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Chapter of the Week: #43
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 53
Were I possessed of the least knowledge, I would, when walking on the great
way, fear only paths that lead astray. The great way is easy, yet people prefer
by-paths.
The court is corrupt,
The fields are overgrown with weeds,
The granaries are empty;
Yet there are those dressed in fineries,
With swords at their sides,
Filled with food and drink,
And possessed of too much wealth.
This known as taking the lead in robbery.
Far indeed is this from the way.
Read commentary previously posted for this chapter.
Read notes on translations
Now, do it too at Wengu!
Chapter 53
Were I possessed of the least knowledge, I would, when walking on the great
way, fear only paths that lead astray. The great way is easy, yet people prefer
by-paths.
The court is corrupt,
The fields are overgrown with weeds,
The granaries are empty;
Yet there are those dressed in fineries,
With swords at their sides,
Filled with food and drink,
And possessed of too much wealth.
This known as taking the lead in robbery.
Far indeed is this from the way.
Read commentary previously posted for this chapter.
Read notes on translations
Now, do it too at Wengu!
Comments
Chapter 43
The most submissive thing in the world can ride roughshod over the hardest in
the world-that which is without substance entering that which has no crevices.
That is why I know the benefit of resorting to no action. The teaching that uses
no words, the benefit of resorting to no action, these are beyond the
understanding of all but a very few in the world.
Read commentary previously posted for this chapter.
Read notes on translations
[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.]
This chapter is just beating around the bush. The bush? The ‘bush’ is the elephant in the room. The elephant? Well, admittedly it is almost impossible to see, being the [chref=15]dimly visible, indistinct and shadowy shape that has no shape[/chref]. In a word, nothing. No thing. [chref=4]Darkly visible, it only seems as if it were there[/chref]. So how do we really talk or think about something that is nothing? The Tao Te Ching does a pretty good job of it, considering. Perhaps because it was written as terse as possible.
It is interesting to consider the contrast between flexibility and resoluteness. Both are so crucial to managing one’s life. Strong emotion is often the driving force behind resoluteness, and force, no matter how strong has an end... always! A curious irony I have noticed about this is that I am only truly able to tap into my maximum potential for resoluteness through flexibility and [chref=40]weakness[/chref]. And it only took me nearly a whole lifetime (to date) to realize that. :roll: Oh well, better late than never!
The literal with a touch of varnish:
The most flexible of all things surpasses the most resolute of all things.
That which has nothing enters that which has no space,
I correctly realize the benefit of no action.
The not of words teaching, the without of action benefit.
All under heaven rarely come up to this.
The unvarnished literal Chinese:
of heaven under until (most) soft (flexible), speed gallop of heaven under most hard (strong, firm, steadfast, resolute).
nothing (without) having enter nothing (without) space in between, I (we) right as well as realize nothing of acts have benefit.
not of speak teach, nothing (without) of acts (serves as, become) benefit.
heaven under hope (rare, scarce) of reach (come up to).
What is lacking in form penetrates that which does not have space.
It is because of this observation that I know the benefits of non-action.
The speechless teaching, the benefits of non-action,
Are only grasped by a few in the universe.