Translation

Brave certainty rules in killing
Brave hesitation rules in living
These both either benefit or harm
Nature’s ruthlessness, who knows its cause.
Nature’s way never contends, yet is adept in victory.
Never speaks, yet adept in answering
Never summons, yet one arrives.
Comes simple, yet adept in planning
Nature’s net is vast and thin, yet it never misses.

brave (valiant) at (in) bold (dare; be certain) standard (norm; rule > imitate; follow) kill (weaken).

brave (valiant) at (in) no (not) bold (dare; be certain) standard (norm; rule > imitate; follow) live (alive; living).

this two (both; either; some) ? perhaps (or; either…or…; > someone) sharp (favorable; advantage; profit) perhaps (or; either…or…; > someone) evil ( injurious; do harm to; impair; kill).

sky (heaven; day; season; nature; God) of place (indicate passive construction, agent of action) loathe (dislike; hate_fierce; ferocious) who know (realize; inform; knowledge) his (her; its; that; such) reason (cause; on purpose; hence).

sky (heaven; day; season; nature; God) of road (way, principle; speak; think) no (not) contend (vie; strive; argue) <conj.>and / but (not) good (satisfactory; be adept in ) victory (success; surpass; be superior to).

no (not) speech (word; say; talk) <conj.>and / but (not) good (satisfactory; be adept in ) answer (respond; agree (to do sth.); should).

no (not) call together (convene; summon) <conj.>and / but (not) self (oneself; certainly) come (arrive; crop up; take place).

come (arrive; crop up; take place) one (single; odd; only; alone; simple) yet (but; however) good (satisfactory; be adept in ) stratagem (plan; scheme; plot).

sky (heaven; day; season; nature; God) net (network; catch with a net) extensive (vast) dredge (thin; sparse; distant) <conj.>and / but (not) no (not) lose (miss; let slip; fail).

Original

勇于敢则杀。
勇于不敢则活。
此两者或利或害。
天之所恶孰知其故。
天之道不争而善胜。
不言而善应。
不召而自来。
□然而善谋。
天网恢恢疏而不失。

Commentary, July 2011

As fear increases, I’m more hesitate to act boldly. Just the opposite happens when I’m fearless. So, what does it mean to be fearless in being timid? Another way to phrase this might be, ‘can you be fearless and yet timid’? This corresponds to know the male, yet keep to the role of the female. I am only ‘fearless in being timid’ when my discernment penetrates the four quarter. When I see beyond the current exigencies of the moment, and see the rapids which lie ahead on the river of life, I can hold firmly to stillness and take no action that would exacerbate the flow. When to be bravely certain or bravely hesitant, more than anything else, determines life’s outcome. As these both either benefit or harm, it pays to be adept at each. However, brave certainty comes all too naturally, while brave hesitation is the essence of wisdom. Therefore, just as I can’t desire not to desire too much, neither can I over-do brave hesitation. Personally, this this comes as close to free will as I can get.

Nature’s ruthlessness, who know its cause brings to mind the Judeo Christian question, why does God cause innocents (like infants) to suffer? I remember how, in the wake of my ski accident’s torn ligament, I naively thought “Why me?”. Alas, heaven hates what it hates, who knows the reason why? Of course, looking at this more broadly, I see how one thing’s gain must be another thing’s loss (i.e., two sides of the same coin). In the flow of nature, gain and loss, good fortune and disaster follow each other; desiring life to go just one way is so utterly irrational, and yet so common. It is a testament (and a warning) to the power of emotion!

Nature’s approach is often opposite our initial inclinations; that’s not surprisingly for Nature isn’t concerned with survival. Life, on the other hand, is. And so we contend with our sights firmly held on victory. But victory is always short lived, and by contending, we set in motion unintended consequences that defeat accomplishing our private ends. Allowing events to play out requires patience (brave hesitation), and usually works to our long term advantage. On the other end we have, in action it is timeliness that matters which also plays a role. Hitler and WWII come to mind. A stitch in time saves nine million or so (deal with a thing while it is still nothing). The art of living comes down to maintaining a balance of the two.

No words—silence—are often the ‘loudest’ answering with which one can reply. I found this marvelously so in raising my two sons. A few days of shunning, with not a word spoken, brought home my answer to certain behavior (like lying) more effectively than could all the nagging in the world.

Simple certainly under-pins adeptness in victory, yet ironically the simplest approaches are the most difficult. ‘Easy’ approaches with their unforeseen complications are our first choice; haste makes waste is no empty saying. Only brave hesitation gives enough time to reflect until a simple, optimum approach takes shape. A good example of this is the time I wanted to put a bridge across a small pond. The simplest would be a plank, but I needed a gentle arch in the bridge. I easily envisioned various plans, but they all required problematic method of joining wood (e.g., screws, nails with the inevitable shrinkage and rust that would follow). I bravely hesitated building anything until a simple, elegant solution ‘bubbled up’. A year later, voila! I simply bent two 3/4″ pipes into gentle arcs, drilled holes in 3×4 lumber and threaded the lumber onto the pipe.

Decades of gardening also offers an example of comes simple, yet adept in planning. For the first 10 years I overdid everything. ‘Complex, and second-rate in planning’ would be a fair description of my gardening then. Over the years complexity gradually dropped away. Now, 30+ years later, simple, yet adept in planning is a fair description of my gardening. I do just enough to get the results I want, when I want. Nothing is wasted. My gardening comes closest to modeling nature, and it only took a couple of decades of that all essential ’set it up’ (i.e., If you would have a thing shrink, you must first stretch it). This is another way of saying there are no short-cuts in life! Alas, we all have to learn the hard way. Therefore even the sage treats some things as difficult.⁽¹⁾

⁽¹⁾ This line is in D.C.Lau’s translation of this chapter, but it’s not in the original Chinese. I run across this from time to time; why does he do that? Often I imagine he uses poetic license to make it more readable. Conversely, I take as little poetic license as possible, which often makes my translation much less readable. This is a win-win actually, as reading both versions can help fill out the big picture.