Indian stream·Tao Te Ching·Chapter 3 — Keeping the People at Rest
Not exalting talent, not coveting goods
Statecraft by non-stimulation. Empty their minds and fill their bellies; weaken their ambitions and strengthen their bones. Practise non-action and nothing remains ungoverned.
Source context
- Theme
- restraint of desire and competitive striving as the basis of social harmony and inner stillness
- Soul-faculty
- Sentient Soul
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Vedanta / Bhagavad GitaThe Gita's teaching of nishkama karma — action without attachment to fruits or status — presents a structural parallel to Chapter 3's prescription that the sage does not exalt the worthy nor inflame desire, thereby emptying the will of ego-driven striving.
- Platonic political philosophyPlato's Republic proposes that social disorder arises from the spirited part of the soul (thymos) seeking recognition; Chapter 3's counsel against exalting the worthy addresses the same root of civic instability through non-arousal rather than hierarchical ordering.
- Buddhist right intention (sammā saṅkappa)The second step of the Noble Eightfold Path prescribes renunciation of covetousness and ill-will as preconditions for clear perception, structurally congruent with Chapter 3's equation of unstirred desire with cognitive transparency and right action.
Chapter 3
Not to value and employ men of superior ability is the way to keep the people from rivalry among themselves; not to prize articles which are difficult to procure is the way to keep them from becoming thieves; not to show them what is likely to excite their desires is the way to keep their minds from disorder.
Therefore the sage, in the exercise of his government, empties their minds, fills their bellies, weakens their wills, and strengthens their bones.
He constantly (tries to) keep them without knowledge and without desire, and where there are those who have knowledge, to keep them from presuming to act (on it). When there is this abstinence from action, good order is universal.