Monthly Chapter 46 (pandemic era)

All under heaven, having the way,
Retreating horses fertilize the fields.
All under heaven, without the way,
Army horses breed in the suburbs.
Of misfortunes, none are greater than not being content with one’s lot.
Of faults, none are greater than longing for gain.
Therefore, in being contented with one’s lot, enough is usually enough indeed.
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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 (pandemic era) 4/30/2021

Archive: Characters and past commentary

Zoom on YouTube Recordings:

Video Archive https://youtu.be/XlmwD5lYyDs is a link to unedited Zoom video of this month’s Sunday meeting. The shorter first part of the meeting begins with a chapter reading followed by attendees’ commentary, if any. A little later on begins the longer open discussion part of the meeting when those who wish to discuss how the chapter relates to their personal experience.

Corrections?

None this time

Reflections

All under heaven, having the way,
Retreating horses fertilize the fields.
All under heaven, without the way,
Army horses breed in the suburbs.

Reading this chapter today, it came off as somewhat contrary to the way nature works. The chapter seems to portray the way as a path of peace and contentment. Nature is a dynamic process that plays out “evenly” amid these poles (a.k.a., yin & yang, peace & war). And clearly, nature and the way go hand in hand. This is certainly true overall when observed objectively—dispassionately. Ah yes, that’s the hitch here. The way viewed subjectively is another matter entirely!

When I am content with my lot, when enough is usually enough, I harbor no emotional army horses of anger, greediness or expectations. It is only when I’m immersed in those tense emotions do I contend with my moment. Certainly, such personally stressful situations are of the way too, but that is not how I feel it in those moments. Indeed, I feel “responsible” and the pressures to have life go my way. Thus, as chapter 57 advises, Use non responsibility when seeking all under heaven and I am without responsibility and the people thrive themselves. (See Use Non-Responsibility)

Simply put, when I impartially embrace the whole—divergence (war) and convergence (peace)—army horses have no chance to breed. Being the animal I am, emotions can easily thwart such a magnanimous viewpoint. Even so, I do find that sustaining this cosmic view as much as possible does serve as a prophylactic against the worst disease I face in life. As chapter 71 frames this disease, Realizing I don’t know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease, i.e., an arrogance of thinking I know results in army horses breeding within my psyche.

Of misfortunes, none are greater than not being content with one’s lot.
Of faults, none are greater than longing for gain.

These lines also have an objective and subjective context. Objectively, the instinct of longing for gain is the main biological tool life deploys for counteracting entropy. The saying, “no pain, no gain” is a lot truer than we think. The life push to gain means that life is work, and work can often be painful. This means life, of necessity, lacks an inborn capability to experience long-term contentment. The contentment we are capable of feeling is a fleeting few moments of relief after achieving our current aim. For example, hunger compels us to eat. After we eat, contentment and rest follow, only to be quickly replaced by a new longing for gain when I get hungry again. Note, hunger  =  need, desire, longing, etc.  (See Hunger: A Natural Stimulant and Desire and Contentment )

The misfortune and fault we subjectively experience in nature’s dynamic process are the result of civilization overall, and tools specifically. (See The Tradeoff.) Tools allow us to achieve what we desire quickly and easily. Such a rapid succession of achievements brings frequent, albeit fleeting, moments of contentment. This induces in us an unrealistic “common sense” that longing for gain—desire—succeeds. This creates an illusion that permanent gain and winning is possible. These lines from various chapters speak to this error.

Hence, normally without desire so as to observe its wonder (#1).

Not to catch sight of what suits desire, enables people’s heart to avoid confusion. (#3).

See simply, embrace the plain, and have few personal desires. (#19).

With desire choosing anything, of doing I see no satisfied end. (#21).

Transform yet desire rises;
Press it down using nameless simplicity.
Of nameless simplicity, man also supports without desire.
No desire and still, all under heaven will settle themselves.  (#37).

Not to desire jewelry is comparable to beauty. (#1).

I am without desire and the people simplify themselves. (#57).

Being as careful at the end as the beginning as a rule never fails.
Taking this, the wise person desires non desire, (#64).

Therefore, in being contented with one’s lot, enough is usually enough indeed.

The difficulty all living creatures have with being contented with one’s lot begins with the bio-hoodwink. (See How the Hoodwink Hooks) The senses, the instincts, hoodwink living things into feeling certain that reality is the world they experience. Life isn’t aware that what it perceives is restricted to what it evolved to perceive to further survival. In other words, what life perceives is only a small sliver of the whole.

Humans undergo an additional deception that imagination creates. Imagination increases the permanency of the bio-hoodwink. We are able to imagine a past and a future. Not surprisingly, imagination is a blade that cuts both ways. First the good news: Being able to imagine a past and a future allows us to manipulate circumstances deftly. This greatly benefits survival!

Also not surprising is how imagination easily becomes too much of a good thing. We are emotionally convinced these figments of our imagination are real… We believe the virtual reality that plays out in our mind. Imagination enables us to battle with ourselves—our conflicting needs and fears. We fill our plate of life with the stuff of the future and the past, and then find ourselves juggling this mess, convinced that resolution and contentment will be ours if only (__fill in the blank__).

I find the only possible way out of this absurd inner tug-of-war is to strive my utmost to deal with what I have right in front of me, moment by moment. When I consistently do that, no army horses ever breed in the suburbs of my mind. Naturally, my minds imagination is a restless beast always looking for more… Ah yes, that natural instinct shared by all creatures —“more is better”, a.k.a., longing for gain.

Ironically, the only tool I have to pull my mind into the moment is a complete distrust of words, and the thoughts and flights of fancy they produce. This may make chapter 71 the most practical and useful of them all. When moment to moment I viscerally realize—remember—that I don’t know, all that remains is a vast empty space that my trusted beliefs previously filled.

This space doesn’t remain empty—static. ‘Nature abhors a vacuum’, and so thoughts do refill the emptiness. Yet absent my trust in them, words become little more than chaff, that I constantly winnow out to discover occasional gains of insight. Mainly though, the benefit of this effort lies in how it deepens my awareness and faith in what chapter 14 describes nicely…

Of watched yet not seen, call smooth.
Of listened yet not heard, call rarified.
Of handled yet not held, call minute.
These three are unfathomable, hence blend and serve as One.
Its upper part is not bright, its lowest part is not hazy
Unending, it cannot be named, and again returns to no-thing.
This is called the without of shape form, the without of matter shape,
This is called indistinct suddenly.
Of moving toward it, you will not see its head,
Of following behind it, you will not see its back.
Hold the ancient way in order to manage today.
The ability to know the ancient beginning; this is called the way’s discipline.

Faith in the way’s discipline helps me take each moment more seriously. After all, each moment is all I truly have. The rest is imaginative fancy.

Note: It helps to consider thought as simply an emergent property (see Tao As Emergent Property) of the dipolar dynamic processes (See Yin Yang, Nature’s Hoodwink) of the nervous system. As such, it will always lead you down the primrose path of dipolar illusion. Reality becomes a perceptual ‘it’s either this or that’ proposition. Liberation from this cognitive framework becomes possible once you sincerely—viscerally—realize you don’t know.

Breaking my trust in word meaning is probably a very important key to how I approach life. If you can’t truly trust the words you use to think, how can you put too much stock in those thoughts… you can’t!  (See Tools of Taoist Thought: Correlations  )

Video Archive https://youtu.be/XlmwD5lYyDs