Chapter of the Week: #26

Carl

Yes indeed, and of course, the "emotional component" is also rooted in the biological. Come to think of it, so must be the intellectual.

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 26
The heavy is the root of the light;
The still is the lord of the restless.

Therefore the gentleman when traveling all day
Never lets the heavily laden carts out of his sight.
It is only when he is safely behind walls and watch towers
That he rests peacefully and is above worries.
How, then, should a ruler of ten thousand chariots
Make light of his own person in the eyes of the empire?

If light, then the root is lost;
If restless, then the lord is lost.

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.

Oops! Have I really stepped in it this time with my translating? Or perhaps, [chref=20]I alone am foolish and uncouth[/chref] . I compared mine with the classic and respected translations just to see how off base with everyone I am here. Nevertheless, I feel mine is closer to the Taoist view than the others. But why? I'm no scholar of Chinese 'anything', unlike D.C. Lau, and the others(*). Perhaps that's my edge. Like we say, [chref=47]Without looking out of the window one can see the way of heaven[/chref]. Not that this proves that I am 'seeing the way of heaven', mind you. But, it gives some 'street cred' to my translation. Fortunately, I'm rarely so out of sync with the other translations, and hope it stays that way. After all, this is where contentment resides... [chref=65]But when things turn back it turns back with them. Only then is complete conformity realized[/chref].

Alas, there is another major difference. If light, then the root is lost... puts the cart before the horse. The original slants it this way: Light follows the loss of the origin. The heavy is the origin, cause, and root of the light. When the origin is lost, nature's bias shifts towards the light, and we really notice it. In other words, light is a symptom of the lost root, not the cause of the lost root. Biology drives us to pack more meaning into the 'cover' than the 'book', the 'symptom' than the 'cause'. Thus, considering all observations as merely symptoms of yet deeper causes can be quite enlightening and liberating!

Of course it makes little difference whether the other translations, or mine, are correct. In the end, it boils down to personal interpretation. Truth, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Personally, the common translation depicting the gentleman with heavily laden carts, behind walls and watch towers, and so on, has always forced some convoluted thinking on my part to make sense of it. For example, I've pondered how it might parallel Christ's "Take ye heed, watch and pray, for ye know not when the time is" or, "And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch". I was happy to see how the original Chinese lent more support to this similarity which my past pondering suggested. Anyway, now you be the judge...

A literal translation of the original Chinese:
heavy serves as light root (cause, origin),
still serves as restless supreme ruler,
is therefore noble man (lord) end (finally) day do not leave weight (degree of seriousness)
although horour (glory) watch enjoy (comfort) dwell (live) detached.
how (to no avail) 10,000 chariot owner and take body (life, personally) light heaven under.
light follow lose root (cause, origin),
restless follow lose supreme ruler.

And now with a pinch of poetic licence:
The heavy is the origin of the light,
The still is the ruler of the restless.
The noble man throughout the day never abandons the heavy.
Although he has honour, he watches to enjoy dwelling detached.
How futile it is to be in charge and take life lightly.
Light follows the loss of the origin.
Restless follows the loss of the ruler.

(*) I suspect the academics who take on the Tao Te Ching bring to the task of translation a significant degree of Sinology, i.e., Chinese historical, cultural, and linguistic knowledge. I've always found that worldly knowledge, of any type, often blinds me to [chref=16]knowledge of the constant[/chref]. This is probably even more of a factor when attempting to translating the Tao Te Ching. You know what they say... 'a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing'. Well, a lot of knowledge can be even more dangerous!