Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Chapter of the Week: #56 [Archive]
First off, indeed, it is long since the people were perplexed, is not saying what it may seem to say, i.e., it's been a long time since the people were perplexed. The Chinese (ren zhi mi qi ri gu jiu) directly translated, albeit less poetically, says: people - perplexed - such - time - indeed - long time.
And, of course I'm perplexed! And the more I expect reality to be the way I want it, the more perplexed I feel. In my youth, the obvious solution to this dilemma was to scrape and jab until reality changed to [chref=65]conform[/chref] to my ideals of how it should be. Failure has gradually mellowed me... (as I write with a sigh of relief)... though I have a ways to go yet.
When the government is muddled, the people are simple etc., is sound advice on raising a family as long as there is sufficient intimate contact between its members. Sadly, the hurried ways of modern life make that connection increasingly scarce. I first noticed this approach to social relationships in Japan, in how they 'beat around the bush'. It does make for a smoother functioning society.
Is square-edged but does not scrape is a lesson long in the learning. I had to scrape a long while before that could be [chref=36]laid aside[/chref] (at least a little). For me, it is about balance... my mantra! All 'things' seem to go one way, and then the other in a kind of ebb and flow process of 'balance seeking'. 'I' am at peace only when 'I' know, accept and remember that 'I' am just along for the ride and not steering. I can then watch the process rather than try to change the process. This, for me, is meditation.
And, of course I'm perplexed! And the more I expect reality to be the way I want it, the more perplexed I feel. In my youth, the obvious solution to this dilemma was to scrape and jab until reality changed to [chref=65]conform[/chref] to my ideals of how it should be. Failure has gradually mellowed me... (as I write with a sigh of relief)... though I have a ways to go yet.
When the government is muddled, the people are simple etc., is sound advice on raising a family as long as there is sufficient intimate contact between its members. Sadly, the hurried ways of modern life make that connection increasingly scarce. I first noticed this approach to social relationships in Japan, in how they 'beat around the bush'. It does make for a smoother functioning society.
Is square-edged but does not scrape is a lesson long in the learning. I had to scrape a long while before that could be [chref=36]laid aside[/chref] (at least a little). For me, it is about balance... my mantra! All 'things' seem to go one way, and then the other in a kind of ebb and flow process of 'balance seeking'. 'I' am at peace only when 'I' know, accept and remember that 'I' am just along for the ride and not steering. I can then watch the process rather than try to change the process. This, for me, is meditation.
Comments
Note: The Tao Te Ching can be obscure, especially if you think you're supposed to understand what it's saying! We find it easier and more instructive to simply contemplate how the chapter resonates with your personal experience. Becoming more aware at this fundamental level simplifies life. This approach conforms to the view that true knowing lies within ourselves. Thus, when a passage in the scripture resonates, you've found your inner truth. The same applies for when it evokes a question; questions are the grist for self realization.
Chapter 56
One who knows does not speak; one who speaks does not know.
Block the openings;
Shut the doors.
Blunt the sharpness;
Untangle the knots;
Soften the glare;
Let your wheels move only along old ruts.
This is known as mysterious sameness.
Hence you cannot get close to it, nor can you keep it at arm's length; you
cannot bestow benefit upon it, nor can you do harm to it; you cannot ennoble it,
nor can you debase it.
Therefore it is valued by the empire.
If you really believe that, well first of all you can't believe what other people say, because they very likely don't know. So the first lesson is, don't trust anyone. Easier said than done, of course, but . . . fair enough.
Sometimes (in my experience) when I'm talking to people about "Taoist stuff" and they know about this line, they'll say, "Why should I believe what you're saying? Since you're speaking you obviously don't know anything!" Well, I have yet to come up with a good answer to that, but on one hand, they're absolutely right. They have no obligation to buy what I'm saying, and I can't guarantee that I'm ever "right." Sometimes (all the time?) I just have to go with my best guess.
Sometimes people will use that tactic to say that, in effect, because of that verse, "you are wrong" (and, by extension, "I'm right"). Well, on the surface, I guess you could say that because I'm a Taoist and (theoretically) don't believe I'm right, I'm wrong; and because you're not a Taoist you must be right. (Hopefully you see how silly that is.)
So what now? The next logical step, after not believing or 'trusting' what other people say, is not trusting what your own mind is telling you! This is a much bigger leap. If other people don't know what they're talking about, how can I presume I do? Even if I am a card carrying Taoist? (I lost my card years ago, by the way...)
In our Sunday meeting today, I got to thinking. Some of the time (or most of the time?) we speak (to others or as mind-speak) as though we 'know', when in reality, our reasoning is baseless. So why do we act as though we know? It would seem to me that much of our reasoning is really just a 'front' for our needs. After all, our 'emotional-brain' wants to have it's needs met, and if the 'rational-brain' was always questioning these needs, things wouldn't work out very well (in the jungle, at least). So it works out better in a natural setting if we believe that we're always right, so that our needs/desires will be met.
