The way flushes and employs the virtue of ‘less’.
Deep like the ancestor of every-thing.
Subdue its sharpness, separate its confusion,
Soften its brightness, be the same as its dust.
Deep and clear, it appears to exist.
I don’t know of whose child it is,
It resembles the ancestor of the Supreme Being.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Word for Word
Limits: Translations, even the nearly literal one above, lose some of the original meaning due to the cultural context of contemporary words. Studying the numerous synonym-like meanings of the Chinese characters in the Word-for-Word translation mitigates this. (Click graphic at right for on-line Word-for-Word.)
Third Pass: Chapter of the Month
Chinese character translation and commentary archive
Corrections?
None this time (:-)
Reflections:
‘The way flushes’ portrays such a natural picture in my mind. I think of the winter rains scouring and flushing our local river clean after the dry summer’s accumulation of litter. Frankly and more bluntly, I also think of a toilet flushing! This sentiment of the way flushes and employs the virtue of less also reminds me of chapter 40…
Let’s mull over the references to ‘it’ and ‘its’ for a moment. Overall, I’d say ‘it’ refers to line 2’s the ancestor of every-thing — the way. Yet, it can also refer to every-thing. This reminds me a little of the profound sameness hinted at in the Christian trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. It is our biology, the bio-hoodwink, that makes distinctions between cause and effect, that and me, life and death.
The point raised in this chapter is to look beyond instinctive sharp distinctions, if you wish to glimpse reality. Allow ‘it’ to be both sides of the coin. This Vedantic principle says it all: Tat Tvam Asi , a Sanskrit sentence, translated variously as “That art thou,” “That thou art,” “Thou art that,” “You are that,” or “That you are,”
Subdue its sharpness, separate its confusion,
Soften its brightness, be the same as its dust.
Soften its brightness means soften the bright and glaring distinctions that mind and emotions make between every-thing. When emotions relax, the confusion can separate, the sharpness can subside, the brightness can dim, and the dust can settle. Now, how does one do that? Simply… Doing without doing, following without exception rules. Of course, that is not what the mind and emotions wish to hear. They crave real actions and sound solutions. Thus, we go round and round chasing our tails until exhausted; only then does Devote effort to emptiness, sincerely watch stillness begin to truly appeal.
Then line 5 says that, ‘it’ appears to exist. However, we don’t know of whose child ‘it’ is. Meaning, we don’t know what gave birth to this ‘it’… the way… every-thing. Whatever the origin was, ‘it’ resembles the ancestor of the supreme being. Notice how this keeps the mystery intact!
Note, I didn’t capitalize supreme being here. Today, as I was reading this chapter, I focused exclusively on the word being: ‘the state or quality of having existence’. Next, I considered the qualifier, supreme, but dropped the capitalization top avoid ‘making moles into mountains’. Sure, it’s just a token gesture, but remember, the devil lies in the details! Simply putting the word in Caps will tend to bias understanding by unleashing its sharpness, so to speak.
Be the same as its dust points to impartiality, the ‘Holy Grail’ of Taoist thought…
Comparisons
I must say, I prefer the more literal, The way flushes and employs the virtue of ‘less’ than D.C. Lau’s rendering of this line, The way is empty, yet use will not drain it. Perhaps his more roundabout version is more comfortable and readable. Still, the ‘more comfortable and readable’ can easily mislead, i.e., True speech isn’t beautiful, Beautiful speech isn’t true. Yet, all speech is problematic in the end…
- More speech counts as exceptionally limited; not in accord with keeping to the middle.
- In speech, satisfactory is truth.
- Infrequent speech is natural.
I also prefer the more literal, Be the same as its dust, than D.C. Lau’s more roundabout, Let your wheels move only along old ruts. I always liked his version as it portrays a picture of continuity of purpose, of life. However, that doesn’t correspond to what the Chinese characters actually say or portray:
gentle (peace, and, blend, mix) his (her; its; their; that; such) light (ray; brightness… naked; alone), same (alike; similar; be the same as; together; in common) his (her; its; their; that; such) dust (dirt; this world), 和其光，同其尘，(hé qí guāng, tóng qí chén)
Be the same as its dust is much more powerful in a Taoist, Weakness is superior to strength, way. In addition, Be the same as its dust is more closely related to the humility we see portrayed elsewhere in the Tao Te Ching. Some examples: