to the world?
To be light is to be separated from one’s root;
To be restless is to lose one’s self-mastery.
That which is heaviest shall return first to the stable
solidity of earth. And there is also a spiritual
force of gravity which returns those of spiritual weight quickly back to the
stability of the Tao.
That which we call light is also influenced by this
spiritual gravity, but floats around aimlessly and requires more time to return
to the Tao.
To be at one with the Tao is a state of peaceful
serenity. The fortunate one has nothing
more to attain, there is no need to disturb one’s peace to go in search of
something more.
Therefore, the Sage, travelling all day,
Does not part with the baggage-wagon;
Though there may be gorgeous sights to see,
He stays at ease in his own home.
The baggage wagon, by being heavily-laden, does not get
taken on the various pleasure excursions that are possible along the
route. It stays on the intended path,
and travels the fastest, smoothest route because it is so heavy and
cumbersome.
The sage has found all the gorgeousness on earth within the
immense depth of the moment, which is also the immense depth of his true
self. He has no need to visit the lesser
sights that earth has to offer. Therefore
he rests content as he is, and therefore has the good fortune to travel the
smoothest and fastest route.
Why should a lord of ten thousand chariots
Display his lightness to the world?
The sage, with his spiritual bounty. is compared here to a Lord
who has been able to buy all the chariots in the world. But why would such a Lord admit that he is
still light… still restless for more?
Surely, the whole point of wealth is the
kudos that comes with it. And this kudos
only comes when the wealthy man at least pretends
that he has become entirely happy and contented. If he doesn't pretend then the people won’t
envy and respect him.
The same is true of the sage. He must act authentically and show the people
what he has found on the inside. If they
don’t witness his supreme contentment that needs no externals; if all they see
is him chasing after the same things as they do; they won’t realise that the
same inner peace could occur to them, and they won’t see the sage as an example
to follow.
To be light is to be separated from one’s root;
To be restless is to lose one’s self-mastery.
We become ‘light’ the moment we start seeking on the outside
what can be found on the inside. We become
light the moment we make pointless forays into the thought world of time and
space, when we could be knowing it all directly in the present moment.
To find one’s root and the mastery that comes with that is
to realise that there is an alternative reality to the everyday world of time
and space. The way to see this clearly
is to meditate simply but with great concentration on the present moment.
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