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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 7
Heaven and earth are enduring. The reason why heaven and earth can be enduring
is that they do not give themselves life. Hence they are able to be long-lived.Therefore the wise puts his person last and it comes first,
Treats it as extraneous to himself and it is preserved.Is it not because he is without thought of self that he is able to accomplish
his private ends?Read commentary previously posted for this chapter.
Read notes on translations -
[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.]This chapter parallels one of Christ's observations, "Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it." This reflects the 'yin-yang' essence of Taoism, which baffles our instinctive 'common sense' understanding of life. Simply put, 'you can't have that to which you cling, you can own only what you give up'. I think of this ironic fact of natural as 'cosmic justice'. While it looks like the selfish greedy people are 'getting away with it', if truth they suffer the most of all.
Another irony is that if you ask greedy people, "are you suffering", they will say no! -- unless they are experiencing an obviously trying circumstance. Their suffering is 'sub-thought' - beneath the threshold of their conceptual awareness (*). Nevertheless, their actions reflect (i.e. are symptomatic of) their inherent suffering - desires increase as we feel the lack of contentment. And what is lack of contentment? Suffering, plain and simple.
And who are these selfish greedy types? Alas,... us!
The literal Chinese for this chapter goes like this:
heaven long earth long.
heaven earth therefore can long further long,
because it not self exist, reason can long exist.
is because sage behind his body yet body first,
outside his body yet body keeps (survives).
not use his selfless heresy!
hence can accomplish his privateAnd here is my attempt to 'translate' this into something approaching normal English:
The Natural being of all creation (heaven and earth) is eternal.
Eternal because it does not exists separately as self.
The wise man leave his body behind, and so his body come first,
Is beyond his body, and so is within his body.
He lets go of the reality (selfless heresy) he knows!
Thus, he can get on with living as he truly desires(*) Huh? Suffering below the threshold of conceptual awareness?... What we think that we know is often contrary to what is. In this case, desire itself give us a sense of pleasure. The expectation of satiation fixates us firmly to the objects of our desire. We are biologically set up to feel this as 'fun, exciting, new, and a promise of wonderful things to come'. Thus, instinct hoodwinks us into chomping at the bit of life, ever yearning satisfied only briefly before being lured away on our next wild goose chase. It is a fascinating process when you think about it, eh?
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