The great way flows, such as it may left and right.
All things on earth depend on it for existence, yet it never declines,
Meritorious accomplishment, yet anonymous.
Clothes and supports all things on earth, yet doesn’t act as master.
Always without desire, befits the name small.
All things on earth return here, Why?
Not being their master, befits the name great.
Because of its ultimate non-self, it becomes great.
Hence, it can accomplish such greatness.
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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?
Back to none again. Whew!
YouTube Audio Recordings:
Go to Kirk Garber’s YouTube channel for audio recordings of our monthly Sunday meeting. These come in two parts for each chapter. The shorter first part is a chapter reading followed by attendees’ commentary, if any. The second longer part is an open discussion among attendees’ on how the chapter relates to their personal experience.
Reflections:
The great way flows, such as it may left and right.
All things on earth depend on it for existence, yet it never declines,
Meritorious accomplishment, yet anonymous.
Anonymous! That is a clue to our problem in a nutshell. Reading this today I immediately felt the reason why we have names like God, The Way, or whatever we choose to name for the ’presence’ we sense and innately depend on for existence. We are so desperate to name everything that manifests in our awareness, beginning with naming ourselves. Bottom line: We abhor anonymous… unidentified, nameless, unknown. Why?
As always, I begin with asking why. This takes me immediately to look at the question from a Symptoms Point Of View. Everything that happens is a response to underlying circumstances. Peeling back the surface veil and exploring those deeper waters helps delay what often can be a knee-jerk response to how things appear initially. Sure, knee-jerk responses have enjoyable, stimulating and captivating aspects, but after awhile that becomes too much of a good thing, especially if we settle down to strive for a balanced life.
So again, why are we so desperate to name the content of our awareness, so to speak? I suspect it has much to do with our dipolar-like perception (see Yin Yang, Nature’s Hoodwink). Beginning in infancy, culture indoctrinates us, first with language and then it uses language to inculcate society’s paradigm. This almost certainly causes us to feel reality isn’t real unless we have a name for it. Naming imparts meaning to life, literally and figuratively.
Among the more unpleasant and insecure experiences for us is the unknown. That may be true to a degree in other animals, but for us, it is excruciating because we are completely hooked on language… naming life. Words and names mean something! The downside here is that naming blinds us to the ‘whole therfore natural’ big picture. It is anonymous when we can’t pin a name on ‘it’. Conversely, it isn’t the constant when we can pin a name on ‘it’… The name possible to express runs counter to the constant name. Chapter 16 sums it up.
This ‘Not knowing the constant’ is a direct consequence of our dipolar-like perception, which maintains the content of our knowledge, understanding and memory. In contrast to knowledge is knowing. Knowing is the deep intuitive sense all living things experience. Knowledge, understanding and memory are highly language (naming) dependant, and so are the predominant domains of humankind, see We only understand what we already know for more on this.
Clothes and supports all things on earth, yet doesn’t act as master.
Always without desire, befits the name small.
All things on earth return here, Why?
Not being their master, befits the name great.
Because of its ultimate non-self, it becomes great.
Hence, it can accomplish such greatness.
This second half is more about the self-centered way we approach life. Fear drives us to name the ‘presence we sense’ in our awareness something tangible, e.g., God, The Tao, Good and Evil, etc. When raising my two boys, this chapter offered a superb guiding light, by emphasizing ultimate non-self greatness over self-centered greatness. Evidently, I was ready to follow, i.e., We only understand what we already know. Had I fathered children in my youth and full of self, I would have been their master, and with desire project all my needs and fears onto them.
Allowing my life’s events — nature —to play out… to flow such as it may left and right is only possible if I am secure in my own right. That means, I have somewhat nearly risen beyond self, as chapter 16 wonderfully put it. The longer one lives, the more likely that is to occur. You might say, life experience is the only honest teacher. Everything else has an agenda.
‘Because of its ultimate non-self’ is worth a second look. Do you see how the self, ego, names, language and knowledge all interconnect? In his second truth, Buddha states, The illusion of self originates and manifests itself in a cleaving to things. Sure, “things” are the material stuff we cherish, but deeper and more insidious is our cleaving to intangible “things”: names and all the offspring that produces… beliefs, judgments, understanding, and knowledge.
All you need do to achieve ultimate non-self is let go of naming, knowledge, belief, and understanding. Oh, is that all? Okay, that is an impossibly tall order, but only if you are someone seeking perfect outcomes! If you can be content with a little progress toward ultimate non-self , then all you need to do is begin the journey. I found that knowing where to start the journey and its ultimate destination was enough to begin. As chapter 64 reminds,
A thousand mile journey begins below the feet.
Of doing we fail, Of holding on we lose.
All that remains is watching moment to moment ‘below the feet’, and let nature take care of the rest.
Oh, and speaking of perfection…
The way hides from view without name.
The way alone masters perfect forgiveness and accomplishment.
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