Govern a big country as if boiling a small fish.
So that the way is present for all under heaven,
Its spirit is not magical.
Not only that its spirit is not magical,
Its magic does not hinder the people.
Not only that its magic does not hinder the people,
The wise person does not hinder the people.
Neither assists in hindering,
Therefore, each ascribes virtue to the other.
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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.
Fourth Pass: Chapter of the Month
(pandemic era)
Archive: Characters and past commentary
Zoom on YouTube Recordings:
https://youtu.be/v7a49MJitzQ 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?
I am seriously tempted to change the character 神 from magical to supernatural. The question is, would this be less prone to misinterpretation? Today, supernatural feels like it may convey the reality better.
Reflections
Govern a big country as if boiling a small fish.
So that the way is present for all under heaven,
When boiling a small fish impatiently, the roiling water easily disintegrates the fish. Governing a big country impatiently is likewise destructive. The tug of war between the conservative and liberal factions of society tends to slow down the government actions of society. This helps to Govern a big country as if boiling a small fish, and in the process, upsets each faction impatiently wanting the pendulum to swing their way.
Naturally, this advice can also apply to how I govern my life. I tend to be much more patient and watchful when dealing with the major ‘big fish’ events in life, and much less so during the daily mundane small fish events. Why? I feel in a hurry to get results when I take the eternal moment for granted. I’ve accepted the benefit of being present—watchful in the moment—for 60+ years. However, youthful biology has often made implementing this in practice challenging. Only as I become elderly am I more easily able to live true to this ideal. Why?
If nothing else, life is a life-long learning process. Over time, life experience gradually generates intuitive knowing which confirms (or disproves) the general conceptual knowledge I’ve picked up earlier in life. Only then can I really practice what I preach. (See We only understand what we already know.) A large part of this lies in how circumstances force me to be much more watchful now so I don’t hurt myself! Importantly as well, I have no choice but to seriously face the question, “If not now, when?” The lesson here: A genuine sense of necessity is the emotional fuel required to transform ideality into reality.
So yes, as I age, I am able to make it so that the way is present for all under heaven… at least for most all under my heaven. Aging is a difficult journey toward the end, yet well worth the ride because one has the final opportunity to live out one’s remaining days with utmost authenticity. As chapter 25 concludes, And the way follows that which is natural and free from affectation.
Its spirit is not magical.
Not only that its spirit is not magical,
Its magic does not hinder the people.
I had to refer to the Chinese character for the word magical. Magical didn’t seem to make complete sense. The character 神 translates as god (supernatural; magical; smart). While god may be the closest in meaning, I’m certain I avoided using god because it would lead to many misleading interpretations. I suppose now the same may be true for magical. Today I feel supernatural may be the least prone to misinterpretation, and yet?
The other character here, 鬼, is also somewhat easy to misinterpret. It translates as ghost (spirit; dirty trick; terrible). Ghost fits, but would be misinterpreted more easily. ‘Spirit of the way’ rather than ‘ghost of the way’ conveys the intended meaning better.
Accordingly, its spirit is not supernatural. Supernatural means beyond or outside of nature. Nature is foundational, which makes the way anything but supernatural. This is important to declare because of what I’ve found to be a pronounced tendency to regard “The Tao” as a kind of supernatural or god kind of ‘thing’.
Simply put, the way is not an object to worship or to be pigeonholed and revered. After all, as chapter one begins, The way possible to think, runs counter to the constant way. Of course, we can’t help our fear induced urge to name reality, to pin it down so we can understand it and manage it. This all begins with the urge to name ourselves. The illusion of self begins with a name to cleave onto. As Buddha put it in his second truth, The illusion of self originates and manifests itself in a cleaving to things.
Not only that its magic does not hinder the people,
The wise person does not hinder the people.
Being in accord with the way means that a person allows reality to flow… allows evolution to play out the way. Of course, this goes against the survival instincts that impel us to manipulate circumstances to match our ideals of how life should be. Undoubtedly, every animal experiences this urge to a degree. However, our massive imagination allows us to greatly overdo this impulse to control. We are larger than life in our imagination. Indeed, imagination has over taken our sense of reality, skewing it to picture what we want in lieu of what we have here and now. We live in an imagined landscape of past, present and future.
Certainly, this has enabled us to become the apex predator that we are. Imagination along with our versatile thumbs and fingers has been an incredible survival advantage. Not surprisingly, humanity must pay a price for this. I call it natural justice, i.e., every advantage comes with some type of equal and opposite disadvantage. Unsurprisingly as well, we are much more proud of our advantage and rather oblivious to, and un-accepting of, the cost we must pay. We want to have it both ways… “We want to have our cake and eat it too”. Is this a human fault? Not at all… it is a simple natural instinct to get all an animal can get with paying as little for it as possible. After all, in the wild this would be a survival advantage.
Neither assists in hindering,
Therefore, each ascribes virtue to the other.
This reminds me of chapter 77’s conclusion…
The holy person uses this to serve, yet does not rely on,
Meritorious deeds result, yet not dwelled within.
Such absence of desire appears able and virtuous – how odd!
It all boils down to how deeply the “illusion of self” is ingrained in a person. Claiming merit for our works in life becomes just another thing on which to cleave. And why do we cleave to things? Insecurity! Fear of loss, failure, and death (entropy) drives us to find things to hang onto. Cleaving onto virtue in particular is the result of the fear of being socially insignificant. In addition, when we feel little personal merit, we identify with those who we deem to have greater merit. Through empathy with them, some of the merit we ascribe to them rubs off on us. We can bathe in the glow of the spotlight we shine on our heroes.
Note, does any of this sound like criticism? If it does, this may be a ‘shoot the messenger’ matter. I am simply attempting to point out the biological forces I see at work in how we behave.
Chapter Archive https://youtu.be/pAIytdz4o8s
This is the complete video. It begins with blowing Zen followed by the meeting
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