The outside world passes for the beginning of Heaven and Earth.There is a thing, blending, bringing about the birth of Heaven and Earth
There is a thing, blending, bringing about the birth of Heaven and Earth.
Still and silent, it alone does not change,
Goes round yet does not harm.
It can serve as the mother of all under heaven and earth.
We don’t know its name.
Powerful, of words we call it the way.
Striving, of reputation we call it great.
Great we call death, death we call distant, distant we call reversal.
Hence, the way is great, heaven is great, earth is great, and man is also great;
In the center there exists four ‘greats’, and people reside as one.
People follow earth, earth follows heaven, heaven follows the way,
And the way follows that which is natural and free from affectation.
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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
(Trump era)
Archive: Characters and past commentary
Zoom on YouTube Recordings:
https://youtu.be/2R4BXDJ8eO0 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 was able to interpret the first line, The outside world passes for the beginning of Heaven and Earth, reasonably well this morning, but I still felt my thoughts a bit convoluted. Of course, that comes with trying to interpret a lot of what the Tao Te Ching is getting at. Even so, upon thinking through this line again I feel a change is in order. There is a thing, blending, bringing about the birth of Heaven and Earth makes a better transition to the lines that follow.
Reflections:
There is a thing, blending, bringing about the birth of Heaven and Earth.
Still and silent, it alone does not change,
Goes round yet does not harm.
It can serve as the mother of all under heaven and earth.
There is a thing seems to be pointing to the way. I feel another way to think of the way is like that of a process. Or still better, the way is the playing field for the process of existence. It isn’t existence nor Heaven nor Earth, but the ’empty field’ in which existence ebbs and flows.
Still and silent, it alone does not change, describes for me the deepest waters of consciousness I seek to sense when I, as chapter 16 puts it, Devote effort to emptiness, sincerely watch stillness. Isn’t this the overall aim of meditation and deep prayer? Tapping this constancy during activity is simply wéi wú wéi… as chapter 3 notes, Doing without doing, following without exception rules (为无为，则无不治)
Goes round yet does not harm. It can serve as the mother of all under heaven and earth speaks to how process, by itself, does not harm. It is just the wheels of nature turning round.
We don’t know its name.
Powerful, of words we call it the way.
Striving, of reputation we call it great.
Great we call death, death we call distant, distant we call reversal.
We don’t know its name—this thing—but we can sense some of its properties like, Powerful and Great. “Great” is a pseudo-synonym for the way, which helps us avoid becoming lost in words. Just one word is needed here: Great.
Great we call death feels like the proper place for death. Nothing escapes it! As Buddha’s dying word put it, “All things created pass away, strive on diligently”. This “strive on diligently” implies a sense of reversal… life and death, two sides of the same Great coin. One of the most striking aspects of our little deaths of loss and failure are how these “lows” are usually followed by Great renewal; we pick ourselves up and “strive on diligently”. Of course, this truth does little to nothing to help one suffering a current loss. The suffering is the doorway to renewal, so to speak.
Overall, reversal is one Taoist view that is 180 degrees away from the innate way we approach life. Going forward, progress (i.e., hunt and gather) is the name of life’s game. All life on Earth plays this game by nature’s rules—nature’s “normal”. On the other hand, we are cleverly able to bend the rules a bit. Thus our gameplay has become very problematic for civilized humanity (see The Tradeoff), and so for us, balance lies in reversal. As chapter 16 notes, Returning to the root cause is called stillness; this means answering to one’s destiny. We find ourselves way out on the limb of progress and change. Balance for us lies in returning. Chapter 40 offers us a more complete view of reality…
Hence, the way is great, heaven is great, earth is great, and man is also great;
In the center there exists four ‘greats’, and people reside as one.
People follow earth, earth follows heaven, heaven follows the way,
And the way follows that which is natural and free from affectation.
Hence, the way is great makes clear that everything arising from this great thing is also great. The thing is Great, the way is great, and everything arising from that process is great, which means everything! As chapter 73 suggests, Nature’s net is vast and thin, yet never misses. I suppose here, Great has no opposite, which feels a bit odd. Then again, The name possible to express runs counter to the constant name. So, obviously it is wisest to always take word meaning lightly. Words are not what they seem. See Tools of Taoist Thought: Correlations.
I see this as a Great pattern upon which all creation models itself. And the way follows that which is natural and free from affectation. Free from affectation reveals to us that the way is nothing if not impartial. Free from affectation tells us that nature has no agenda, no motive (hidden or otherwise). See Tao As Emergent Property for a way to view the idea of the Great as being a pattern, mold, or model for existence. The large “?” mark could be seen as the Great.
That nature, the way, and the Great, are free from affectation means that they have no will, no agenda, no idealized outcome driving the process… Still and silent, it alone does not change. In other words, the way has no will, free or otherwise. Not surprisingly, I notice that the less I feel I am in control of my life, or that I have free will, the more “empty” I feel. Within that emptiness all that remains for me to feel is the way. Conversely, believing I have free will automatically forces me to pursue the way. In other words, believing I have free will prevents me from ‘doing without doing’ (wei wu wei). Without free will, I have no choice but to ‘do without doing’. This may not end up with me acting much differently than when I believed in free will. However, it does end up changing how I view mine and other people’s actions in life. See Free Will: Fact or Wishful Thinking?
I’m guessing that the belief in free will, choice, and control can’t help but make the Tao Te Ching’s point of view feel extremely paradoxical at times. Simply put, an inherent sense of free will (choice) makes Doing without doing, following without exception rules all but impossible. By relinquishing control over life, paradox transitions to emptiness . No longer do Straight and honest words seem inside out!
Chapter Archive https://youtu.be/gAyxgu3rXvM
This is the complete video. It begins with blowing Zen followed by the meeting