Cultivating the Centre

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Cultivating the Centre

"If the administration is subdued, the people are sincere. If the administration is exacting, the people are deficient."

"Misfortune! Good fortune supports it. Good fortune! Misfortune hides within it."

"Order can revert to the unusual; good can revert to the abnormal; and people are indeed bewildered for a long, long time."

"Thus enlightened leaders are square without dividing, honest without offending, straightforward without straining, bright without being dazzling."

Severe controls and regulations characterise a detailed and exacting administration. Such an administration conceives of an ideal and then attempts to regulate the people into this ideal. Since human nature naturally resists oppression, resentment and discontent begin to grow within the organisation. As the administration pushes, the resistance of the people grows even stronger.

Enlightened leaders understand the action of polarity in nature and therefore avoid such extremes. They know that good fortune and m isfortune don't respond to direct control and that excessive action towards 'good order' will lead to a counter-reaction.

Instead they use their intelligence to shape the world without direct confrontation or excessive strategy or control.

Stable, subtle and sincere, they cultivate themselves and become models for the people they lead. (58)

It is a mistake to over-regulate people, it runs counter to basic human nature. By nature people are not made to be over-regulated. The human species and indeed all other living creatures have evolved in a chaotic environment where conditions vary from one day to the next and survival depends on adapting to change. Too many rules and regulations restrict a person’s ability to adapt to change, therefore people react against attempts to place them in a straightjacket and so reduce their ability to react spontaneously.

Some leaders assume that because some regulation is good, therefore a lot of regulation is better. There is a tendency in people to take things to the extreme. We see this tendency in every aspect of people’s lives. One whisky might be good for a person’s heart, therefore ten must be really good. Reducing dietary fat intake is good for a person’s arteries, therefore no dietary fat will let a person live forever. The tendency towards extremes ignores the basic Taoist principle of moderation - the middle path.

Published by: David Tuffley (January 2000) | Home Page