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- CommentAuthorLuke Abbott
- CommentTimeOct 25th 2004 edited
Each week we address one chapter of the Tao Te Ching. Chapter 41 was originally featured on the 4th week in October.
Note: 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 41
When the best student hears about the way
He practices it assiduously;
When the average student hears about the way
It seems to him one moment there and gone the next;
When the worst student hears about the way
He laughs out loud.
If he did not laugh
It would be unworthy of being the way.Hence the Chien yen has it:
The way that is bright seems dull;
The way that leads forward seems to lead backward;
The way that is even seems rough.
The highest virtue is like the valley;
The sheerest whiteness seems sullied;
Ample virtue seems defective;
Vigorous virtue seems indolent;
Plain virtue seems soiled;
The great square has no corners.
The great vessel takes long to complete;
The great note is rarefied in sound;
The great image has no shape.The way conceals itself in being nameless.
It is the way alone that excels in bestowing and in accomplishing. -
I suppose we all find Taoist views to be a strange, nonsense kind of funny, initially (from birth on...). This is not surprising considering that we biologically believe what we feel (see, hear, think...) to be real. For instance, the Taoist view that the whole world recognizes the beautiful as the beautiful, yet this is only the ugly, certainly sounds nonsensical enough to drive one to laugh out loud
I suppose I differ a bit on this chapter. I feel that anyone who considers the Taoist view deeply enough to cause them to actually laugh out loud may be on the verge of student-hood. I find that most people discount the Taoist view right of the bat, and thus never create enough inner tension to either laugh (or cry) at or about the way; biology rules
I recall decades ago reading this chapter and wondering what manner of student was I. Looking back I know I was the average student. As the years pass, I increasingly (though gradually) practice it assiduously. How? The deeper I know, in my gut / soul, that the way that leads forward seems to lead backward, I find that I have not choice but to practice in assiduously. It is truly effortless; the great way is easy as I come to know that all other paths are by-paths and dead ends. For heaven sakes, what else can I do but practice in assiduously
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For me, this ties in with ?turning back is how the way moves?, in that our desires, the things we?re tempted to pursue, give the illusion of being bright, or virtuous, or forward moving. However, the more I ?practice it assiduously?, I see that what?s real is that turning back away from these, is what truly moves towards the way that is bright, etc.
I guess these days I too can see myself as the student practicing assiduously. From the standpoint of everything thing in life revolves around the pursuit of desires, and the promise of happiness and the escape from suffering. This fits with the sheerest whiteness seems sullied. TO the worst student, the idea that pursuing one?s desires doesn?t bring contentment, must seem stupid, sullied. But, I also see that most people I encounter seem to have something in them that doesn?t totally believe they?ll achieve happiness if they just find the right lover, or buy a new car, or find a better job.
?It is the way alone that excels in bestowing and in accomplishing.? To me that?s it in a nutshell. The more I can truly embrace this in my very being, the more contentment I will have.
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This brings to mind a couple quotes
-one, a line from Rilke: Every angel is terrifying.
the other, a saying, I forget from whom: 'Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not truth.'
Everything is an illusion, colored by our experience and our disabling humanity. A picture can be beautiful, but whats behinds the objects in the picture? if I quit looking, quit asking, i'll find out...
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