Two Paths

There are two primary approaches to life. The most common one is trying to conform to your culture’s ideals of how to live. This typically amounts to expecting yourself and others to conform to a cultural moral code… commonly religious or political. I call this approach ‘small conformity’.

Chapter 65 hints at the other, less common approach.

That is called profound moral character.
Moral character, profound indeed, distant indeed!
To the outside world, contrary indeed.
Then, and only then, reaching great conformity ⁽¹⁾.

I interpret “great conformity” to mean matching whatever is naturally so — the way things actually are. As chapter 68 puts it, This is called matching of Nature’s ancient utmost. This usually amounts to rethinking perceptions until you reach impartiality and the sense of utter acceptance that brings.

Chapter 16 outlines the steps traveled… Knowing the constant allows, allowing therefore impartial, Impartial therefore whole, whole therefore natural, Natural therefore the way.

Each path has its own difficulty, perhaps equally difficult overall. However, our individual experience is where we live life. I’ve always felt very frustrated and tense when attempting to shoehorn my life into a predetermined ideal way to live. But boy did I try! When I finally gave up in total failure and began being just myself as best I could, life became simpler and a whole lot more gentle. Ironically, by giving up trying to be a ‘good person’, I became a better person. As chapter 38 notes, Superior virtue is not virtuous, and so has virtue. Inferior virtue never deviates from virtue and so is without virtue.

Looking back, I assume my journey here is an example of chapter 36’s,  In desiring weakness, one must first strive. In desiring to let go, one must first begin. I expect letting life ‘just be’ goes against the grain of the survival instinct. We innately feel a need to take action and do something about perceived problems, i.e., any situation that stands in the way of what we desire (i.e., need + thought) or worry about (i.e., fear + thought) in life. We want change; change we can believe in! Such thinking, and thought in general, is the major difference between animals and humans, and the feature that disconnects us from nature. Therefore, Taoists say, Realizing I don’t know is better, not knowing this knowing is disease (#71). “Disease” is the literal translation of the Chinese — how blunt and true!

Our preference for action makes us more inclined to ask how rather than to ask why. That may account for some of the unintended consequences in which we find ourselves. Over time, I have found that initially pondering why leads to the most beneficial and effective how. This helps avoid putting the cart before the horse.

Now I’ll let the Tao Te Ching embellish on the two approaches, ‘small conformity’ and ‘great conformity’…

The smooth way seems knotty…#41

The great way is very smooth, yet people are fond of paths…#53

The way constant is without name.
Simple though small,
Nothing under heaven can subjugate it as well…#32

Neighboring countries mutually seen in the distance,
Of chicken and dog sounds mutually heard.
People until death not mutually come and go. #80

This last quote is from chapter 80, and flies in the face of what is nearly the universal human paradigm. Namely, humanity prefers to see itself on the path of progress. Naturally, we will never unwind our progress and Enable the people to again use the knotted rope #80. The computer, not to mention electricity, is here to stay. However, this call to simplicity helps keep perspective. Every gain we win comes at a cost, but the glitter of progress blinds us to those embedded costs… Later we wake up with a hangover wondering why and to make matters worse seek scapegoats. All we need do is look in the mirror to find who is responsible!

⁽¹⁾ From this post onward, I began using the more literal Tao Te Ching, Word for Word translation along with D.C. Lau’s translation.