Translation

Great accomplishment seems incomplete, its use doesn’t harm.
Great fullness seems dynamic⁽¹⁾, its use doesn’t end.
Great straightness seems bent.
Great cleverness seems clumsy.
Great debate seems slow in speech.
Still surpasses impetuous,
Cold surpasses heat.
Quiet keeps all-under-heaven honest.

big(great) accomplish (become; result) like (seem; as if > if > you) lack (incomplete; be absent; vacancy), use (apply; <formal> hence) no fraud (abuse; disadvantage; harm).

big(great) be full of (have) like (seem; as if > if > you) pouring boiling water on (rinse, flush; rush; clash, important place), his (its; that; such) use (apply; <formal> hence) no poor (limit; end; extremely).

big(great) straight (perpendicular; just; frank; stiff; directly; simply) like (seem; as if > if > you) bend (bow; crook; subdue; wrong; injustice).

big(great) clever (deceitful; artful; opportunely; coincidentally; as it happens) like (seem; as if > if > you) clumsy (awkward; dull > my).

big(great) argue (dispute; debate) like (seem; as if > if > you) slow (of speech).

still (quiet; calm) victory (surpass; wonderful; be equal to) rash (impetuous; restless),

cold (tremble (with fear) victory (surpass; wonderful; be equal to) heat (hot; warm; ardent; craze; fad; envious; popular).

quiet do (act as; be, mean; support) land under heaven straight (upright; main; honest).

⁽¹⁾ Translating this line was a little tricky. Dynamic felt like a decent compromise. Interestingly, there is a dual character word, chong cao, (沖操 ),which is chong (the ‘pour boiling water on’) combined with cao (grasp; do; behavior), Together they mean keep one’s integrity by being contented with simple life. Sure enough, being content with simple life has an eternal – never ending – feel.

I can be content with simple life when it feels dynamic enough. So I suppose dynamic is not such a bad translation for chong or chong cao. Of course that begs the question; how to make a simple life feel dynamic? Certainly not by doing more, although that is the by-path people often prefer. Like Great perfection, contentment is something that is created  in the eye of the beholder.

Original

大成若缺，其用不弊。
大盈若冲，其用不穷。
大直若屈。
大巧若拙。
大辩若讷。
静胜躁，
寒胜热。
清静为天下正。

Commentary, May 2010

Among other things, this chapter takes a gentle swipe at so-called objective awareness. What does that mean? Let’s return to beginning. At birth, consciousness exists as a moment-to-moment subjective awareness (and/or visa versa?). With non thinking animals, awareness continues to be subjective throughout life. We, on the other hand, soon associate names and words with our subjective perceptions. Subsequently, we mentally manipulate these perceptual objects in mind-space and presto, we get so-called ‘objective’ awareness. This enables us to think that we know.

Naming something as straight, for example, requires the category of straightness and its counter part bendiness. Both are needed to nail down (’know’) the distinction. Likewise, if you believe accomplishment is real, then you can’t help but believe its counterparts incompleteness and failure are real also. Perception becomes stuck in a vicious circle choosing one side, the other side, or a confused in-between. Alas, words and names make vicious circles an inevitable characteristic of objective awareness.

Whoa, cycling circles… I’m getting dizzy! Fortunately taking the broader view helps quiet down this circle cycle. Here, Great comes into sight as one begins to notice how opposites produce each other (i.e., off-set, compliment, follow, harmonize with). Naturally, you’ll eventually become capable of not knowing anything,⁽¹⁾ and little more. Hmm… perhaps this is why few are attracted to a Taoist point of view. “Not knowing anything” is hardly an enviable or award-winning accomplishment.

The idea of Great ____(you name it)____ reminds me of the moment I saw garbage floating in a canal in Tokyo and it looked Great. I mean it really looked beautiful. That was the first time I felt Great perfection seems chipped. Up until that moment, I’d always regarded garbage and pollution as something ugly and incomplete (being the neat and tidy freak that I am).

The generally held sense of perfection is a state of being that has an end point; something can be accomplished (or at least work towards). I think of Great perfection, Taoist style, as something that lives in the eye of the beholder. It can’t be made, found, achieved, meddled with, drained or destroyed. It only exists in our point of view. Finding this point of view within myself has been liberating, for it relieves me of the arbitrary and often hypocritical standards of an exceedingly clever species like us. I guess only in a taoist view of life is cleverness not all it is cracked up to be, i.e., when cleverness emerges there is great hypocrisy.

⁽¹⁾ To be fair (and practical) one can’t survive in society ‘not knowing anything’. However, I find ‘not knowing anything’ to be a Great vacation. I find that losing trust in the certainty of differences and shifting faith over to mysterious sameness makes popping in and out of ‘not knowing anything’ fairly easy for the most part.

So how does one go about finding faith in ‘mysterious sameness’? Lose trust in the reality of words. How? I suppose the answer to that is the same as how one loses trust in anyone or anything. Mainly you become aware of the dishonesty, duplicity, and deviousness, and don’t wish to play along anymore. Evidence is all around us – it’s an open secret. Yet we are conditioned from birth to believe, so it is difficult to see what even a infant sees. Correlations may help a few, other wise, your guess is as good as mine.