Enlightenment from the Tao Te Ching The Tao Te Ching can be useful to everyone and its reading can be enlightening. Reading the Tao can provide a lot of information about the challenges and dangers that humans face in this world, about how a person should live their life, about the dangers of a powerful ruler, about how the state should rule, about how citizens should serve the state and on life. messages or warnings for us today. Humanity has a tendency to be self-conscious, greedy, and materialistic, and human history shows this to be the case in all societies. Even in China they suffer from the selfish aspects of human beings. The Tao states on page 9: “Chase money and security/and your heart will never open.” It's natural for people to want things, but the Tao says the danger is chasing money. In our society this materialistic attitude is evident, because when people buy expensive things that they cannot afford, they immediately say: “Charge!” If the Tao were written today it would read: “Credit cards are for those who chase money/their wallet will never be exhausted”....