Law, according to Lao-tzu
I would like to share with our honorable senator-judges of the impeachment court some wise thoughts from ancient times, taken from the book “Wen-tzu, Understanding the Mysteries, Further Teachings of Lao-tzu,” as translated by Thomas Cleary. These nuggets of wisdom may help and guide the senator-judges in making decisions until the final day of the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona.
Wen-tzu asked: What is law based on?
Lao-tzu said: Law arises from justice, justice arises from what is appropriate for the masses, and what is appropriate for the masses is what accords with the
peoples’ mind. This is the essence of order.
Law does not descend from heaven, nor does it emerge from earth, it is invented through human self-reflection and self-correction. If you truly arrive at the root, you will not be confused by the branches, if you know what is essential, you will not be mixed up by doubts.
If you have it in yourself, you do not deny it for others, if you do not have it in yourself, you do not blame it on status. What is established among the lower echelons is not to be ignored in the upper echelons, what is forbidden to the people at large is not to be practiced by privileged individuals.
Therefore when human leaders determine laws, they should first apply them to themselves to test and prove them. So if a regulation works on the rulers themselves, then it may be enjoined upon the populace.
Laws are plumb lines of the land, the measures used by human leaders, the established rules regulating the unruly. After laws have been established, those who conform to them are rewarded, while those who do not live up to them are punished. Even if people are rich and noble, their rewards are not to be lessened, and even if people are poor and lowly, their punishments are not to be increased; those who violate the law are to be punished without fail even if they are good people, while those who conform to the law are to be considered innocent even if they are good-for-nothings. For this reason impartiality is practiced and private wishes are blocked.
Officers were established in ancient times to restrain the people from being too selfish, while rulers were set up to control the officers and prevent them from acting autocratically. Laws and the arts of the Way are means of controlling rulers, to prevent them from making arbitrary decisions. If no one can be self-indulgent, then the Way prevails and reason is attained.
Therefore return to simplicity, with no contrivance. No contrivance does not mean inaction, it means adapting to what is already going on.
—GUY “INDRA” HILBERO,
