Chapter of the Week: #46 [Archive]

Carl

Having just lost my wife to breast cancer, I definitely concur about people needing to grieve, at their own pace, however it proceeds for them. My daughter and I cry with our loss, and we also laugh as we think back to special times.

For me it's like everything else in life. We all have thoughts and words about how we think things should work. But life unfolds as it unfolds, and how it unfolds is not under my control. I do the best I can with where I'm at at the time.

"Don't push the river, it'll flow by itself."

Carl

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 46
When the way prevails in the empire, fleet-footed horses are relegated to ploughing the fields; when the way does not prevail in the empire, war-horses breed on the border.

There is no crime greater than having too many desires;
There is no disaster greater than not being content;
There is no misfortune greater than being covetous.

Hence in being content, one will always have enough.

Read commentary previously posted for this chapter.

Carl

[Note: I italicize phrases I borrow from the chapter, and link to phrases I borrow from other chapters to help tie chapters together. While making it more tedious to read, :? the Tao Te Ching is best pondered in the context of the whole.

What is it about the way that precludes war-horses? Okey, war-horses are a symptom of the way not prevailing, but of what deeper cause is that a symptom? Digging deeper,... ants have war-horses on their border (soldier ants) and that certainly is not a result of the way not prevailing. Just the opposite, if anything. So, this is peculiar to humanity in some way. Reaching back into prehistory to a time when we were hunter gatherers, there were no borders, no empires, no war-horses. The way that is natural for our species is best reflected in the primordial hunter gatherer human experience. For those 200,000 some years we had to travel light and go with Nature's wild flow. The agricultural revolution required just the opposite. We had to 'civilize' ourselves in order to settle down in large non-tribal populations. Only then could the most [chref=3]clever[/chref] among us [chref=16]wilfully innovates[/chref] effectively. Religion, including Taoism, is a symptom of the resulting [chref=16]woe[/chref] that has caused.

Our post hunter gatherer woe is simple a byproduct of civilization. It makes it easier for us to have too many desires, and to be covetous. Both of these, being covetous and too many desires, make [chref=44]contentment[/chref] all the more fleeting. Sure, civilization allows us to be unbelievably rich compared with other life on earth, i.e., we are at the pinnacle of the food chain. But, being rich does not bring contentment - just the opposite: [chref=33]He who knows contentment is rich[/chref]! Christ nailed it with his observation, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of [chref=4]God[/chref]". Hallelujah!

Now do I sound like I'm anti civilization? Probably. But, I love my comforts just like everyone else. I'm not thinking we should go back to the hunter-gatherer life style (even if we could). But, we obviously need to find a way of [chref=40]turning back[/chref]. And the more civilization 'progresses', the more crucial that will be. This post hunter gatherer party of ours has just begun.

Victor Mair's and D.C. Lao's Ma-wang-tui translations puts the last line this way: Therefore, contentment that derives from knowing when to be content is eternal contentment. This points more directly to the [chref=32]knowing[/chref] 'frame of mind' necessary to be content. We certainly can't rely on instincts, like 'more is better', anymore! :shock: