The most flexible of all things under heaven surpasses the most resolute.
Without existence entering without space between,
I know non-action has the advantage.
Not of words teaching, without action advantage;
All under heaven rarely reach this.
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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
YouTube Recordings:
https://youtu.be/GTBmJEauRcQ is the link to the complete video recording of our monthly Sunday meeting. For the nicely edited version, go to Kirk Garber’s YouTube channel. The edited version comes in two parts: The first and shorter Commentary part begins with a chapter reading followed by attendees’ commentary, if any. The second and longer Open Discussion part offers attendees’ observations on how the chapter relates to their personal experience.
Corrections?
None this time
Reflections
The most flexible of all things under heaven surpasses the most resolute.
Emotion energy that underpins any expectation feels resolute. Simply put, the desire underpinning expectations pushes us resolutely. Living life more moment by moment nips most resolute expectations in the bud. Chapter 64’s A thousand mile journey begins below the feet speaks to this flexibility in living more moment to moment… step by step below the feet of one’s circumstance and genetic reality.
It can help to consider the root meanings of the two contrasting poles here: 柔 (róu = soft; supple; flexible; gentle; yielding) and 坚 (jiān = hard; solid; firm; strong; stronghold; firmly; resolute). This parallels lines 5 and 6 of the last chapter 42; All things suffer the negative and embrace the positive. Clashing spirits considered harmonious.
The actual characters for negative and positive are, 阴 and 阳. Briefly:
阳 = yang = the sun; south of a hill or north of a river; in relief; open; overt; belonging to this world; concerned with living beings; positive; (in Chinese philosophy, medicine, etc.) yang, the masculine or positive principle in nature.
阴 = yīn = the moon; overcast; shade; north of a hill or south of a river; back; in intaglio; hidden; secret; sinister; of the nether world; negative; (in Chinese philosophy, medicine, etc.) the feminine or negative principle in nature.
To see how the concept of yang and yin can assist Taoist thought, see Correlations: Using Yin and Yang to Pop Preconceptions.
This first line, The most flexible of all things under heaven surpasses the most resolute, also reminds me of the expression “The bigger they are the harder they fall”. One of the first recorded incidences of this idea comes from the Latin poet (c. 300AD) Claudian’s Rufian, essentially translating to “Men are raised on high in order that they may fall more heavily.”
I think of achieving any pinnacle, whether of strength, intellect, wealth, longevity — or you name it — as the limit. This limit, no matter how “raised on high”, ends at some point and reversal always follows, just as death always follows life itself.
Then, I ponder the nature of nothingness. Nothingness has no limit for it is immeasurable. And, what is more flexible than nothingness. The flexibility of nothingness images eternity. Chapter 4 touches on this…
My lifelong experience with yoga may illustrate this process of advancement and reversal. For decades yoga was an expectation to realize, a resolute path of personal power — yang. Yoga propped up my illusion of self. Life in my youth felt essentially limitless. Sure, I ‘knew’ death comes to everyone, but I that knowledge wasn’t truly visceral… despite the deaths of both my brother and father.
Somewhere after age 60, death began to feel tangible. I viscerally knew the end of my life was real. I could actually see deaths darkness at the end of life’s bright tunnel, as it were. That’s when yoga reversed and became more a daily journey into weakness, to yin. In short, resolute yang always ends in flexible yin… life ends in death, at least as experienced on reality’s surface, i.e., life and death share profound sameness. Ah yes, no answer is ever the final answer 🙂
Without existence entering without space between,
I know non-action has the advantage.
The idea of non-action, wú wéi, can be easily misunderstood as being too passive to be practical. The last line of chapter 3 can help correct this. Doing without doing, following without exception rules. Looking more closely at the character meaning helps also. 为无为 wéi wú wéi, do (act; act as; serve as) nil (without) do (act; act as; serve as). I regard the more well-known wú wéi, as being just short hand for the complete wéi wú wéi. Simply put, if you are alive and breathing, you are doing!
Another word for non-action, or more precisely, doing without doing, is patience. And, we certainly know that patience is anything but passive. Therefore, to paraphrase this sentiment, I know patience has the advantage. Experience also shows me that patience is without existence for the reason that true patience has no agenda. Here also, patience is flexible… or perhaps I should say patience is resolutely flexible.
Naturally, life’s primal agenda is to survive so it’s easy to see why patience doesn’t come readily. Indeed, when emotions wax, patience wanes, and fight or flight urges rule the moment. The only break on this I find is a contemporaneous awareness of this process when it occurs. Presence of mind can notice, and that alone helps act as a pressure release valve on emotion to some extent.
Certainly, as biological creatures, we instinctively feel the survival advantage of resolute action. Naturally, this was unquestionably true in the simpler times of our ancestors, and still holds true for all other creatures on the Earth. However, the natural balance between action and without action became skewed towards action with the advent of civilization and its need to organize the activity of large numbers of people. The ensuing urges for progress easily drowned out any sense that non-action has the advantage. (See The Tradeoff )
Nature is truly not of action or without action. The view, I know non-action has the advantage is in fact meant to push back on our over-allegiance to action. The duality we perceive is an artifact of how the brain functions. Nature is not in its ‘self so’ reality dualistic. Now, this perceptual artifact would not be such a problem for us were it not for the disconnecting hierarchical forces inherent to civilization.
The hierarchical nature of civilization itself can’t help but put a premium on action. Thus, we are reared from infancy to over-value action and the resolute. All this goes to bolster the illusion of self, of free choice and our ability to control our destiny. We all fall under the umbrella of, “Men are raised on high in order that they may fall more heavily.” Our species is venturing bit by bit out on a limb of reality and can’t help sense the impending and inevitable fall. The Tao Te Ching simply attempts to nudge perception back from the edge and towards the roots of reality.
Not of words teaching, without action advantage;
All under heaven rarely reach this.
Humanity has bitten down on action’s advantage, hook, line, and sinker. We place total trust in what we think and believe, and that locks the mind into the dialectic nature of names and words. Again, as chapter 71 cautions, Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease. No matter how we try to retell the story, we’re still stuck in the duality, in the disease. The only teaching that counts is what our experience, the journey below our feet, intuitively teaches us over our lifetime; all else is simply a retelling of the illusion of progress in one form or another.
Video Archive https://youtu.be/H9R4jPWWv-E
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