Chapter of the Week: #50

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• Carl

  February 2008 edited February 2008

  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 50
  When going one way means life and going the other means death, three in ten
  will be comrades of life, three in ten will be comrades in death, and there are
  those who value life and as a result move into the realm of death, and these
  number three in ten. Why is this so? Because they set to much store by life. I
  have heard it said that one who excels in safeguarding his own life does not
  meet with rhinoceros or tiger when traveling on land nor is he touched by
  weapons when charging into an army. There is nowhere for the rhinoceros to
  pitch its horn; there is nowhere for the tiger to place its claws; there is
  nowhere for the weapon to lodge its blade. Why is this so? Because for him
  there is no realm of death.
  
  
  Read commentary previously posted for this chapter.
  Read notes on translations
  Now, do it too at Wengu!
• Carl

  February 2008 edited December 1969

  [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.
  
  Because they set to much store by life nails the source of our sorrow. What we [chref=3]value[/chref] most in life determines what will bring us the most sorrow in life. I’m defining value as hanging on and clinging to (e.g., often ideals or [chref=64]goods which are hard to come by[/chref]). On the other hand, ‘valuing’ something in the moment (appreciation) has no downside that I’ve ever felt, as long as I don’t desire to hang on. Chapter 75 puts it well, [chref=75]It is just because one has no use for life that one is wiser than the man who values life[/chref]. ‘Use for’ implies an agenda, a future, a desire for a certain outcome. What does safeguarding or conserving life mean if and when we cling to no hope or agenda? If helps to ponder the difference between valuing what is versus valuing what could be. Much of the mind lives for what it [chref=19]desires[/chref] could be, and misses much of the is here, is now which 'dumb' animals experience.
  
  Alas, valuing things of life, along with the resulting clinging, creates and supports our illusion of self (i.e., Buddha's 2nd truth). How do we let go? Our gut level survival instinct resists all attempts at truly letting go for this feels tantamount to committing pseudo suicide. Herein lies the nitty gritty process of the Christian 'be born again' or the Buddhist 'enlightenment'. One must let go to go 'beyond' and [chref=28]return to the infinite[/chref], but letting go runs counter to our core biology. On the other hand, every time we let go a little, we go beyond a little, or as chapter 64 puts it, [chref=64]a journey of a thousand miles starts from beneath one's feet.[/chref] Naturally, the desire to speed up the process will have the opposite result.
  
  My wife frequently puzzles over the awkward way I translate some verses. Sometimes I polish it a bit more, but often I prefer to leave it. When the mind puzzles over and wrestles with something diligently, wonderful and surprising things can happen… and besides, For even more awkwardness, consider the literal ‘base’ now and then. This time though I had to struggled to give it enough polish. Oh well, it’s all good as long as we are left with a question to ponder rather that an answer to forget.
  
  As literal as my senses would allow:
  In birth we join death.
  Three in ten follow life.
  Three in ten follow death.
  Three in ten, live entrapped by death.
  Why is this so?
  Because they favor life.
  It's well know those good at conserving life,
  Travel on land yet meet no tigers,
  Join the army yet not be first to fight.
  They are without a place for the tiger to place its claw.
  They are without a place that allows the knife blade in.
  Why is this so?
  Because they are without a place of death.
  
  The nitty gritty literal translation:
  born enter (join, become a member of, conform to) death.
  of life (existence, living) merely (follow, believer, imprisonment), ten have three.
  of death merely (follow, believer, imprisonment), ten have three.
  of people living, of action in (at / to / from / by / than / out of) death trap, also ten have three.
  man carry (what / how / why / which) happening (reason, cause, hence)?
  use (take, because of, so as to) his life of life thick (deep, kind, large, favor, stress).
  surpass (build, top, lid > for, because) hear good absorb (conserve one's health) life,
  land travel not meet ominous tiger,
  enter army not be shell (first, armor) weapons (army).
  ominous (terrible, murder) nothing (without) place throw (cast, project) its horn.
  tiger without place use its claw.
  weapon without place allow its knife edge.
  man carry (what / how / why / which) ) happening (reason, cause, hence)?
  use (take, because of, so as to) his without death (fixed, rigid, extremely) place (land, locality, position)
• Cricket

