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Chapter of the Week: #64
I fully understand your skepticism against all human religions - as you call it "linear" and "my own is the superior".
It's not skepticism (i.e., Skepticism: a doubting attitude toward religious beliefs). No particular doubt exists in my view of religion. Rather, like everything else I observe, I see religion as simply symptomatic of human needs and fears. It is no different than what drove us to hunt and gather, or what now drives us to go to the market. It is symptomatic of our need for food. Religious belief is like 'spiritual food'. And, like with food, people favor different tastes (e.g., some like their religion 'spicy' some like it 'mild'). There is no eternal truth in our 'favorite', whether it be the food for our stomach or the food for our mind/emotion. That people claim so for their favorite 'food' is common across the board: favorite political ideology, religion, food, movie, music, hobby, job.
I agree too: egoism is a special force appearing only in humans society. For me it is a part of the great law.
I don't regard egoism as a special force. To the contrary, all life (from protozoa to human) has 'ego'. The only difference is that we have named this sense of self and self survival as 'ego'. The struggle to live out one's days drives one to do what seems most promising survival-wise, even if you’re a tomato plant.
I don't see "superior" like I assume you do: if we are babies our mothers are "superior" and we are "inferior" - it has to be so. Do you feel bad as a child? Yet do you want to become a grown up anyway?
The inferior has to follow the superior but the superior "aims" to get the inferior to his state - that is what I can observe anywhere in nature. That is the way how kabbalists describe the most superior law that exists.
How do I see "superior"? Which side of a circle is "superior"? To paraphrase chapter two, To paraphrase chapter two, [chref=2]Thus Superior and Inferior produce each other, complement each other, off-set each other, harmonize with each other, and follow each other[/chref]. A baby is a baby and a mother is a mother. Each could be labeled as either superior or inferior, depending upon the 'eye of the beholder'. The same applies to labeling "law". What may be seen as a superior law to you may not to another's pair of eyes. In the end, our judgments simply reflect who we are (our needs and fears), and not the thing we judge. As Christ said, Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven. Although, I imagine most Christians will interpret this as consequences vis-Ã -vis God.
Now back to "the law" - I would call it "tao" now . Let me give you a translation of a german guy doing it from the Chinese original. I will put it to english (I am german):
The Chinese original of what? What are those "Items"? Not chapters from the Tao Te Ching I assure you (having read and translated from the original).
Now what will this give us? There is a law. If we equate the law we are awaken. How do we equate the law? first we have to know it. Here I see the problem of all eastern philosophies and religions I have met in Buddhism, Advaita etc.: there is a individual which seems to have attained something - let it call "superior".
Aren't you seeing yourself as "having attained something", i.e., knowing the 'law' as you call it? This is the common denominator I notice existing between all 'believers', not matter what the particular belief. They think they "have attained something", and often fervently wish to share their treasure.
By the way: Kabbalistic wisdom comes from about more than 2000 years before Christ - generates later Christianity, Islam and Judaism and then spreads to the east: Buddhism about 500 before Christ, Islam about 500 after Christ etc.
Your history is a bit shaky there. All history back 4000 years is shaky. Of course that makes it easier for some to find 'evidence' that proves their point of view. Frankly, this brings us back to my "skepticism", as you call it. Allow me to elaborate:
Religion arose from the emotional and physiological dessert created when we attained the ability to live in a world of words and names. This virtual reality (call it an ideal-ity) disconnects us from the moment to moment of actual reality by allowing us to zoom forward or backward in an illusion of time. The agricultural revolution 10,000 years ago further exacerbated this separation from reality. Religion is simply a manifestation of this sense of disconnection. It is a symptom, and not something real in its own right. Although, to a believer it feels utterly real. ;-)
Comments
Chapter 64
It is easy to maintain a situation while it is still secure;
It is easy to deal with a situation before symptoms develop;
It is easy to break a thing when it is yet britle;
It is easy to dissolve a thing while it is yet minute.
Deal with a thing while it is still nothing;
Keep a thing in order before disorder sets in.
A tree that can fill the span of a man's arms
Grows from a downy tip.
A terrace nine stories high
Rises from hodfuls of earth;
A journey of a thousand miles
Starts from beneath one's feet.
Whoever does anything to it will ruin it;
whoever lays hold of it will lose it.
