Translation

Knowing I don’t know is best, not knowing this knowing is defective.
Man alone faults this defect, this so as not to be defective.
The sacred person is not defective, taking his defect as a defect.
Man alone has this defect, this is because to him there is no defect.

know (realize; tell) no (not) know (realize; tell) upper (up; higher; superior), no (not)  know (realize; tell) know (realize; tell)  disease (fault; defect).

husband (man) yea (only, alone) disease (fault; defect) disease (fault; defect), <grm> is <formal> this; that)  use (take; because of_and; as well as, so as) no (not) disease (fault; defect).

sage (saint; holy; sacred; emperor) human being (man; people) no (not)  disease (fault; defect),  use (take; because of_and; as well as) his (its, he, it, that; such) disease (fault; defect)  disease (fault; defect).

husband (man) only (alone)  disease (fault; defect)) disease (fault; defect), <grm> is <formal> this; that)  use (take; so as to_and; as well as) no (not) disease (fault; defect).

Original

知不知上，不知知病。
夫唯病病，是以不病。
圣人不病，以其病病。
夫唯病病，是以不病。

Commentary, June 2011

Knowing I don’t know puts the unknown (questions) ahead of the known (answers). The void, Nothing, empty and silent all correlate to the unknown, the question… reality! Not knowing this knowing is defective because it becomes all too easy to think I know the answer. Conversely, ‘to know yet to think one does not know‘ values the question far beyond any answer.

Ever since receiving my sobering wake-up call from correlations, I’ve regarded questions and problems as being akin to invariable reality, and any resulting answer or solution as merely transitions to yet deeper questions or problems. Whether or not this is true makes little difference, practically speaking, as long as it makes my life a saner experience. I need all the help I can get.

Animals, including us, generally fear the unknown. This fear makes us impatient to know ‘the answer’ yesterday. Answers allow us to think that we know, and that promises us peace of mind. Some of this may also result from an urgent need to fill our big-brain’s imagination space. Like they say, nature abhors a vacuum. We’ve got to fill it with something; filling mind space with questions (as a child does), more than answers (as adults do) helps us avoid thinking our way into a corner. This is not saying to avoid answers; just know what is at stake. In other words, well placed questions bare useful fruit. Only such fruit will holds the seeds for even better placed questions… a virtuous circle, as they say.

Being alive to difficulty is accepting that life is difficulty. As Buddha said, birth is suffering; growth, decay, and death are suffering. Sad it is to be joined with that which we dislike. Sadder still is the separation from that which we love, and painful is the craving for that which cannot be obtained. The more I try to avoid or escape difficulty, the more difficult life ends up feeling. The courage to bite the bullet, take this defect as a defect, and get on with living, especially as Buddha puts forward in the other three truths, is actually the easiest to live. Yet, our pleasure seeking nature is always dragging its feet. It wants comfort and safety above all else. And so we struggle, torn between what we ideally desire from life, and what we are really faced with in life.