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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 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. -
[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.I'm always linking to this chapter - I love it. Well, I suppose I love 'em all... except maybe a few. But that may change after I decipher the original. The original for this chapter offers a slightly different emphasis. First, the literal and not beautiful (in English anyway) version:
know not know higher, not know know disease.
man only disease disease, is in order to not disease.
sacred man not disease, takes his disease disease.
man only disease disease, is in order to not disease.Notice, the original uses 'bing', which translates to: ill; sick; disease; fault; defect. Of course, disease often gives us difficulty, but still, disease (fault, defect, sickness, etc.) feels more serious in my view. So, it may be more straightforward to say, Not to know yet to think that one knows is a disease... or a defect, an evolutionary defect perhaps. Human difficulty has ancient origins. I've always liked how Genesis explains the origin of human difficulty. It parallels, albeit bombastically, our Taoist view, not to know yet to think that one knows is a disease (which will lead to difficulty).
Genesis 2: "...Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
Genesis 3: "...he took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked;
Of course, I would change "they knew they were naked" to "thought they knew they were naked".
* * *
Now, let's see if I can polish the original's grammar a little:
Know you don't know is higher, Not know is disease.
Only treat disease as disease in order to not disease.
Sacred person is not disease for he takes his disease as disease
Only treat disease as disease in order to not disease.Personally, I've found that the deeper I know and accept this defect, the better I can treat the disease. By treating this defect as a disease, the defect loses much of its dis-ease causing potency. This remind me of chapter 60's Or rather, it is not that they lose their potencies, But that, though they have their potencies, do not harm the people. When we know we are blind, we walk more tentatively and so stub our toes less often.
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