Therefore the sage, because he does nothing, never ruins anything;
and, because he does not lay hold of anything, loses nothing.
In their enterprises the people
Always ruin them when on the verge of success.
Be as careful at the end as at the beginning
And there will be no ruined enterprises.
Therefore the sage desires not to desire
And does not value goods which are hard to come by;
Learns to be without learning
And makes good the mistakes of the multitude
In order to help the myriad creatures to be natural and to refrain from daring to act.
Read commentary previously posted for this chapter.
Read notes on translations
Now, do it too at Wengu!
Oh, where to begin? This may be ‘the one’ chapter that really rang true the first time I read the Tao Te Ching back in ’64 (well, no wonder I forget if this is 'the one'). Anyway, I’ve long felt that any suffering I experience in life is directly connected to my expectations. Simply put, I’ve never wept over that to which I’ve never clung, or as this chapter puts it, ‘because he does not lay hold of anything, loses nothing.’ Thus, I am the only one I can truly blame for my pain, rationally that is. The emotional urge to place the blame externally is profound however. This tells me biology (Mother Nature) would rather ‘I’ (indeed, all life) be irrational and emotional than [chref=16]impartial[/chref] and [chref=28]return to being the uncarved block[/chref]. On the other hand, how can I not have one without the other. How odd, that [chref=2]'rational' and 'emotional' produce each other[/chref]. Well, that's [chref=56]mysterious sameness[/chref] for you.
Of course the same applies to ‘deal with a thing while it is still nothing; keep a thing in order before disorder sets in’. One entails the other. Our urge to ‘deal with a thing’ is a natural drive to resist entropy. Isn’t that what life – survival – is all about? The ways we resist are endless, but the drive is the same. The great irony of the Taoist approach is that by ceasing to resist, one is best able to deal with a situation before symptoms develop. Perhaps all I’m saying is that entropy is reality. Facing reality is actually the easiest way to [chref=9]stop in time[/chref] and ‘deal with a thing while it is still nothing’. My word, this is enough to make one dizzy!
The translation:
Such peace easily manages,
Such presence easily plans,
Such fragility easily melts,
Such tininess easily scatters,
Acts without existing,
Rules without confusion.
A tree barely embracable grows from a fine tip.
A terrace nine floors high rises from accumulation.
A thousand li journey begins below our feet.
Of doing we fail, Of holding on we lose.
Rightly so, the wise do nothing so never fail,
Hold nothing so nothing is ever lost.
People in their affairs always accomplish something yet fail.
As a rule, being as careful at the end as the beginning never fails.
Rightly so, the wise person desires non desire,
And doesn't value goods difficult to obtain.
Learns non learning and recovers people's excesses,
Complements all things naturally and never boldly acts.
The literal:
its (such) peaceful (quiet) easy (amiable) hold (support, manage),
its (such) have not (did not, not) sign (omen, foretell) easy (amiable) plan (stratagem, work for),
its (such) fragile (brittle, crisp) easy (amiable) melt,
its (such) minute (tiny) easy (amiable) scattered (fall apart)
do (act, serve as) of in (at, to, from, by) have not (did not, not) have (exist),
rule (govern) of in (at, to, from, by) have not (did not, not) disorder (in confusion; chaos)
close (shut; join; whole) embrace (hug) of tree grow in (at, to, from) fine hair tip (end).
nine layer (floor) of platform (terrace) rise in (at, to, from) accumulate (soil, earth).
thousand li (long distance) of go (travel; perform; O.K.; capable) begin foot (sufficient) below (underneath).
do (act, serve as) be defeated (defeat, beat, fail) of, hold (manage) lose (miss; let slip) of.
correctly so holy (sage, sacred) person nothing do (act, serve as) hence nothing be defeated (defeat, beat, fail)
nothing hold (grasp, direct) hence nothing lose (miss; let slip).
people of engaged affairs always in (at, to, from) some (how many) accomplish yet be defeated (defeat, beat, fail) of.
careful end (death, all) as (as if) beginning stardard (rule, norm) nothing be defeated (defeat, beat, fail) matter (affair).
correctly so holy (sage, sacred) person desire no desire, not valuable difficult get of goods.
study (learn) no study (learn), duplicate (recover, again) many people of places pass (go over, excessive),
use (take; according to) assist (complement) 10,000 things of natural (at ease) yet no bold (daring) do (act, serve as).