Chapter of the Week: #09

Carl

[cite] Allandnone:[/cite] ... Interesting the Kingdom is already here and we do not see it! I do not believe in faith, I have experience.

... Does not that come from our Biology?

... Amen to that brother Allandnone!

... Well, isn't it all Biology? I think people of 'faith' would view that statement as too worldly. I've found this is due to an ignorance of the mystery in biology. This happens when we ascribe absolute meaning to [chref=2]words[/chref]. In other words, the [chref=1]mystery[/chref], just like the "Kingdom" is in eye of the beholder. The reason I use a biological point of view often is that it helps point to [chref=25]that which is naturally so[/chref].

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 9
Rather than fill it to the brim by keeping it upright
Better to have stopped in time;
Hammer it to a point
And the sharpness cannot be preserved for ever;
There may be gold and jade to fill a hall
But there is none who can keep them.
To be overbearing when one has wealth and position
Is to bring calamity upon oneself.
To retire when the task is accomplished
Is the way of heaven.

Read commentary previously posted for this chapter.
Read notes on translations

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.]

[chref=32]Knowing when to stop[/chref] has to be one of the more difficult things in life. It is something – perhaps the only significant thing – that I have gradually learned to do over the years. Certainly, I wasn't born with that ability; if anything just the opposite. Indeed, going to extremes was my inheritance. How do we ever learn to retire when the task is accomplished? Well, like they say, 'the proof is in the pudding'. Experience relentlessly (moment to moment throughout life) proves to us that it is better to have stopped in time. Yet, it takes so long to [chref=78]put this knowledge into practice[/chref]. Arghh#$%@!

There may be gold and jade to fill a hall, but there is none who can keep them parallels Christ's view, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

Right after that Jesus said, "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light: But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" This parallels, for me anyway, the literal Chinese: Conjecturing keenly, you can never endure. Always remembering that [chref=71]'to know yet to think that one does not know is best; not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty'[/chref] helps keep me from becoming too keen in my conjecturing.

One subtlety lacking in Christ's view is how reality - [chref=57]this[/chref] - is a co-generating process. In other words, the reality we see is the reality we 'need' to see. So, why "would thine eye be single or evil"? The only answer Christians give as far as I've heard is the 'devil' vs. 'God' dogma (do correct me if I'm wrong). If experience hasn't 'enlightened' me to what is going of beneath the surface, I prefer to just leave it thus,... [chref=73]Heaven hates what it hates, who knows the reason why?[/chref] Another obvious difference is the Christian use of the words: "light, single, dark, evil". In Western eyes, "light" and "dark" correlate to '[chref=2]good and bad[/chref]', where never the twain shall meet. In Taoist eyes, such opposites [chref=2]produce each other; complement each other; harmonize with each other[/chref], and so on. What's more, "dark" in Taoist eyes correlates to [chref=1]mystery[/chref] (i.e., xuan = black; dark; profound; mystery). So much for [chref=43]words[/chref] and [chref=32]names[/chref], eh? :roll:

Here's the literal Chinese for chapter 9:
hold and (of) full, not as his own self;
conjecture and (of) keen, not can long maintain;
gold jade full hall, (of) no one able defend;
wealth rank and arrogant, self lost his fault.
service fulfil body retires, (of) heaven way.

And now a bit of polishing:
Holding fully, you lose your self;
Conjecturing keenly, you can never endure;
Fullness of riches, you can never defend;
Wealth, rank and arrogant, your fault.
Life's service fulfilled, your body retires,
This is the way of heaven.