Monthly Chapter 58 (pandemic era)

When its politics are boring, its people are honest.
When its politics are scrutinized, its people are imperfect.
Misfortune, yet of good fortune its resting place
Good fortune, yet of misfortune its hiding place
Who knows such extremes? It’s not mainstream.
Mainstream turns to strange, Good turns to evil.
The people have been long confused.
Thus, the wise are upright, yet not cuttingly so.
Honest, yet not stabbingly so.
Straightforward, yet not wantonly so.
Honorable yet not gloriously so.
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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.

Fourth Pass: Chapter of the Month (pandemic era) 4/22/2022

Archive: Characters and past commentary

Zoom on YouTube Recordings:

https://youtu.be/HwvYsFEdHYM is the link to the 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

When its politics are boring, its people are honest.
When its politics are scrutinized, its people are imperfect.

The first line, When its politics are boring, its people are honest, caught me a little off guard. It seems to say that when the people are honest, the people’s politics will be boring. I needed to reflect deeper. Of course, the word politics is straightforward enough. It essentially amounts to the human effort to deal with each other. Heck, all social animals engage in forms of politics to deal with each other. However, for humans, it easily gets dysfunctional at the macro civilization level, at least compared to politics at the local interpersonal level.

Honest, on the other hand, goes to the subtle center of our being. What is the deepest meaning of honest? Consider what these chapters have to say on this:

Lines 4 and 5 from chapter 16, Returning to the root cause is called stillness; this means answering to one’s destiny. Answering to one’s destiny is called the constant; knowing the constant is called honest.

Line 4 and 5 from chapter 22, The wise person uses this to hold the One, and models all under heaven. He does not see his self for he is honest; he does not exist for he is clear.

Lines 1 to 4 from chapter 24, What we look forward to does not exist; What we chase after will not prevail. Seeing self is not honest; Of course, this is not evident.

Lines 1 and 2 from chapter 33, Knowing people is wisdom. Knowing self is honesty.

Lines 6 and 7 from chapter 55, Knowing harmony is called the constant. Knowing the constant is called clear and honest.

And this last line of chapter 78 may really sum it all up, Straight and honest words seem inside out.

The more honest each person in a society is, the fewer devious manipulations will arise in the politics of that society. Conversely, the more blinded we are by our own personal hypocritical biases and beliefs, the more politics becomes ‘interesting’ enough to be scrutinized and talked about among competing factions. In the end, the politics of a society reflects its population’s depth of self-honesty. No wonder the people have been long confused, as line 7 of this chapter puts it.

Misfortune, yet of good fortune its resting place
Good fortune, yet of misfortune its hiding place
Who knows such extremes? It’s not mainstream.

It helps me to be continually aware of the inconsistency between how nature actually works and how I innately want nature to work. All living things embody an inborn bias to survive, which means all life seeks good fortune over misfortune. That sets all life on a confrontational path with nature’s overarching process. As chapter 30 observes, Making matters better as a long-term rule, is not of the dao. Not of the dao ends early… well to be sure, all living things die after completing the life cycle: birth, growth, decay, death.

While all living things struggle with the natural order, we compound our suffering by the disease of thinking that we know. As chapter 71 puts it, Realizing I don’t know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease. A core error we make in thought is thinking that we ‘should’ have good fortune, and that bad luck or some evil spirit or god is throwing misfortune our way. Certainly, all living creatures feel survival pressures—need and fear—but only in humans do such emotions drive false knowing and subsequent deluded thinking.

Most people innately feel the need for the status quo, stability, security—the mainstream. Nature waxes and wanes, ebbs and flows, as it travels eternity’s road—the dao. Chapter 34 depicts this naturally balanced flow, The great way flows, such as it may left and right. Only we humans think we can out maneuver nature when its currents don’t flow the direction we want.

Of course, all living creatures are instinctively pushed to ‘make matters better’ for themselves. Ironically, it appears much of our problem arises from being way too good at doing this. “Too much of a good thing”, as they say. Our big-brain cognitive ability enables us to make matters better… to a fault.

Mainstream turns to strange, Good turns to evil.
The people have been long confused.

Our innate natural survival biases are at odds with the natural order of the universe, and indeed with eternity itself. The people have been long confused has been our problem ever since we began to think, began to know, began to think we know. Unlike other animals, our vivid imagination and ability to conceptualize has put us into a constant cognitive battle with nature. This is the reality from which all our spiritual ideals arise.

Thus, the wise are upright, yet not cuttingly so.
Honest, yet not stabbingly so.
Straightforward, yet not wantonly so.
Honorable yet not gloriously so.

So, what does one do in light of this sobering, humbling reality? First, this is only a sobering and humbling reality to those who realize it, i.e. Realizing I don’t know is better. As my visceral awareness of nature’s way deepens, my only sane way forward is to avoid the extremes, which always flip to their counterpart.  Chapter 56 points the way,

Always investigate the patterns.
That is called profound moral character.
Moral character, profound indeed, distant indeed!
To the outside world, contrary indeed.
Then, and only then, reaching great conformity.

And what does it mean to reach great conformity? Chapter 3 lays it out short and sweet, Doing without doing, following without exception rules.

Finally, while all this may sound great on paper, it is not how nature plays out. In other words, being innately driven to making matters better as a long-term rule means that we will always remain beginners, constantly learning by revisiting our natural folly. As that old saying goes, 2 steps forward, 1 step back… if we’re lucky, that is. The Tao Te Ching does a wonderful job of articulating this journey. All we really need to do is realize it and do the best we can. Doing otherwise is innately impossible. Fortunately, the sheer realization of how nature works helps me lessen my neurotic urge to make matters better.

Chapter Archive https://youtu.be/CQasWqllh8k
This is the complete video. It begins with blowing Zen followed by the meeting