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Chapter of the Week: #77 [Archive]
'Going barefoot' is a good metaphor for a Taoist approach to life. We Abbott boys, young and old, go barefoot all the time. One of the first lessons my sons 'taught' me, when I was old enough to learn, was that I didn't need to wear shoes in Santa Cruz. They never have worn shoes on a daily basis. I never bought them any shoes because they never asked, and we never have snow on the ground. We home schooled the kids so we didn't get a flack from the 'establishment'.
It is a modern irony that we can afford not to wear shoes. As Henry Thoreau so wisely said "A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone". Shoes, like gloves, are one of the many things we "can afford to let alone" unless needed. Indeed, shoes are gloves for the feet, which is great when you need gloves! Otherwise, having skin connected to the earth beneath my feet feels so much better than 'feetgloves'.
Of course, going barefoot may have turned into kind of a tradition for the boys, probably reenforced by various people pushing us to "get some shoes". What better way for boys to rebel, eh? Although, we do break 'tradition' and put on shoes when we go to a restaurant. The restaurant people insist... all that broken glass around you know. :roll: Oddly enough, the people at the lumber store never say anything, although there are more hazards there (splinters, nails, etc.).
Personally though, going barefoot isn't a tradition. I'm probably too old to be imprinted with a new tradition (and I spent my youth dumping the few with which I was imprinted). Rather, I just truly feel more 'grounded' (literally and figuratively). Also, going barefoot affords me a small way of embracing some discomfort when the whether gets cool (cool + arthritis = @#$%). So, why volunteer for discomfort? I've noticed a trade off in life which goes like this: Short term pleasure leads to long term pain; short term pain returns to long term pleasure.
Keeping life as simple as possible any way I can helps me avoid [chref=9]filling it to the brim[/chref]. Emotional stability and [chref=33]contentment[/chref] come more easily when I [chref=44]know when to stop[/chref]. Thus, 'going barefoot' for me is an approach to life rather than just not wearing shoes. In civilized circumstances, any way I can find to 'go barefoot' helps. Less is more as they say!
It is a modern irony that we can afford not to wear shoes. As Henry Thoreau so wisely said "A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone". Shoes, like gloves, are one of the many things we "can afford to let alone" unless needed. Indeed, shoes are gloves for the feet, which is great when you need gloves! Otherwise, having skin connected to the earth beneath my feet feels so much better than 'feetgloves'.
Of course, going barefoot may have turned into kind of a tradition for the boys, probably reenforced by various people pushing us to "get some shoes". What better way for boys to rebel, eh? Although, we do break 'tradition' and put on shoes when we go to a restaurant. The restaurant people insist... all that broken glass around you know. :roll: Oddly enough, the people at the lumber store never say anything, although there are more hazards there (splinters, nails, etc.).
Personally though, going barefoot isn't a tradition. I'm probably too old to be imprinted with a new tradition (and I spent my youth dumping the few with which I was imprinted). Rather, I just truly feel more 'grounded' (literally and figuratively). Also, going barefoot affords me a small way of embracing some discomfort when the whether gets cool (cool + arthritis = @#$%). So, why volunteer for discomfort? I've noticed a trade off in life which goes like this: Short term pleasure leads to long term pain; short term pain returns to long term pleasure.
Keeping life as simple as possible any way I can helps me avoid [chref=9]filling it to the brim[/chref]. Emotional stability and [chref=33]contentment[/chref] come more easily when I [chref=44]know when to stop[/chref]. Thus, 'going barefoot' for me is an approach to life rather than just not wearing shoes. In civilized circumstances, any way I can find to 'go barefoot' helps. Less is more as they say!
Comments
Chapter 77
Is not the way of heaven like the stretching of a bow?
The high it presses down,
The low it lifts up;
The excessive it takes from,
The deficient it gives to.
It is the way of heaven to take from what has in excess in order to make good
what is deficient. The way of man is otherwise. It takes from those who are in
want in order to offer this to those who already have more than enough. Who is
there that can take what he himself has in excess and offer this to the empire?
Only he who has the way.
Therefore the sage benefits them yet exacts no gratitude,
Accomplishes his task yet lays claim to no merit.
Is this not because he does not wish to be considered a better man than others?
Read commentary previously posted for this chapter.
Nature abhors a vacuum comes to mind. Keeping such simple natural 'laws' in mind definitely helps me understand some of life's apparent chaos. Alas, after pointing out the way of heaven, the chapter says that the way of man is otherwise, implying that we function outside of natural 'law'. That's nuts in my view, and may reflect some translator bias (see the literal Chinese below). I've often heard people debate humanity vs. nature, so I guess this is a widely held belief (bias). I suppose the cultural myths which elevates us to a 'higher spiritual' plane are responsible for this. I mean, it is hard to live up to our press releases. As I see it, we are no less 'of nature' than a mosquito, despite all our lofty specie-centric illusions.
It is so much easier to understand ourselves and others if we regard what we see as rooted in the natural 'law' of the way, e.g., [chref=39]the superior must have the inferior as root[/chref]. For example, if you see me 'lifting up', you can assume that inner forces within me are 'low', just as the 'high' within me easily revolves to my 'pressing down' externally. Balance is a key feature of nature's 'law'. [chref=2]The long and the short off-set each other[/chref], and together balance is maintained. If we accept that life, human and otherwise, obeys this 'law', everything we see on the outside is counterbalancing its opposite on the inside. Of course, parsing the details of this to any extent [chref=38]is a flowery embellishment of the way[/chref], if not impossible altogether. As clarity increase, we lose the [chref=14]indistinct and shadowy[/chref], and thought wanders off onto [chref=53]by-paths[/chref]. (Note: The built-in vagueness of correlations really helps counter any tendency to [chref=9]hammer thought to a point[/chref].)
Who already has more than enough, I ask? Who can judge? In the end, when we personally feel we have more than enough, we are driven to dump the excess. Certainly, if a man has a collection of fifty cars, you can think that he has more than enough, especially if you don't desire a car. Or, if a woman weighs a few pound more than you think she should, you'll judge her as having excess weight.
'The way of man is otherwise' and so on, implies (to me) that we control our lives, and that rather than flowing with the way, we are mapping our own way. Sure, we think we are! But, that just stems from our belief in free will (implied or implicit). I so prefer Christ's view, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do". [chref=70]Ignorance[/chref] is our problem, not willfulness, free or otherwise.
Here's my broken English 'translation'. For me, the literal Chinese below corresponds a little better with the idea that man, as a rule, does not [chref=32]know that it is time to stop[/chref]. The It takes from those who are in want in order to offer this to those who already have more than enough just feels more judgmental. Fewer words say more; more words obfuscate. Or, maybe it is just me. :roll: Nah! Words do obfuscate. Having the raw translation makes the view more fuzzy and [chref=15]murky like muddy water[/chref]. That is crucial if we are to move from words to [chref=2]the teaching that uses no words[/chref].
heaven's way like spread bow participate in.
high restrains, down raises.
having surplus decrease, insufficient repairs.
heaven of way, decrease have surplus and fills not sufficient.
man of way, normally not like that
decrease not sufficient so as so give have surplus.
who can have surplus so as to give heaven under, only having way.
holy man acts, not depend on, meritorious deed accomplish, but not abide in.
he no desire appear able and virtuous ? irregular heretical!
Note: The ? above is mine. It seems there should be a word here like 'or' perhaps.