The five colors make people’s eyes blind.
The five sounds make people’s ears deaf.
The five tastes make people’s mouths brittle.
Rushed hunting makes people’s hearts go crazy.
Goods hard to come by make people behave harmfully.
Because of this, the wise person acts for the belly, not the eye.
Hence, he leaves that and takes this.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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
Archive: Characters and past commentary
Corrections?
None this time.
Reflections:
The five colors make people’s eyes blind.
The five sounds make people’s ears deaf.
The five tastes make people’s mouths brittle.
The end of the previous chapter [11], Hence, of having what is thought favorable, of the nothing think as the useful, supports the deaf and blind concern addressed here. When we focus on a narrow set of ‘favorables’, it blinds and deafens us to what lies beyond those favorites. Think of the horse fitted with blinders, i.e, Blinkers. Our ‘favorables’ become our ‘blinkers’.
The end of chapter 16 speaks to this bias of focus issue.
Impartial therefore whole, whole therefore natural,
Natural therefore the way.
The way therefore long enduring, nearly rising beyond oneself.
You can’t “nearly rise beyond oneself” when your self is cleaving tightly to its preferred things. This takes us back to Buddha’s Second Noble Truth, which says in part, “The illusion of self originates and manifests itself in a cleaving to things”. This hints at the difficulty of freeing oneself from one’s “cleaving” to favorites.
Rushed hunting makes people’s hearts go crazy.
Goods hard to come by make people behave harmfully.
Buddha’s Second Truth also shows why we eagerly pursue Goods hard to come by. Such valuables bolster our need to preserve or enhance the illusion of self. Possessing goods hard to come by imparts the illusion that “I” the self, the ego, is particularly real and important. Oh, and by the way, goods hard to come by are both physical and mental.
It is all part of the hierarchical framework we now exist under, yet from which we desperately wish to free ourselves. The difficulty of cleaving less, or letting go of goods hard to come by, is that it comes down to feeling like virtual suicide. Simply put, cleaving less diminishes the illusion of self. We can’t just let go because Self insists on being – it’s the primal survival imperative. So we compromise and let go in ways in which we are able: charity, helping others, exercise, for example. We make ‘sacrifices’ where we can. (See The Tradeoff for more on the hierarchical framework we now exist under)
Because of this, the wise person acts for the belly, not the eye. This line points out the clear difference between practical survival need (belly) and desires (eye)… Need + thought = desire. Naturally, this brings to mind the problem chapter 71 points out… The disease of not realizing we don’t know. Thoughts feel so real, and we trust them implicitly from the moment we are able to form them. We believe what we think, think what we believe, and thus we easily ‘act for the eye, not the belly’.
Hence, he leaves that and takes this. For me that means, leave my trust in thought and take (accept) the organic need. More than anything else, that helps me act for the belly, not the eye.
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