April 2010
Commentary
The most flexible of all things under heaven surpasses the most resolute is easier to appreciate when considered from a quantum non-locality view. Although, this fits a more down to earth point of view as well. Young men, or young mountains, are resolute initially, but bend over in time. Time? Sure, what is more ‘flexible (soft; supple; gentle; yielding; mild)‘ than time? Virtually nothing… although, time(1) and the virtue of Nothing are perhaps essentially the same ‘thing’ anyway.
The later part of this chapter, Not of words teaching, Without action advantage, voice an odd thing about teaching I began to notice as I home schooled my kids. Teaching wasn’t as straightforward a process as I expected. Learning requires understanding, which I realized requires a deeper sense of knowing. Rather that ‘top down’, I found teaching and learning to be more of a ‘bottom up’ experience.
Essentially, knowing is the basis of understanding. The knowing must be ‘there’ before understanding truly occurs. Now, are you thinking to yourself, “Aren’t knowing and understanding essentially the same?” I guess they are, at least in the common meaning of these words(2).
I now consider knowing to be a deep intuitive sense experienced by all living things (pretty much, although I’m not sure how that works out in nervous-system-less creatures like virus). Understanding, on the other hand, is a cognitive language based sense experienced only by humans, as far as I know. My ducks do know they like snails… they don’t understand that they do (or the why, how, when, where of it all). In an ironic way, attempting to teach with words is putting the cart somewhat before the horse.
Let’s take a closer look…
Knowing is accumulative, built upon previous knowing/s. One must know sitting to craws, crawling to walk, walking to run. One must know ‘2′ before knowing ‘2+2′. Knowing also hinges on interpretation of one’s experience. A fly has a compound eye which makes the world appear a certain way. What a fly knows of the world is determined in part by its multi-lens interpretation. The world it knows appears different than the world known by the snail, dog, duck, or spider.
For humans, knowing also hinges on cultural paradigms that filter basic (biologically based) sensory input. This is a major determinant of judgment, part of the ‘where one is coming from’ side of things. All these factors combine to make any idea of teaching via words unlikely to measure up to our ideals and expectations. Nevertheless, we hold to the illusion that words can convey understanding and knowing. And so, it is little wonder that the teaching that uses no words, the benefit of resorting to no action, these are beyond the understanding of all but a very few in the world. Once I began experiencing this sobering point of view, much of the seemingly contradictory, perplexing and paradoxical aspects of human activity become more straightforward and natural.
(1) I am not referring to ‘clock time’, which is more a measure of energy’s role in time. Time itself is much more mysterious, like consciousness itself. And by consciousness, I don’t mean the contents (worldly clutter) of consciousness. The contents of consciousness are energy’s actors, consciousness is time’s stage. Or to put this another way: When your discernment penetrates the four quarters, Are you capable of not knowing anything?
(2) We feel these words, know and understand, are synonymous because we associate language and thinking with both words. Indeed, people have often seen thinking as a prerequisite for consciousness itself. Alas, such species-centric views are very misleading, and account, in part, for why we people are ignorant. Word meaning and language reflect our understanding, and ultimately our knowing… not the other way around (whatever that means 
).
Translation
The most flexible of all things under heaven surpasses the most resolute.
Without existence entering without space between, I know non action has the advantage.
Not of words teaching, Without action advantage.
All under heaven rarely reach this.
land under heaven of to (until > extremely; most) soft (supple; flexible; soften; gentle; yielding; mild), speed (gallop; spread > turn eagerly towards) gallop (give free rein to) land under heaven of to (until > extremely; most) hard (firm; strong; firmly; resolutely).
nothing (without; not) have (exist) enter (join; be admitted into) nothing (without; not) space in between (opening; among; within a definite time or space), I (we) <grm>is (<formal> this; that) use (take; so as to_and; as well as) know (realize; tell) nothing (without; not) do (act as; be, mean; support) of have (exist) benefit (profit; beneficial; increase).
no (not) speech (word; say; talk) of teach (instruct.), nothing (without; not)do (act as; be, mean; support) of benefit (profit; advantage; beneficial; increase).
land under heaven hope (rare; scarce; uncommon) reach (come up to; in time for; and) of.
Original
天下之至柔，
驰骋天下之至坚。
无有入无间，
吾是以知无为之有益。
不言之教，
无为之益
天下希及之。