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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 64
It is easy to maintain a situation while it is still secure;
It is easy to deal with a situation before symptoms develop;
It is easy to break a thing when it is yet britle;
It is easy to dissolve a thing while it is yet minute.Deal with a thing while it is still nothing;
Keep a thing in order before disorder sets in.A tree that can fill the span of a man's arms
Grows from a downy tip.
A terrace nine stories high
Rises from hodfuls of earth;
A journey of a thousand miles
Starts from beneath one's feet.Whoever does anything to it will ruin it;
whoever lays hold of it will lose it.Therefore the sage, because he does nothing, never ruins anything;
and, because he does not lay hold of anything, loses nothing.In their enterprises the people
Always ruin them when on the verge of success.
Be as careful at the end as at the beginning
And there will be no ruined enterprises.Therefore the sage desires not to desire
And does not value goods which are hard to come by;
Learns to be without learning
And makes good the mistakes of the multitude
In order to help the myriad creatures to be natural and to refrain from daring to act.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.]Oh, where to begin? This may be ‘the one’ chapter that really rang true the first time I read the Tao Te Ching back in ’64 (well, no wonder I forget if this is 'the one'). Anyway, I’ve long felt that any suffering I experience in life is directly connected to my expectations. Simply put, I’ve never wept over that to which I’ve never clung, or as this chapter puts it, ‘because he does not lay hold of anything, loses nothing.’ Thus, I am the only one I can truly blame for my pain, rationally that is. The emotional urge to place the blame externally is profound however. This tells me biology (Mother Nature) would rather ‘I’ (indeed, all life) be irrational and emotional than impartial and return to being the uncarved block. On the other hand, how can I not have one without the other. How odd, that 'rational' and 'emotional' produce each other. Well, that's mysterious sameness for you.
Of course the same applies to ‘deal with a thing while it is still nothing; keep a thing in order before disorder sets in’. One entails the other. Our urge to ‘deal with a thing’ is a natural drive to resist entropy. Isn’t that what life – survival – is all about? The ways we resist are endless, but the drive is the same. The great irony of the Taoist approach is that by ceasing to resist, one is best able to deal with a situation before symptoms develop. Perhaps all I’m saying is that entropy is reality. Facing reality is actually the easiest way to stop in time and ‘deal with a thing while it is still nothing’. My word, this is enough to make one dizzy!
The translation:
Such peace easily manages,
Such presence easily plans,
Such fragility easily melts,
Such tininess easily scatters,
Acts without existing,
Rules without confusion.A tree barely embracable grows from a fine tip.
A terrace nine floors high rises from accumulation.
A thousand li journey begins below our feet.
Of doing we fail, Of holding on we lose.
Rightly so, the wise do nothing so never fail,
Hold nothing so nothing is ever lost.People in their affairs always accomplish something yet fail.
As a rule, being as careful at the end as the beginning never fails.
Rightly so, the wise person desires non desire,
And doesn't value goods difficult to obtain.
Learns non learning and recovers people's excesses,
Complements all things naturally and never boldly acts.The literal:
its (such) peaceful (quiet) easy (amiable) hold (support, manage),
its (such) have not (did not, not) sign (omen, foretell) easy (amiable) plan (stratagem, work for),
its (such) fragile (brittle, crisp) easy (amiable) melt,
its (such) minute (tiny) easy (amiable) scattered (fall apart)
do (act, serve as) of in (at, to, from, by) have not (did not, not) have (exist),
rule (govern) of in (at, to, from, by) have not (did not, not) disorder (in confusion; chaos)
close (shut; join; whole) embrace (hug) of tree grow in (at, to, from) fine hair tip (end).
nine layer (floor) of platform (terrace) rise in (at, to, from) accumulate (soil, earth).
thousand li (long distance) of go (travel; perform; O.K.; capable) begin foot (sufficient) below (underneath).
do (act, serve as) be defeated (defeat, beat, fail) of, hold (manage) lose (miss; let slip) of.
correctly so holy (sage, sacred) person nothing do (act, serve as) hence nothing be defeated (defeat, beat, fail)
nothing hold (grasp, direct) hence nothing lose (miss; let slip).
people of engaged affairs always in (at, to, from) some (how many) accomplish yet be defeated (defeat, beat, fail) of.
careful end (death, all) as (as if) beginning stardard (rule, norm) nothing be defeated (defeat, beat, fail) matter (affair).
correctly so holy (sage, sacred) person desire no desire, not valuable difficult get of goods.
study (learn) no study (learn), duplicate (recover, again) many people of places pass (go over, excessive),
use (take; according to) assist (complement) 10,000 things of natural (at ease) yet no bold (daring) do (act, serve as).
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