[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.]

Nature abhors a vacuum comes to mind. Keeping such simple natural 'laws' in mind definitely helps me understand some of life's apparent chaos. Alas, after pointing out the way of heaven, the chapter says that the way of man is otherwise, implying that we function outside of natural 'law'. That's nuts in my view, and may reflect some translator bias (see the literal Chinese below). I've often heard people debate humanity vs. nature, so I guess this is a widely held belief (bias). I suppose the cultural myths which elevates us to a 'higher spiritual' plane are responsible for this. I mean, it is hard to live up to our press releases. As I see it, we are no less 'of nature' than a mosquito, despite all our lofty specie-centric illusions.

It is so much easier to understand ourselves and others if we regard what we see as rooted in the natural 'law' of the way, e.g., the superior must have the inferior as root. For example, if you see me 'lifting up', you can assume that inner forces within me are 'low', just as the 'high' within me easily revolves to my 'pressing down' externally. Balance is a key feature of nature's 'law'. The long and the short off-set each other, and together balance is maintained. If we accept that life, human and otherwise, obeys this 'law', everything we see on the outside is counterbalancing its opposite on the inside. Of course, parsing the details of this to any extent is a flowery embellishment of the way, if not impossible altogether. As clarity increase, we lose the indistinct and shadowy, and thought wanders off onto by-paths. (Note: The built-in vagueness of correlations really helps counter any tendency to hammer thought to a point.)

Who already has more than enough, I ask? Who can judge? In the end, when we personally feel we have more than enough, we are driven to dump the excess. Certainly, if a man has a collection of fifty cars, you can think that he has more than enough, especially if you don't desire a car. Or, if a woman weighs a few pound more than you think she should, you'll judge her as having excess weight.

'The way of man is otherwise' and so on, implies (to me) that we control our lives, and that rather than flowing with the way, we are mapping our own way. Sure, we think we are! But, that just stems from our belief in free will (implied or implicit). I so prefer Christ's view, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do". Ignorance is our problem, not willfulness, free or otherwise.

Here's my broken English 'translation'. For me, the literal Chinese below corresponds a little better with the idea that man, as a rule, does not know that it is time to stop. The It takes from those who are in want in order to offer this to those who already have more than enough just feels more judgmental. Fewer words say more; more words obfuscate. Or, maybe it is just me. Nah! Words do obfuscate. Having the raw translation makes the view more fuzzy and murky like muddy water. That is crucial if we are to move from words to the teaching that uses no words.

heaven's way like spread bow participate in.
high restrains, down raises.
having surplus decrease, insufficient repairs.
heaven of way, decrease have surplus and fills not sufficient.
man of way, normally not like that
decrease not sufficient so as so give have surplus.
who can have surplus so as to give heaven under, only having way.
holy man acts, not depend on, meritorious deed accomplish, but not abide in.
he no desire appear able and virtuous ? irregular heretical!

Note: The ? above is mine. It seems there should be a word here like 'or' perhaps.