In God Makes the Rivers to Flow; An Anthology of the World’s Sacred Poetry & Prose, Eknath Easwaran has included a selection from the Tao te Ching and entitled it “Holding to the Constant.” I have written the following poem-like reflection inspired by this selection. This is the final of three.
Alive in the Eternal
[Those who have harmony with the constant] act with compassion;
within themselves, they can find room for everything.
Having room, they rule themselves and lead others wisely.
Being wise, they live in accordance
with the nature of things.
Emptied of self and one with nature,
They become filled with the Tao.
The Tao endures forever.
For those who have attained harmony with the Tao
will never lose it,
Even if their bodies die.
—Lao Tzu
What does it mean to have harmony with the constant, harmony with the Tao?
It means we have gone through the last door of consciousness and united with our Source.
We can unite with our Source in this life. We can unite with the Source in the afterlife.
It is our choice.
In truth, we cannot escape our unity with Source, because there is only One Being, All That Is, the Truth.
But our unity with Source can escape our consciousness. That is our conditioning at work.
That need not limit us.
We can hold all conditions inside ourselves, just as Source holds all conditions Within.
We can see all conditions with the eyes of Love.
It is our destiny to look through the eyes of Love, to be ruled by Love, to lead others in Love.
That is real wisdom.
The nature of things is unity with the Divine.
When the Ego is surrendered to that unity, we know the Way.
We are divinely guided. We make decisions out of Love.
We align with Stillness, with the Silence, with the True Self, with the Divine Self, the Creative Self, the Higher Self, the Universe, the Eternal Now, the Tao.
And we find that Peace that is beyond human understanding, that Joy that does not depend on circumstances.
We cast nothing outside of ourselves and are alive in the Eternal that is beyond life and death.
