Tao Te Ching, Verse XIII: Doing Software Engineering Because I Love The World So Much

"Love the world as yourself; then you'll be able to care for it properly." This is from the Brian Browne Walker translation; and this has been one of my favourite quotes for many, many years.

Now that I am in Luxembourg my heart is absolutely filled with love. I love each and every last tree that I see. I love each and every pylon, each and every utility tower. I love each and every utility tower everywhere I go, though. It reminds me of what I know and it makes me feel sure.

I am coding in the right discipline for me. 

I am coding in the perfect field for me. 

Thank you thank you thank you. I am so privileged and so so blessed to be coding in utilities. This is the privilege of my lifetime and I love it with all my heart. I am so lucky and so privileged to be doing this. Thank you. But why stop there.

On the way home from the airport I called in at the cafe. 

Except that I didn’t; the lady working there all by herself had burnt herself. She had burnt herself very badly. Her boss didn’t want to let her off to go to the hospital which was completely insane and probably highly illegal as well. I tried to help her. She wasn’t the warm friendly type and she was kind of snapping at me. 

I tried to calm her down, get her a drink. Luckily the people working in the building stepped in too and one of them called an ambulance. 

This was quite a difficult situation for me because she was being unfriendly but I knew deep down I couldn’t leave her til she had some help even though I was exhausted and needed to get home. 

The ambulance came super quickly but before they did I had a thought; why is this lady any different to the pylons. 

What if I loved her like I love the pylons. Same with your family, same with your friends. Why would you love anybody any differently than you love your family and friends. What if it’s all just love anyway. Why would I just love being around software engineers and other tech people when I can love being around each and every person that I encounter in my life. 

Why would I love coding and software engineering more than I love just living, just being, just resting, just relaxing, just washing the dishes. Isn’t it just all the same anyway? Admittedly, there are things we are drawn to and that is okay. I love being around tech people. I love writing code. 

I love building and engineering software. 

But sometimes it has to stop. 

And over the last few months I have really seriously overworked myself. I have to find a balance going forwards. 

It’s wonderful to love where I am now. I am surrounded by forests in all directions. I can hear the rain on the skylight upstairs. 

The smell of the rain on the trees and the grass and the flowers. The earth loves the rain. I love it all. But why love that anymore than I love the little flat share in Brighton, the street that ends in the offshore wind farms, and the messy area that I live in.

Isn’t it all the same anyway? Isn’t it all just one great manifestation of love? And are we not that one manifestation? Hence the phrase:

Love the world as yourself, and you’ll be able to care for it properly. I can only care for the world when I see it as myself. I can only care for other people properly when I love them like I would love myself. When I love them as I would love myself. I can only care for the world properly when I love it as I would love myself. I can only care for the lady properly and wait with her until the ambulance comes - which I did - when I love her as I love the pylons. Which is the thing that I love the most in the world. But it’s all the same anyway. Don’t you see it.

“Surrender yourself humbly; then you can be trusted to care for all things.”

Ramana Maharshi, the greatest of the great, said that the greatest gift that we could give to the world was our own self-realisation. I couldn’t agree more. 

I decided to become a software engineer after I woke up to my own true nature; and I hope to serve the world in every way possible through this work. (More accurately I never decided to do anything; I felt as though I were being clearly asked to do this; I never had any choice but to follow). As I have said before I had a good job and good prospects. 

But when I found coding I knew that I had to do this no matter how hard it was - and it is hard every day. Even though I love it. “Love the world as yourself and you’ll be able to care for it properly.”

That is really the reason why I’m doing it. I hope to be able to do something beautiful I can give back to the world. Thank you. And lastly: “accept being unimportant”. Software engineering is full of hierarchies.

If you don’t see that then I think you’re kidding yourself. But we don’t have to subscribe to those hierarchies. 

You will always find someone who is “better” than you in some way. Always. 

And you will always find someone who is “worse” than you in some way. Always. So why compare yourself to anyone? You are a beautiful expression of God. We are all beautiful expressions of God. We are all God’s infinite being, personified. How could anyone be less or more perfect than perfection itself already is? Thank you. 

Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu - chapter 13

Accept disgrace willingly.
Accept misfortune as the human condition.

What do you mean by "Accept disgrace willingly"?
Accept being unimportant.
Do not be concerned with loss and gain.
This is called "accepting disgrace willingly."

What do you mean by "Accept misfortune as the human condition"?
Misfortune comes from having a body.
Without a body, how could there be misfortune?

Surrender yourself humbly; then you can be trusted to care for all things.
Love the world as your own self; then you can truly care for all things.