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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 52
The world had a beginning
And this beginning could be the mother of the world.
When you know the mother
Go to know the child.
After you have known the child
Go back to holding fast to the mother,
And to the end of your days you will not meet with danger.Block the openings,
Shut the doors,
And all your life you will not run dry.
Unblock the openings,
Add to your troubles,
And to the end of your days you will be beyond salvation.To see the small is called discernment;
To hold fast to the submissive is called strength.
Use the light
But give up the discernment.
Bring not misfortune upon yourself.This is known as following the constant.
Read commentary previously posted for this chapter.
Read notes on translations
Now, do it too at Wengu! -
[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.Go back to holding fast to the mother brings to my mind the wisdom of consolidation. Desire keeps driving me forward and sooner or later I discover I'm out, way out, on a limb. Truly, ‘two steps forward - one step backward’ is the only way to advance in life and maintain a sane balance. The illusion of solutions easily grabs hold, and off I go willfully innovating while ignorant of the constant. Of course, less so now that I’m older and wiser… or is it that I’ve just burned up much of my youthful energy. Either way, hooray!
To see the small (discernment), use the light, but give up the discernment brings to mind the saying ‘like water off a duck back’. Observing the nature of things is one of the joys of consciousness, until I get emotionally entangled, become meddlesome and help affairs. As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. All I can do is patiently untangle the knots as best I can. ‘Patiently untangling knots’ is a superb metaphor for living life, unless of course I'm in the process of actually untangling knots.
First, the literal with some kinks smoothed over:
All under heaven had a beginning; consider the origin of all under heaven.
Since you have this origin, use this to know its seed.
Since you know its seed, abide close by the origin.
Sinking into this, live without danger.
Stopple the exchange, shut the door; to the end, life is easy,
Open the exchange, help affairs; to the end, life gets in the way.
Seeing the small is called clarity, abiding by the soft is called strong.
Use the light, and again return to clarity, without leaving behind a life of calamity.
Correctly, this serves as practice of the constant.Now, the literal kinks and all:
heaven under have beginning, think (consider, believe) heaven under mother (origin).
already (since, now that) get its (that) mother (origin), use (take; because of; so as to) know its (that) son (child, seed, egg).
already (since, now that) know its (that) son (child, seed), duplicate (again) observe (abide by, close to) its (that) mother (origin).
sink (submerge, rise beyond, disappear, die) body (life, oneself) not danger.
fill in (stuff) its (that) exchange (convert), shut its (that) door, end (finish, death, after all, whole) body not diligent (frequent).
open its (that) exchange (add), aid (relieve, help) its (that) matter (affair, involvement), end (death, after all, whole) body not rescue (save, help).
see its (that) small say (call) bright (clear, honest), observe (abide by, near) soft (supple, yielding) say (call) strive (strong, better).
use (employ, apply, need) its (that) light (brightness, honor), duplicate (again) go back to (return, come together) its (that) bright (clear, honest), without lose (omit, leave behind) body calamity.
correctly act (serve as, do, become) practice (review, habit custom) ordinary (normal, constant, invariable).
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