“Tao Teh Ching: Chapter 29” by Lao Tzu

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Does anyone want to take the world and do what he wants with it?
I do not see how he can succeed.

The world is a sacred vessel, which must not be tampered with or grabbed after.
To tamper with it is to spoil it, and to grasp it is to lose it.

In fact, for all things there is a time for going ahead, and a time for following behind;
A time for slow-breathing and a time for fast-breathing;
A time to grow in strength and a time to decay;
A time to be up and a time to be down.

Therefore, the Sage avoids all extremes, excesses and extravagances.

I feel that this is a passage that every politician, every corporate CEO, and every Wall Street banker should read. It is essentially the same idea as expressed in the sayings “Live simply so that others may simply live,” or “The Earth does not belong to us; we belong to the Earth.” As I look around at the mania associated with the frantic quest after more and more, I cannot help but acknowledge that this mindset is totally unsustainable. If we continue to tamper with our world and strip it of its resources, we will ultimately initiate our own demise. Lao Tzu, who lived in the 6th century BC, already understood this. Why is it so difficult for people to grasp today?

The other thing that struck me as interesting about this passage is its similarity to Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, which was put to music in the song “Turn, Turn, Turn.” I am not sure whether there was a sharing of ideas between the east and west in antiquity, or whether the authors had both tapped in to the same source of divine inspiration, but the parallel is something worth pondering.

Today, I will avoid all “extremes, excesses and extravagances.” If we all made a conscious effort to do this, what a change it would make in the world.

The Black Monday Murders: Issue 03

This is the third installment in a complex graphic novel about Wall Street power brokers drawing on occult powers to maintain wealth and control. The story is so labyrinthine that with each layer that you peel back, you uncover more questions and uncertainty. It’s like a puzzle that gets more complicated the more you work on it, which makes reading this both frustrating and exhilarating.

There are some great quotes in this issue that I would like to share.

But this is how secrets work, no? They hide in the shadows until they grow into something… uncontrollable.

I find this quote fascinating because it is true on multiple levels. On a personal level, when you keep secrets, those secrets morph into something else that is often detrimental to an individual. I was told that we only as sick as our secrets, and I truly believe this. When we hide things in the shadows of our consciousness, it changes us in ways we often cannot imagine. But this is also the case on a larger scale. I cannot help but think of governments and corporations, these massive institutions that specialize in hoarding information and secrets. While this may seem beneficent at first, especially when the keeping of secrets is done with the best intentions, the institution begins to change, and we are left with something else, something that exists solely to gather and keep secrets, which are the currency of power.

The other quote that intrigued me regards Wall Street.

The history of Wall Street is written in blood… it’s an industry built on human sacrifice.

Humans have always sacrificed themselves for money, symbolized by Mammon. They sacrifice their happiness and exploit others for the pursuit of Mammon, the manifestation of greed and material wealth. People become nothing more than objects to exploit in the endless quest for more power and more wealth, because once you get caught in this trap, there is never enough, you are always left wanting more, and more, and more. This is the dark side of our material world.

As I watched Wall Street rally this past week, I could not help wondering about the forces that fueled this surge and what it means for the average person. Those who are in power and have access to secrets see sociopolitical events differently than most of us. I wonder what they see in our future.