Words of value?

I have for some time now been slowly and steadily working my way through the philosophical writing of Lao Tzu with an emphasis being put on his earlier writing called the Tao Te Ching. This work was written originally in Chinese and I certainly do not have the skills or ability to translate this original work from this language. 

Over the years I have found many different translations of this work and have learned a little something from most of them. I have tried to share this work with friends on many occasions and each time tried to select the translation I feel that the person might get most from. it is not an easy text, this of course in my humble opinion. Most of those who have tried to read it and find out why I mention it so often have given up. 

I wondered if I could, with the help of the many translations I have, produce an interpretative version that my friends might find helpful. With the help of one such friend, I have been making a sincere effort. 

Yesterday I came to a part the made me stop for a moment and wonder if what I was doing was maybe something that I should just leave with those who have already made the effort through those many translations I have?

I found myself writing this and stopping to ponder.

If you would wish to be a great leader,

You must first learn to follow the Tao.

Stop trying to control others,

Let go of all the plans and schemes.

The world will look after itself.

There are times it seems when things are best left alone and people be permitted to learn in their way not from being told by others, like me. I was always aware as a teacher the things students learned were the things they felt sure they had discovered for themselves. So I always strove to make it seem just that in my lessons, that I merely set them on the journey but they made the discoveries.

I remembered tale I have used both as a teacher and preacher that made a similar point. This was a story about some monkeys and one in particular.

Once there lived a group of monkeys in a forest. During the winter, they were unable to stand the severe cold and heavy rains. One evening they found a firefly and believed it to be fire, so lifted it with care, covered it with dry grass and leaves, thrust forward their arms, scratched themselves, and enjoyed imagining that they were warm. 

One of them, in particular, seemed especially chilly,  he blew repeatedly and with much-concentrated attention on the firefly.

Watching their vain effort in amusement, Suchimukha, a bird, flew down from her tree and said to the monkey, “My dear sir, do not put yourself in unnecessary trouble. This is not fire. This is a firefly. This will not save you from cold. Go and look for a shelter in a cave or a place free from wind. The clouds are thick and there will be no immediate relief from rain.”

 The monkey, however, did not heed her warning but blew again, nor did he stop when she tried more than once to correct him. The poor bird tried and tried in vain to get the message across to the monkey that he was wasting his time. The bird got more and angrier and more and more aggressive in his desire to teach this monkey.

Finally angered by the repeated uncalled for advice, the monkey said, “You stupid, why do you poke your nose in our affairs? Go away. 

Haven’t the elders said that "one should offer advice only to those who seek it and will value it? " 

Disregarding the old monkey’s anger and not giving room to any other monkey to talk, Suchimukha went on repeating his advice to them to seek shelter elsewhere. 

Tired with the bird’s unwanted advice, one of the monkeys sprang at the bird and bashed her against a rock, thereby killing her on the spot.

The advice that was offered was, in fact, good advice. had the monkeys been prepared to listen they would not have spent the next seven days in the freezing wet rain. Wise words are only wise when they are offered to those who wish to hear them.

Have a marvellous day.