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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 66
The reason why the River and the Sea are able to be king of the hundred valleys
is that they excel in taking the lower position. Hence they are able to be king
of the hundred valleys.Therefore, desiring to rule over the people,
One must in one's words humble oneself before them;
And, desiring to lead the people,
One must, in one's person, follow behind them.Therefore the sage takes his place over the people yet is no burden;
takes his place ahead of the people yet causes no obstruction. That is why the
empire supports him joyfully and never tires of doing so.It is because he does not contend that no one is the empire is in a position to
contend with him. -
[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.A few words used in this and other translations may mislead. Take 'king' (wang) for example. Quick, close your eyes and define king before reading further. Okey, got it? Now, a subtler meaning of wang has to do with connecting heaven and earth, i.e., in ancient China the emperor was seen as a 'connector', linking heaven and earth. Hmm, perhaps this parallels Christ's role connecting earthly folks to God in heaven.
I'll translate the first line more literally with but one exception; I'll substitute king with connect (heaven and earth): River and sea therefore can, for the hundred valleys, connect (heaven and earth), according to their gently being low.
Next we have, desiring to rule over the people... The Chinese more literally goes like this: ... desiring to be above the people must, by means of speaking, be lower. Here, above (shang) has been translated to mean rule. Certainly, I can see how we might be excused for equating be above the people with rule the people. But, we may lose sight of the great image has no shape. In the original, be above and be lower complement and offset each other, which I prefer. The same occurs in, desiring to lead the people. The original Chinese puts this as, be in front of the people which is offset with, must in body be after.
My point with all this is that the original puts the 'process' in the foreground a bit more. This helps internalize the view more. For example, the ubiquitous belief in free will rests on the desire to rule over the 'people' within (i.e., the various facets of our life and personality). We desire to lead our lives, 'get it together', instead of being tossed about by circumstances. This chapter lays out the process by which we can easily be above and be before; we must simply be lower and be after. If that dosen't nurture the virtue of non-contention nothing will.
Now all we have to do is convince our instinctively competitive and hierarchical nature to go along.
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