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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 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.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.]The sobering part of this chapter lies in saying how reality is just the opposite of what we think it is. Goodbye belief, hello wonder. The more I sink my teeth into that view at the gut level, the more fascinating life becomes... and the more tentative, hesitant, thick, vacant, murky I can not help be. It is so easy when I take 'it' seriously from the beginning of each moment. Perhaps I'll become a superior student yet.
First, the smooth (which is actually rough?):
When the superior student hears of the way, he travels it diligently.
When the average student hears of the way, it seem there and then gone.
When the inferior student hears of the way, he laughs a lot.
Without that laugh it could not be considered the way.
Hence, we proposed to say,
The bright way seems hazy and hidden.
Entering the way seems like moving backwards.
The way that is smooth seems rough.
Superior virtue seems like a valley.
Great purity seems disgraceful.
Vast virtue seems insufficient.
Erect virtue seems stolen.
Simple truth seems of one's feeling.
The great square is without borders.
The Great talent is late to accomplish.
The Great sound is scarce sound.
The Great shape is without form.
The master alone excels at shifting responsibility and simple accomplishes.Now the rough (which is actually the smooth?):
superior scholar hear way diligent and of go (travel, temporary; prevail; circulate; do; carry out).
middle scholar hear way seems exist, seems gone.
inferior scholar hear way big of laugh.
not smile, not enough consider way.
hence, propose say of have.
bright way seem hazy (hidden, ignorant of).
enter way like move back.
smooth (safe) way seem rough.
superior virtue seem valley.
great white (clear, pure) seem disgrace (dishonor).
vast virtue seem not sufficient.
erect (establish; set up; found) seem (as if) steal (pilfer; secretly).
nature (character; quality; simple; question) true ( genuine) seems of one's attitude or feeling (change).
great square without border (corner).
great talent late accomplish (succeed, result).
great sound (news) rare (uncommon, scarce) sound.
great shape without form.
man (master) alone way good at shift (responsibility) just accomplish (result, able). -
The superior person hears of the Way, and works diligently to walk with It.
The normal person hears of the Way, and thinks it may or may not be true.
The inferior person hears of the Way, and laughs mockingly at it.
Without such mocking, It would not be the Way!
Indeed, the basic sayings include:
The bright Way seems dark.
The advancing Way seems to be a retreat.
The vigorous Way seems to be restrained.
High Virtue seems to be like a valley.
Big Purity seems tarnished.
Overflowing Virtue seems insufficient.
Constructive Virtue seems to be stolen.
The Natural Truth seems to change.
The Big Square has no corners.
The Big Vessel is late to emerge.
The Big Sound makes little noise.
The Big Shape has no form.
The Way is hidden and nameless.
With the Way even a single person excels in developing and completing.
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