Monthly Chapter 68 (pandemic era)

One adept in being a person is not militant.
One adept in battle is not enraged.
One adept in victory over enemies does not participate.
One adept in utilizing people acts from the lower position.
This is called the moral character of not contending.
This is called employing the ability of the people.
This is called matching of Nature’s ancient utmost.
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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) 3/4/2023

Archive: Characters and past commentary

Zoom on YouTube Recordings:

https://youtu.be/D0PxF5UnKz0 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:

One adept in being a person is not militant.

I feel in being a person as meaning being an evenly keeled human being, more or less at peace with the world as it is. When I’m not militant about some facet of life, I feel balanced. However, when fear or need drives me into an aggressive obsessive corner, that corner drowns out everything but that strident emotion. Of course, that is how nature intends it to be. That is why it’s in my best interest to be wary of any stirring militant emotions. “Pick your battles wisely”, as they say. Importantly, any ability to pick my battles wisely hinges on the extent of the disease within me, i.e., Realizing I don’t know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease. The more acute this disease, the less wisdom is able to rule my day.

One adept in battle is not enraged.

Long ago while learning Karate, I noticed that the calmer I could remain in the face of battle (free sparring jiyu kumite) the more adept I was at seeing what was going on. As emotion (fear or need) increased, this passion blinded me to any ‘first strike’ or ‘timely defense’ opportunities. Of course, such battle extremes are not common in daily life, per se. Nonetheless, life overall is a constant, albeit, low-key battle. Keeping one’s cool as much as practical wins the day. Here, the disease will always play a large role because our thoughts have a way of amplifying and skewing perceptions.

One adept in victory over enemies does not participate.

The idea of victory over enemies has to be redefined somewhat to make sense in normal life. Essentially, anything that I dislike is an enemy, and anything that I like is a friend. Our likes and dislikes in life drive the ways we participate in life. In order to not participate, I find I must blur the sharp distinctions between my likes and dislikes. Thus, my real victory over enemies is really a matter of my victory over my likes and dislikes. The initial 4 lines of chapter 4 offers sound guidance…

The way flushes and employs the virtue of ‘less’.
Deep like the ancestor of every-thing.
Subdue its sharpness, separate its confusion,
Soften its brightness, be the same as its dust.

When I succeed here, the final three lines of this chapter open wide.

Deep and clear, it appears to exist.
I don’t know of whose child it is,
It resembles the ancestor of the Supreme Being.

Note: It is misleading to interpret Supreme Being as being God or the like. Again, chapter 1 precludes any naming of the mystery. Consider the literal charaters, 帝之先 (xiàng dì zhī xiān), for this line:

象=  appearance (shape; image; resemble)
帝= the Supreme Being (emperor. supreme ruler, god)
之先= of earlier (before; first; ancestor, early / prior / former / in advance / first).

This line is referring to what came before “the supreme being”, “god”. In other words what came before the creation of everything; what preceded the ‘big bang’, to put it in contemporary terms. It should be evident why words fail us here.

One adept in utilizing people acts from the lower position.

I once had a bunch of egg laying hens. One hen was the ballsy ‘cock’ of the group. This pecking order didn’t truly change when a raccoon killed her. Another hen just rose up to fill the void… to ‘rule the roost’. I’ve find that when I’m able to take the lower position, other people naturally rise up to fulfill their potential. Being unaware or unable to act from the lower position is a real liability—a real missed opportunity—for those in charge of others. Of course, acting from the lower position is only possible when one feels self secure enough to allow life to play out naturally, i.e., wéi wú wéi, (为无为) Doing without doing. Again, this following without exception rules approach is only possible when one is self-secure enough. Still, simply knowing the ‘magic’ of this approach may help tip the scales occasionally.

This is called the moral character of not contending.

One problem that spiritual ideals stir up is the challenging and unrealistic urge to ‘walk the talk’ spiritually. This urge is born in our imagination. We can imagine a reality that is highly skewed from Nature’s ancient utmost. Contending and cooperating are two essential facets of life. Calling something the moral character of not contending is overall misguided. All the same, in a world biased towards competition, it is natural to emphasize the opposite, i.e., not contending. Even so, I find it works more efficiently to realize the forces in nature, and let that guide me as much as practicable. Otherwise, I find it all too easy to get trapped in an ideal. When that happens, I just end up in a losing battle contending with myself… my reality vs. my ideality.

This is called employing the ability of the people.

This line reiterates line 4, One adept in utilizing people acts from the lower position. And having the moral character of not contending certainly makes this more possible. Certainly, all this sound great on paper theoretically, but it isn’t the whole picture! Problems arise when we only see part of the picture yet think we see the whole picture. The reality we see is merely a reflection of our self—our inner nature—  at the moment, despite our fear or need induced certainty that we see an objective reality… a true ‘out there’.

Ah yes, back to chapter 71… Realizing I don’t know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease. Calling out this disease is perhaps the most significant insight of the Tao Te Ching. And perhaps, one of the most threatening to the human imagination and ego, at least if taken seriously.

This is called matching of Nature’s ancient utmost.

All the lines above are aspects of matching Nature’s ancient utmost, albeit, with more emphasis on one side. What is Nature’s ancient utmost? Examining this at the character level may help:  Sky (heaven; day; season; nature; God) ancient (age-old) of extreme (pole, utmost) =  tiān gŭ zhī jí  =  天古之极. The character 极 is the Ji in Tai Chi… great pole… yin and yang.

Nothing is left out of Nature’s ancient utmost! Yet, this chapter emphasizes the more passive (yin) qualities. Civilization has an innate need to embody the primarily yang side of the coin to make its hierarchical social system function optimally (see The Tradeoff).

Spirituality attempts to remind us of the benefits and balance that the yin aspects of Nature bring. What always seems lacking is a full recognition and acceptance of the whole. We need to have an enemy to rally our spirits around, and so we believe that whatever stands in the way of what we want is an enemy. Truth be told,  taking on an enemy never resolves the situation. As chapter 69 offers…

Those who use weapons have a saying:
We dare not act as hosts, but act as visitors.
We dare not advance an inch, but withdraw a foot.
This is called going without going.
Grabbing without an arm.
Casting aside without opposing.
Taking charge without weapons.
Of misfortunes, none is greater than rashly opposing.
Rashly opposing nearly lost me treasure.
Therefore contending militantly, adds sorrow to victory.

So, doesn’t it always come back to this… Realizing I don’t know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease?

Chapter Archive https://youtu.be/ytacf6popUM
This is the complete video. It begins with blowing Zen followed by the meeting