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Chapter of the Week: #24 [Archive]
blogs are a harsh mistress-difficult to maintain-trying a couple of my own made me appreciate kyle's efforts here more...
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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 24
He who tiptoes cannot stand;
He who strides cannot walk.
He who shows himself is not conspicuous;
He who considers himself right is not illustious;
He who brags will have no merit;
He who boasts will not endure.
From the point of view of the way these are 'excessive food and useless
excrescences'. As there are Things that detest them, he who has the way does
not abide in them.
I found excrescence in the dictionary: "an often immoderate or abnormal projection, outgrowth, or enlargement" and "forming an abnormal, excessive, or useless outgrowth."
I bet I'm not the only one unfamiliar with that word.
I'm afraid I feel the viewpoint here has 'put the cart before the horse'. For example, He who strides cannot walk should instead read, 'He who cannot walk strides'; and He who considers himself right is not illustrious should read, 'He who (feels he) is not illustrious considers himself right'. These appearances - brags, boasts, shows (off) - are simply symptoms of the person's emotional bedrock. Only when I feel deep down that I am lacking merit, will I struggle to compensate. How? By bragging, exaggerating, embellishing, and padding my 'portfolio'. I only need to 'prove myself' when I feel 'unproven' and inconspicuous.
This dynamic is simply Nature's balancing act. Whatever is deep seated within us (or anything?) will have a counter balancing counter point. For every 'hidden yin' there is a 'shown yang'. Thus, yang is what you see on the surface - the [chref=52]child[/chref]; yin is the subtle underbelly - the [chref=52]mother[/chref]. (Note: As we see this dynamic, our [chref=10]discernment penetrates the four quarters[/chref]... :shock: )
This is one time where another translation reads better, as least for me. For example, Victor Mair puts it this way, As for the Way, we may say these are 'excess provisions and extra baggage'. Creation abhors such extravagances. Therefore, One who aspires to the Way, does not abide in them.
Though this reads better, it still implies free will by suggesting that if one aspires to the way, one will not boast, brag, and show himself. In fact, this natural dynamic is beyond our ability to [chref=48]meddle[/chref] in, e.g., one never chooses to brag; rather, one can't help but brag when one feels 'inferior'. This notion of 'free will' is a rather universal illusion of [chref=19]self[/chref], even cropping up in Taoist writings, as it does here. Oh well, maybe it is just a case of [chref=45]great perfection seeming chipped[/chref].... :?
I think I am beginning to get a sense of the free will argument. We can think and act but it will always be influenced by anything that is operating in the background of our life.
As will all human endeavors. Even the master is flawed.