What do you think? Do I even know what I'm talking about?
I especially love dealing with college students, for whom everything is an absolute, and if they read it in a book or heard it from an over rated professor, it must be the truth. I much prefer people with open minds and practical life experience. After a while, those who see life as a continual journay can't help but run along the same old ruts and seek to soften the glare- leave the bright lights to the young, or more correctly to the dim-they need all the light they can get.
Speaking for myself, I've been conditioned to act as if I know. In school, if you don't know, you 'fail.' At my job I was not allowed to say I didn't know. I'm like a broken record, but below that conditioning is fear. Fear that I will be thrown out of the tribe, the job, school, if they find out I don't know, and then I will end up in the gutter and die!
I remember at work there was a Korean programmer, and whenever some crisis was brought to him, he would say "I know nothing." Pretty soon he had all the programmers saying that (jokingly, of course) and what a burden was lifted just by those words, even in jest.
So, I know nothing. It took me over 50 years to get here and it's pretty nice.
Well, tell them that whats important is not us speaking, but what they're hearing. That is, what they hear when anyone speaks is colored and determined by their preconceptions, and their own and society's expectations. So while what we speak may be close to the truth for us, it's never going to be that close for anyone else.
Had a friend who said something similar to this about what we see: Does that rock exist at all, and if it does, how we see that rock is up to what we bring to the seeing of the rock.
I don't know, I'm just rambling...
Anyway, One who knows does not speak, was disconcerting for years! I love to speak, write and think. What's more, I knew that I knew. Gradually this view, one who knows does not speak, one who speaks does not know has become a corner stone of my world view. First, I hold that thinking is just a form of speaking... that internal conversation we have with ourselves. There are two principal sides to this speaking process: answers and questions. When I'm answering, as I'm doing here, I'm actually seeking to narrow the 'eternal cosmic' view down to a little pebble, or as I like to [chref=71]think[/chref], a 'nugget'. Of course over the years the 'nuggets' that I thought were gold have tarnished or turn to lead.
As speech and thought rely on definition, i.e., sharp differences, they impart the opposite of mysterious sameness. The reason sameness is mysterious is that it can't really be described, only hinted at, i.e., you cannot ennoble it, nor can you debase it. Here is one reason why so few folks are attracted to a Taoist world view; people want to ennoble and debase 'things'. Hence we see gods and devils, saints and sinners, [chref=2]good and bad[/chref]. Contrast is the stimulation that our nervous system uses to survive, which makes the suggestion to let your wheels move only along old ruts boring.
A Christian can 'be born again', while the Taoist can only 'be bored again'! In this chaotic modern world of change that doesn't sound too bad, eh?
Oh, the other side of the speaking and thinking process, questions, simply and honestly demonstrates that one does not know. That is where the real fun is :!: :?
The part about "you cannot get close to it", reminds me of what Carl says from time to time. "Not this, not that". That's the mystery; if I think I've nailed it down, it's certain I haven't. Hence the reminder that if I think I know, and can go around speaking about "it", then I don't actually know. Which, to me applies to what Luke said about not being able to trust what anyone says, because they don't know. My thought is that that is true, of all of us. But I find that I still can trust; I can trust that we're all stumbling along trying to make sense of our struggles. We're social animals, and so do a lot of talking about what we're experiencing. I'm always glad when I can have some compassion for whoever I'm talking with, and maybe asking a few thoughtful questions that may help the other person, and sometimes myself, find a little bit of clarity in life.
Block the openings, and mysterious sameness, are in the same vein as the beginning chapter, about ridding yourself of desires, in order to observe it's secrets. (You ever notice how after a conversation in which you went on and on, feeling like you knew reality, and then later realizing that you missed the whole point, like seeing the finger instead of the heavens it's pointing to?)
I wonder about the "does not speak". I don't think it's meant to be taken literally, anymore than non-action means never doing anything. There is the speaking that is hammered to a point, where I know with absolute certainty that whatever I'm speaking is truth. Then there is the speaking with a hesitant, questioning approach. Being open to the "mysterious sameness", processing life to see what's real and what's illusion. Again, if I'm sure I have the answer, then I don't. If I always doubt a bit, then there's always room to continue to "mature". (Whatever that might be.)
I used to think of old ruts as some of the ways I've always done things, as if that was the "natural" way. Now I'm thinking more about what ruts really are. They're the path, for instance, that people have walked for ages, naturally defining the route for travel. This is actually much more apparent when I think of the river (the Colorado?) running through the Grand Canyon. Antiquity, old ruts, eternity, all speak to things following the constant. Our little blip of eternity is not all there is, as we often tend to think or act, as if our personal desires are the entire universe.
Blunting, shutting, blocking, for me, all refer to desires. These are not done in a forceful, active way. But rather by turning back, by pressing down with the uncarved block, by letting go. I feel fortunate that their are getting to be more times in whatever emotional struggles I experience during my day, that I'm able to follow this approach more than the following my desires blindly.