Under heaven, all say my way is great resembling nothing.
Man is only great by reason of resembling nothing.
If it resembled anything, long ago indeed it would trifle, as would man.
I have three treasures of which I hold and protect:
The first I call kindness,
The second I call thrift,
The third I call not daring to act before all under heaven.
Being kind, I can be brave,
Being thrifty, I can spread out,
Not daring to act before all under heaven acts, I can succeed steadily.
Now, abandoning kindness for daring,
Abandoning thrift for spreading out,
Abandoning the rear for the front,
Death!
Man using kindness in battle normally succeeds, and in defense normally resolute.
Heaven leads in rescuing using kindness of defense.
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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/UoBzI_pXy2g 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?
Nothing this time.
Reflections:
Under heaven, all say my way is great resembling nothing.
Man is only great by reason of resembling nothing.
If it resembled anything, long ago indeed it would trifle, as would man.
It is interesting that the first line begins, Under heaven, all say my way is great resembling nothing rather than Under heaven, all say the way is great resembling nothing. This adds a slight personal touch, and can be seen as being a little more accurate than saying the way because there is actually no Chinese character for “the”. For example, translations of chapter one invariably begin with something like, The way possible to think, which is in fact just three characters: dào kĕ dào (道可道). Word for Word gives the literal meaning of these characters: way (road, principle; speak; think, suppose) approve (can; may; fit; suit) way (road, principle; speak; think, suppose). Note how way (道) means both ‘way/road’ and ‘speak/think’. Essentially, the word “the” imparts a misleading objective description of “way”. Thus, thinking or saying “the Tao” is actually a means of naming the unnamable, which is deeply misleading. Even the word “tao” is over-describing the unnamable.
Interestingly, all of chapter 67 is very first person, grammatically speaking. Such first person delivery only occurs in 7 chapters. For example:
(17) 百姓皆谓我自然 > The people all say, “I am natural”;
(20) 我独泊兮其未兆 > I alone am anchored without anticipation;
(42) 人之所教，我亦教之 > Of people’s religious teaching, I also teach ;
(53) 使我介然有知 > Were I mindful yet had knowledge;
(57) 我无为而民自化 > I do nothing and the people change themselves;
(67) 天下皆谓我道大似不肖 > Under heaven, all say my way is great resembling nothing;
(70) 夫唯无知，是以我不知 > Man alone is without knowing, and because of this I don’t know.
My way is great resembling nothing brings to mind the sincere, albeit futile, attempt of religion to avoid naming or depicting God. Certainly, naming something so beyond languages’ ability to represent is a bit foolhardy. Obviously, we have a visceral need to name the indescribable and un-namable. I imagine that serves two purposes—it makes us feel more secure when we can name a mystery, and giving ‘the unnamable mystery’ a name allows us to gather socially around the ‘mystery’ so named.
Personally, If it resembled anything, long ago indeed it would trifle is one reason I could never get on board with any religious or political ‘ism’. (Buddhism, Taoism, socialism, etc.) To paraphrase chapter 1, The reality possible to think or express, runs counter to the constant reality. Isn’t this why Knowing not speak; speaking not know? Oh well, we’re only human.
I have three treasures of which I hold and protect:
The first I call kindness,
The second I call thrift,
The third I call not daring to act before all under heaven.
I notice that when I feel any sort of emotional turmoil—anger, fear, need—my sense of kindness diminishes proportional to the turmoil. That tells me that the world I perceive ‘out there’ is actually a reflection of my inner reality. Thus, when I’m feeling peaceful, I act peaceful and kindness comes naturally. Simply put, the insanity of the world arises from our inner insanity. The principle cause of our insanity is our disease, obviously, i.e., Realizing I don’t know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease. Humanity’s tradeoff only made the affects of our disease a cognitive certainty worse. (See The Tradeoff)
The shift from our ancestral ways also made our ability at being thrifty and not daring to act much more difficult. Civilization allowed us to escape much of Nature’s ruthless aspects temporarily, which gives us the illusion, the false promise, that we can get something for nothing—have our cake and eat it too.
