Though nearby lands are close enough To hear their roosters crow The people will be so content That not a one will want to go If you live in the simplicity at your center, you will not want to go anywhere. You will see that there is nowhere to go and no one here to go anywhere. You are the still center of existence. There is nothing at your center to move. Can you see that everything moves in you while you remain absolutely still? Simplicity also means contentment with little. Of course you need the basic necessities of life. But do you need great wealth or fame? If you are seeing that at your center, as awareness, you are totality, you will have no need to build a self. Nothing can be added to totality.
You are whole and free to enjoy the delights of living! Can you see this freedom? At center you are free of everything. You are free of sounds, of movement, of colors and shapes, thoughts and feelings. And this freedom is not merely freedom from. It’s also freedom for. As the Tao, you are empty and empty-headed, open and free. You are always free – for accepting, for embracing and for loving existence. Why not stay free? Don’t try to make a name for yourself. Don’t try to get a-head. Don’t try to face the world. Just see that all existence is facing you! 81. Truth need not be eloquent And eloquence may not be true There is no need to argue When truth is shining through Those who see may not be learned The learned may not see To see you merely need to look In pure simplicity The seer doesn’t have to hoard And does not fear to lose The more you give, the more you have So why should you refuse? Why not give it all away? For emptiness brings benefit And as the seers always say The more you give, the more you get Lao Tzu began his text by telling us that the Tao cannot be named. His final words recall that theme. See it. Don’t just talk or write or think about it. It’s not contained in words or names. See it! Let go of all that keeps you from seeing what really is. See your true identity, this aware nothing that you are, right here where your face is absent and your head is gone. See that all that you let go as identity comes back as content. Nothing is lost. To see that this is true, all you need to do is look. Look again now. No need to point this time. You know where to look by now. Can you see the Tao, the absence of a head that is at the same time the presence of the multifarious world? This is total seeing. Nothing is left out. Only the head, the name, the false self is missing. Totality remains! And that’s the end of the story.
There is nothing for you or me to do but continue seeing the truth about the world and its origin within each of us. I am grateful to Lao Tzu for sharing his Tao with me. I am also grateful to all of those who have interpreted his writing in English. I have depended on their renderings of the text to attempt my own version. Above all, I am grateful to Douglas Harding for showing me what he calls two-way seeing. There is nothing like seeing the truth, nothing more rewarding. Again I will recommend that you read any of the books that Douglas has written. All of them contain experiments in seeing. Doing the experiments is a sure way to make total seeing your accustomed way of seeing the world. You have nothing to lose but your head!
Beginnings The Lalor’s of my family were farmers in Queens county (Laois), Ireland, settled in and around Rathdowny. Baptismal and death records show that at various times the family may also have lived at Errill, (1835-46) Lyrogue, (1846-50) Kileahaw (1850-55), (there are various spellings of this town given) andKilcoke. Griffiths Valluations show that JAMES LALOR leased 18 acres of land in Rathdowney with two other people. John Lalor leased land and a house in Kilkoke with 5 other people including a Daniel Lalor. all the above mentioned places are near Rathdowney and in the Rathdowney parish but are in different directions and not far from Errill. Grogan was the Parish church at the time. Historical note on Rathdowney; It takes it’s name from the rath or ring fort which until 1840 was at the end of the town square near the Church of Ireland church. It was originally a 13th century manor. Rathdowney was not developed as a town until early in the 19th century with brewing as the main industry up to 1966.
For information on the Septs of Laois and Lalor origins follow this link. They emigrated to Australia in 1857 after the Great Famine. The family came in separate groups as assisted and unassisted migrants, no mean feat as the passage to Australia was far more costly than to America, and given the privations they must have suffered during the famine, saving for the journey must have been extremly difficult. On arrival in Australia the family settled in Victoria, where once again they were farmers. The Victorian Landscape where the Lalor’s setteled was not unlike that of Laois, the difference being that James Lalor’s sons and daughters soon after arrival became landowners. An impossibility in Ireland. Ten years after his arrival James Lalor owned a house and two acres of land in Epping (1867- to his death in 1877 ).