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Chapter of the Week: #42 [Archive]
Each week we address one chapter of the Tao Te Ching. 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.
Read commentary previously posted for this chapter.
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.
Read commentary previously posted for this chapter.
Comments
Chapter 42
The way begets one; one begets two;
two begets three; three begets the myriad creatures.
The myriad creatures carry on their backs the yin and embrace in their arms the
yang and are the blending of the generative forces of the two.
There are no words which men detest more than 'solitary', 'desolate', and
'hapless', yet lords and princes use these to refer to themselves.
Thus a thing is sometimes added to by being diminished
and diminished by being added to.
What others teach I also teach.
'The violent will not come to a natural end.'
I shall take this as my precept.
Read commentary previously posted for this chapter.
Victor Mair's translation puts it this way: The Way gave birth to unity, Unity gave birth to duality, Duality gave birth to trinity, Trinity gave birth to the myriad creatures. Perhaps this view correlates to the Christian Trinity in a curious way? Though, if 'one' is God, Taoism takes the view a step before God, i.e., [chref=4]it images the forefather of God [/chref]. Anyway, I look at this 1 - 2 - 3 - etc... as entropy. 'Things' unravel. This is why [chref=40]turning back[/chref] is so calming.
Carry on their back the yin and embrace in their arms the yang parallels the situation from a correlation's point of view. Yin correlates to inner, back, low, weak, hidden, cause; yang correlates to outer, front, high, strong, obvious, effect (symptom). This is why I take the 'obvious' with a grain of salt. The 'outer' is always a symptom of the 'inner', Yang plays off of, and reacts to, yin. Simply said, [chref=40]weakness is the means the way employs[/chref]. Taking nothing at 'face value' give me time and opportunity to sense what the deeper causes are. Of course, I must be continually [chref=71]alive to difficulty[/chref]. After all, we are biologically wired to do just the opposite, i.e., 'believe what we see'. Civilization helps us [chref=16]wilfully innovate while ignorant of the constant[/chref] causing such instinctual naivete to carry us off on [chref=53]paths that lead astray[/chref]. No thanks! I'd rather [chref=28]return to being the uncarved block[/chref]
I once fasted for a few weeks, during which time I prepared dinner for my room mate. I've never enjoyed food more than during those weeks when I could only savor the 'desire for' food. I realized then that it is really just the 'desire for' that thrills us. Actual success or satiation of desire is extremely fleeting and hollow; we return immediately to the yin of the [chref=25]silent and void[/chref], only to bounce back with another desire. That is life's ultimate irony. We are gripped by an illusion - Nature's [chref=65]hoodwink[/chref] - that satiating desire makes us 'happy'. Actually, it is desire's pursuits that stimulates us and gives us the illusion of impeding 'happiness', i.e., we feel we will finally be [chref=46]content[/chref] once we win the object of our desire. So, what happens when we finally have all we [chref=37]desire[/chref]? How do we feel having reached the top of life's mountain and finding there is no 'mountain'? What else but, 'solitary', 'desolate', and 'hapless'. Nature's balance is maintained. Not 'having' begets a 'dream of having'; 'having' extinguishes the 'dream of having'. In 'having' the moment, we 'have' eternity. Eternity is [chref=26]heavy[/chref], and so we [chref=61]take the lower position[/chref]. While this may sounds like a big deal, it isn't. Thankfully, [chref=17]it happens to us naturally[/chref]... No free will involved here!
We add when we feel inwardly diminished. Such piling on is a symptom of the yin we carry on our backs. This corresponds to Chapter 2: [chref=2]The whole world recognizes the beautiful as the beautiful, yet this is only the ugly; the whole world recognizes the good as the good, yet this is only the bad[/chref]. When we realize what is happening, we are somewhat 'liberated' from Nature's [chref=65]hoodwink[/chref]. Not completely though, despite myths of Enlightenment or Salvation, to name two. After all, we are just simple animals [chref=33]living out our days[/chref].