Being kind, I can be brave,
Being thrifty, I can spread out,
Not daring to act before all under heaven acts, I can succeed steadily.
The lack of kindness arises from inner fear. Such insecurity often manifests itself as anger, greed, worry, over reaction. When such stressful survival emotions are absent, being kind is possible and the innate ability to jump into the fray occurs naturally… Courage comes naturally to a peaceful heart.
One of the main aims of civilization is to allow us to get more of everything we want, and avoid more of everything we fear or dislike. Naturally, the ‘more is better’ side of the survival instinct drives this. Absent civilization, nature is always pushing back—counterbalancing—this urge. Civilization bypasses much of this natural pushback, which allows us to spread out willy-nilly to our obvious detriment, i.e., all the nasty extremes we abhor after the fact… slavery, global warming, environmental harm, obesity, war…etc.
Civilization also allows us to dare to act before all under heaven acts. Progress and change are the name of this game. This certainly seems to be a “normal” process to us currently, but when set against the hundreds of thousands of years of our gradual ancestral progress and change, it is quite mind blowing. Humanity has taken charge of its own evolution, culturally anyway, in its quest to enhance survival. We’ve clearly succeeded in the short term. Long-term, Not daring to act before all under heaven acts is the survival virtue for humanity to realize.
Our primary difficulty, as I see it, comes from not realizing ‘more is better’ is only better if there are natural limits on how much you can take. Meaning, not daring to act is only genuinely realistic and doable if there is a genuine recognition of the inherent danger… that every advantage comes with a consequential price. Humanity still naively feels it can ‘get in for free’.
Now, abandoning kindness for daring,
Abandoning thrift for spreading out,
Abandoning the rear for the front,
Death!
The notion of abandoning kindness, thrift, and the rear sounds a lot like free will… as though we have some choice in this matter. Our tendency to abandon the wisest path simply arises out of innate ignorance. Chapter 70 capture’s it well, Our words are very easy to know, very easy to do. Under heaven none can know, none can do. Intuitive wisdom is a result of surviving the “mistakes” made through living a long life. This wisdom is not something that can be learned or taught! In other words, We only understand what we already know!
Thus, death is inevitable, either now or later, but certain. It is the ‘little deaths’ we experience through life—loss, failure, sorrow, decay—that grow the wisdom of Not daring to act before all under heaven acts, for example. As it happens, it took 80 years of failure, loss, death and decay to grow what little intrinsic wisdom I have currently. If I lived to be 1000, no doubt that would deepen considerably!
Man using kindness in battle normally succeeds, and in defense normally resolute.
Heaven leads in rescuing using kindness of defense.
Using kindness in battle is only possible if inner emotions are quiet, with anger, fear, and need on the back burner of perception. Only then can I see the ‘big picture’… the possibilities that strong emotions would otherwise blind me to. Conversely, panic blinds.
This sounds good, right? Again, chapter 70 sobers us up… Our words are very easy to know, very easy to do. Under heaven none can know, none can do. However, simply knowing this is how nature works helps me manage circumstances better… or at least, allows me the comfort of knowing what is going on, even if I have no control over it.
Then again, chapter 71 goes on to pinpoint the deep-seated problem we humans face from believing that we know… Realizing I don’t know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease. This has something in common with the Christian notion of “original sin”, which should be effective for anyone who sincerely feels we all have original sin. However, that is a tall order. I’ve often heard people say, “How can a new born baby be a sinner?” Exactly! An infant has yet to think it knows! That lets infants off the hook, but not for long.
Chapter 10 lays out what we adults can aim for, Loaded down in living, can you be without? Focused in spirit, can you be as a baby? Yet, only an infant “knows”, for infants are free from affectation. As chapter 25 points out, And the way follows that which is natural and free from affectation. Still, it helps to have something to shoot for, and chapter 33 offers us a realistic target…
Chapter Archive https://youtu.be/C5bezBtB3Bw
This is the complete video. It begins with blowing Zen followed by the meeting
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