Translation

When the people don’t fear power,
Normally great power arrives.
Without meddling with their dwelling place,
Without detesting their existence.
Man only doesn’t detest,
Because of this not detested.
Because of this the wise person,
Knows himself without seeing himself.
Loves himself without valuing himself.
Hence, gets rid of one and seeks the other..

the people (civilian) no (not) fear (respect) power (impressive strength),

standard (norm; rule > imitate; follow) big (large; great; major) power (impressive strength) to (until; > extremely; most).

nothing (without; not) be improperly familiar with his (her; its; that; such) place dwell (live; store up),

nothing (without; not) be disgusted with (detest; be bored with)) his (her; its; that; such) place give birth to (grow; existence; life).

husband (man) only (alone, yes) no (not) be disgusted with (detest; be bored with)),

<grm> is <formal> this; that) use (take, because of, as well as) no (not) be disgusted with (detest; be bored with)).

<grm> is <formal> this; that) use (take, because of, as well as) sage (wise man).

self (oneself; certainly) know (realize; inform; knowledge) no (not) self (oneself; certainly) see (appear, become visible).

self (oneself; certainly) love (like; treasure) no (not)self (oneself; certainly) expensive (precious; noble).

reason (cause; on purpose; hence) go (remove) that (those; the other; another) take (get; seek; adopt) this.

Original

民不畏威，
则大威至。
无狎其所居，
无厌其所生。
夫唯不厌，
是以不厌。
是以圣人
自知不自见。
自爱不自贵。
故去彼取此。

Commentary, June 2011

D.C. Lau has translated 自知不自见 (literally, self know no self see) as, Hence the sage knows himself but does not display himself. This works fine. I’ve found that the deeper I know myself, the less I display myself. Displaying oneself can be one symptom of not really knowing oneself. That said, I see another way to interpret this ‘self know no self see’. For starters, what does self know mean really? Personally, I suppose it means being as self honesty as possible. The difficulty here lies in the thinking, i.e., to know yet to think that one does not know, and vise versa. No wonder it takes a lifetime!

I’ve found that the deeper I know myself, the more indistinct and shadowy I’ve become. There is less and less of me for me to see. Increasingly, I can’t see myself – no self see! When we see ourselves, we are more likely seeing the story of ourselves we’ve come to believe true. To paraphrase chapter 1, The self that can be spoken of, is not the constant self; the name that can be named, is not the constant name. In addition to this, there is the Hindu, That Thou Art. Ha! I should say, no wonder it takes many lifetimes!

‘Without meddling with their dwelling place, without detesting their existence’ may come closer to capturing the spirit of this than D.C. Lau’s interpretation. Without detesting their existence is another way to put Christ’s dictum, ‘let ye without sin cast the first stone’. When your ideals of being dominates your mind, you end up detesting every existence that doesn’t conform to that story. It follows that you would throw stones or something.

D.C. Lau’s, It is because you do not press down on them that they will not weary of the burden was a guiding principles in raising my sons. Children will only rebel against ‘Something’. The less you give them to rebel against, the smoother life usually flows. Helpful too was insuring that they felt a proper sense of awe. The adult quality that instills the utmost sense of awe in children is patience! Children understand the usual human emotions: desire, fear, anger, kindness. They don’t understand patience because in its pure form, it is not an emotion. To me patience is a function of perspective; it’s the essence of wisdom. (Note: Patience, being akin to the mysterious female, stillness and silence, seems less an awesome force than it is. Mysterious is right.)

‘Loves himself without valuing himself’ makes more sense seen as a symptom. In other words, when we truly love ourselves, we feel no need to value self. Conversely, when we feel inadequate, we need self ego affirmation. How we are determines how we act, or more accurately, react. Although, I find we often tend to see it the other way around, i.e., how we act determines how we are. This could stems from our need for control in that it is easier to identify actions and repress them than to deal with who we are intrinsically. We let free will take care of that angle.