  February 2008 edited December 1969

  It seems like the Way is that of how changelessness passes through change, like a traveller hiking through the mountains. For me, it seems like the greatest gut check to see how much resistance surfaces when various changes are introduced to me. The changeless quality of life is heavy in its conviction, rooted in its centeredness, yet light enough to be uprooted at any time and glide with the direction the change blows. It seems then there is no self in the process, because there is nothing staying behind, resisting the change as it occurs, and rather, being one with it. When I resist, I am siding with myself, trying to carve myself out from the world around and about me, trying to be unto myself, rather than just being with what is.
  
  In birth we join death:
  
  From the beginning one's life is intimately connected with its end, the result often being an in between that struggles with this reality, something that even strives to create a legacy, to "beat" death in some way, some how. But I didn't give birth to myself, individually. Nor will I summon death to myself, individually. Seems I owe myself not to myself after all, but to that in which I became and to that which I will disapear. So from birth to death it's always like this, and that goes for every change that comes my way. It is then my duty not to resist, force, or control, but let it happen, and see how I respond conversely with that first step taken.
  
  Ah, there in lies the challenge though! :shock:
  
  Oh well, what I am but my own measuring stick.
• Lynn Cornish

  February 2008 edited December 1969

  Hi Cricket.
  

  It seems like the Way is that of how changelessness passes through change

  
  
  That reminds me of this from Chapter 14:
  
  Hold fast to the way of antiquity
  In order to keep in control the realm of today.
  The ability to know the beginning of antiquity
  Is called the thread running through the way.
  
  And this is what Carl had to say about it:

  
  Speaking of the thread running through the way, over the years I've noticed how profoundly connected the seemingly disparate aspects of life really are. It is subtle and my senses are drawn initially to the differences, yet eventually I begin to see the thread connecting it all. The thread running through the way feels like eternity more than any other string of words I've come across.

  
  Rather nice, huh?
  
  I have the same feelings about resistance to change and feel that surrender and acceptance are the way to contentment. Part of my acceptance has become accepting the resistance; I understand why I resist, that is "not my fault", and that it's a process and I'll get through it to the other side. I find that beating myself up for resisting doesn't help. Compassion for oneself is not achieved by practicing its opposite. (Not that you were saying you were doing this; rather, that I have done this.)
  
  I love when you say "when I resist I am siding with myself." That expresses it very clearly and I think: where else on the web would this sentence be so full of meaning? Only here! I have learned so much from this site and I hope you stick around.
• Cricket

  February 2008 edited December 1969

  Thank you very much Lynn for the kind words. I think there is a lot to learn here, and already from reading some articles here about "popping preconceptions" and the correlations I have really gained some valuable ways of seeing Taoist thought in greater light.
  
  I've beat myself up for resisting moments too, but I also learned like you that to resist resistance is totally futile and leads to discomfort and confusion. It's funny how there are these seemingly big "aha!" type moments, and then other days, other times, being perfectly what they are seem to lack that same pizazz so to speak, (which of course they don't really) and the mind gets all wrapped up in comparsions. Then of course feelings that "something's not right" become all the more intense!
  
  So far patience in observation seems to be the best drill against the layers of desire, that in me which is trying still to stranglehold experience and it stick a flag in it, proclaiming it as my own.
• Lynn Cornish

  February 2008 edited December 1969

  For me, the "aha" moments are followed by (eventually) an "of course" moment, where the "aha" seems only natural and obvious. I think "now why did I think that was such a big deal?" It's probably the initial emotion underlying the though/revelation that gives it it's pizazz. Once that dissipates, no big deal.
  
  The mind does get rapped up in comparisons, doesn't it. Probably a survival thing. The phrase "patience in observation" sounds like what meditation is.
  
  I have been hanging around centertao for a couple of years now, and I've learned so much. Carl has such a deep understanding, and is more than happy (and able!) to answer questions, but you better watch out: he blows preconceptions away!