Beatitude 3 from Matthew's Gospel

Jerusalem Bible: "Happy the gentle: they will have the earth for their heritage."

J.B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English: "Happy are those who claim nothing, for the whole earth will belong to them."

(Just by chance as I was looking through a book I have had for many years, Vedanta for Modern Man, I came across the passage below from a teacher within the Hindu tradition,his words, I believe, touch the heart of this Beatitude.)

"God is the searcher of our hearts. He knows all our inner motives. We can draw His sympathy only through self-surrender and humility of spirit. We cannot move Him by eloquence or fine words. To the proud and the arrogant He is an all-exacting master. But to the meek and gentle He is the ever-forgiving Father, kind and generous beyond human understanding. One who approaches Him on bended knee and perfect resignation will surely be uplifted and brought within the orbit of His grace."

-----Swami Aseshananda (1899=1996, member of the Ramakrishna Monastic Order, head of the Portland, OR Vedanta Society from 1955 until his death)

(What about "the whole earth will belong to them"? It can be argued that if one is accepted by God -- in having God, one has everything.)

(I don't have a copy of the Tao Te Ching here in Ohio, but this work praises the person who is one of "non-action," i.e. acts without acting, does without doing----in harmony always with the Tao. This small book supposedly written by Lao Tzu, an ancient Chinese sage, speaks highly of the soft, the flexible, and the hidden.)