How the Hoodwink Hooks

Chapter 65 begins with, ‘Of old those who excelled in the pursuit of the way did not use it to enlighten the people but to hoodwink them’. Initially, I thought ‘of old those‘ were people, e.g., parents, politicians, preachers.  On the other hand, ‘those‘ people seem often ‘hoodwinked’ by their own hoodwink. I now consider  ’of old those‘ as pointing more to Nature itself. What is more ‘of old‘ than Nature? Nature, and her co-conspirator biology, hoodwinks living things to do their living.

Fishing gives a good example of the hoodwinking process, and clues on how to avoid being hooked. We’ve all heard stories of that big old lake bass that no fisherman could hook. Isn’t that old fish, the fish who quickly ‘gets it’? Once bitten, twice shy, as they say; the fish that soon sees the bait as hoodwink learns to avoid it. The dead fish is the fish forever hopeful that its desire will be fulfilled.

Fish desire?  Strictly speaking, no. Desire boils down to: need + thought⁽¹⁾ .  Fish don’t think, so need is what drives them to take the bait. Need is the immediate gut emotion we (and the fish) feel that pushes us to act (or refrain from acting). Thought enables us to carry need into the future, or drag it along from the past.

To sum it up: Desire (need) is hoodwink’s bait. Thinking is a hook that snags us. The obvious question now: How can we avoid taking the bait and ending up like that dead fish? Obviously we need to distrust the promises desire makes, and the thoughts (rationalizations) by which we talk ourselves into being forever hopeful.

Buddha’s Four Noble Truths address this head on. The first two truths lay out the problem of desire. Of the Eightfold path, four speak to the mind’s involvement (understanding, mindfulness, attentiveness, concentration). Perhaps more to the point is chapter 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.
It is by being alive to difficulty that one can avoid it. The sage meets with
no difficulty. It is because he is alive to it that he meets with no difficulty.

⁽¹⁾ There are many other words to describe the feeling of need and desire depending on the circumstances, degree and custom: hunger, thirst, lust, greed, cleaving, longing, clinging, wishing, yearning, hankering, and so on^.