Name and body, which is intimate.
Body and goods, which is excessive.
Gain and loss, which is defective.
Therefore, the more we love, the greater the cost.
The more we hold on, the deeper the loss.
Knowing contentment, never dishonorable.
Knowing when to stop, never dangerous.
Then you can long endure.
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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:
Go to Kirk Garber’s YouTube channel for recordings of our monthly Sunday meeting. These come in two parts for each chapter. The shorter first part of the meeting begins with 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.
Corrections?
None this time
Reflections
Name and body, which is intimate.
This first line puts forth a straightforward question. Oddly, we certainly have an emotional urge to protect our Name and reputation even as we take our body for granted. Yet for me, body is intimate. I mean, nothing is closer to home to me than my body. Without that, mind has no home. It is my vehicle through life, which is one key motivation behind eating well and daily exercise. At 77, that turns out to be the wisest things I do. (See Giving Your Life a Gift) Fortunately, yoga and taichi have no age limit! See Hatha Yoga: Testing ‘Will’ and T’ai Chi: Flowing Mindfulness if you have yet to find a way to give the gift your precious body needs. Chapter 13 ends with this guidance…
Body and goods, which is excessive.
Despite my earnest attempt to be moderate, goods is certainly excessive. I mean compared to my natural animal state, how could it be otherwise? Realizing the hidden cost of goods, to which line 5 — The more we hold on, the deeper the loss — speaks, helps me think more than twice about any addition to that side of the equation.
Jesus hit the nail on the head when he pointed out, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”. The last sentence here aligns particularly well with Buddha’s 2nd Noble Truth’s The illusion of self originates and manifests itself in a cleaving to things.
Note: To appreciate the point Jesus makes here fully may require expanding your interpretation of the word heaven. Heaven is referred to numerous times in the Tao Te Ching… 天 (tiān) sky; heaven; overhead; day; a period of time in a day; season; weather; nature; God; Heaven. For me, the heaven Jesus refers to is nature and sky.
Similarly, the Tao Te Ching sees the problem inherent to goods… especially excessive goods. And in the circumstance modern humans find ourselves, excessive goods describes most every facet of life compared to our hunter-gatherer ancestors. For more details on our ancestors, see Kung. Chapter 53 offers this all too common and obviously worst case situation…
Naturally, as animals, people are fond of paths. The problem lies in our ability to ‘stock up’ without restraint. Given the chance, we inevitably gorge ourselves way passed the point of natural balance. Chapter 64 offers a way to mitigate the imbalances resulting from excessive goods as well as the issues raised later in lines 3 to 5…
Taking this, the wise person desires non desire,
And does not value difficult to obtain goods.
Naturally, this is more aspirational than realistic in that these pressures arise from the deepest biology of emotion that is outside our rational control (see Free Will: Fact or Wishful Thinking?). Nevertheless, I find that merely being deeply aware of these factors offers me a heads-up in life.
Gain and loss, which is defective.
When reading this line this morning, I found myself seeing both sides of this coin. Consider the various meanings for this line’s characters: 得与亡孰病 (dé yú wáng shú bìn.)
get (obtain, gain, <frml> satisfied, complacent) take part in (give; offer; grant; support > and; together with) flee (lose; be gone; die; subjugate) who (which; what) ill (sick; fault; defect).
Taking the literal meaning of the Chinese, defective swings both ways. First and most obvious, Loss is defective, i.e., flee (lose; be gone; die; subjugate) and ill (sick; fault; defect).
On the other hand, Gain is defective too, i.e., get (obtain, gain, <frml> satisfied, complacent) and ill (sick; fault; defect). Gain is especially defective when considered in the context of line 2 and 5. All in all, circumstances determine which, gain or loss, is defective. Nonetheless, in the wild natural state without civilization, loss is by far the real defective. Only in civilization does gain turn out to have a significant defective side.
Therefore, the more we love, the greater the cost.
The more we hold on, the deeper the loss.
These lines, 4 and 5, call to mind Buddha’s The desire to live for the enjoyment of self entangles us in the net of sorrows. Pleasures are the bait and the result is pain. Of course, knowing The more we hold on, the deeper the loss doesn’t directly allow us to snap our fingers and let go. Ahhhh… if only we had free will 🙂 However, bravely facing up to this truth helps me avoid spending my life seeking out scapegoats for my costs and losses. Knowing the source of my suffering allows me to take more, if not total, responsibility for my life. In that, I find contentment and a deeper sense of when to stop.
Knowing contentment, never dishonorable.
Knowing when to stop, never dangerous.
The idea of Knowing both contentment and when to stop connects directly to the notion of free will. The knowing hinted at here lies viscerally, intuitively, deeper than any intellectual version of the word knowing holds. Chapter 47 and 56 suggest the depth and breadth of a knowing that a sense of profound sameness touches.
It is only from this depth of knowing that doing without doing (wéi wú wéi –为无为 ) takes place, i.e., Doing without doing, following without exception rules.
Then you can long endure.
Yes, I can long endure, when I more closely match the conditions described in the lines above. However, the long endure (长久) feels more like a return to the original self living the eternal moment. Time is no longer the tick tock of a clock, or the dates on a calendar. Long endure is living the flowing moment. Naturally, that is only possible when emotions are calm enough to allow me to, as chapter 16 says, Devote effort to emptiness, sincerely watch stillness. Knowing this is the cheap price I must pay helps. Here are a few chapters that help me remember the stakes …
Meritorious deeds that satisfy oneself recede; This is the way of nature.#9
The way therefore long enduring, nearly rising beyond oneself. #16
He does not see his self for he is honest; he does not exist for he is clear; #22
Video Archive https://youtu.be/NFs7T3W4R0Q
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