Chapter of the Week: #54 [Archive]

Carl

[cite] Carl:[/cite]
1) simply the sage desires not to desire.
2) 'Innocent of knowledge' parallels to know yet to think that one does not know is best, and so on.

1) doesn't "not to desire" create "desire"? Maybe what this is saying is that it is human to desire but to be aware that desire can bring trouble.

2) I like this philosophy. I am an expressive / intuitive anyway, so I say, "the facts are irrelevant". I actually don't think I want to know the truth, if there is one, because it would take all the fun out of life and the discovery of it.

But in my job, knowing is important so I pretend to know what I think they want me to know. I have all the reasonable answers figured out (or how to come up with them). And I am ready with them whenever some fun spoiling schmuck comes around asking. This is how money is made. Customers don't want to hear, "Well, lets try this and see what happens." Unfortunately, I'd be having a lot more fun if that were acceptable.

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 54
What is firmly rooted cannot be pulled out;
What is tightly held in the arms will not slip loose;
Through this the offering of sacrifice by descendants will never come to an end.

Cultivate it in your person
And its virtue will be genuine;
Cultivate it in the family
And its virtue will be more than sufficient;
Cultivate it in the hamlet
And its virtue will endure;
Cultivate it in the state
And its virtue will abound;
Cultivate it in the empire
And its virtue will be pervasive.

Hence look at the person through the person; look at the family through the
family; look at the hamlet through the hamlet; look at the state through the
state; look at the empire through the empire.

How do I know that the empire is like that? By means of this

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.

China has a long tradition of 'ancestor worship', of which ideas of sacrifice and descendants are a part. Let's plunge under this 'cultural symptom' and look for its causes. Having cut [chref=32]the uncarved block[/chref] into names, we feel a haunting sense of disconnection. This 'ancestor' descendant paradigm helps the Chinese cope, just as 'Heaven' helps the Christians, and 'Nirvana' the Buddhist and Hindu, etc. These put a face, a shape, on [chref=14]the thread running through the way[/chref].

Although we feel estranged from [chref=37]the nameless uncarved block [/chref]', 'it' is firmly rooted cannot be pulled out. It is just a question of [chref=19]embracing the uncarved block[/chref]. Our difficulty lie in the fact that it is nameless. Still, we [chref=25]name[/chref] it and do the best we can.

The key to [chref=16]returning[/chref] to what is firmly rooted lies in the next verse: Cultivate it in your person and its virtue will be genuine (or better, integrity is true, as Victor Mair puts it). Notice the order? It begins at 'your person'. We often tend to skip this and instead [chref=48]meddle[/chref] and cultivate it everywhere but within ourselves. Naturally, this is understandable. We didn't evolve to be [chref=49]sages[/chref] after all.

Look at the person through the person reminds me of: 'To understand others, just walk a mile in their shoes'. The longer a person lives, the more opportunity he has to look. Ah, but life flies by so quickly. Our meager ability to [chref=70]understand[/chref] life stems from taking what we see at face value. This strengthens our ability to judge, even as it weakens our ability to [chref=43] understand[/chref].

That is why I take everything I see as a symptom of deeper causes. This helps my simple mind avoid [chref=71]thinking that it knows[/chref], which happens to be the best thing it knows. This observational approach pulls me through those levels, ending with look at the empire through the empire. Again, I prefer Mair's words on this point: Observe all under heaven through all under heaven. How do I know the nature of all under heaven, Through this.

Not that, not them - this; not there - here; not then - now. Or to put it in Hindu terms (Upanishads): "not this, not this", "thou art that". Sigh,... it works either way. So much for [chref=23]words[/chref]!