Translation
What we look forward to, does not exist;
What we chase after, will not prevail.
Seeing your self, is not honest;
Of course, this is not evident.
Attacking your self is without merit;
Self pity does not endure.
Such ways are called surplus food and superfluous forms.
Matters of the outside world, perhaps fierce,
Hence one who has the way does not dwell in them.
1) stand on tiptoe (look forward to) (者) no (not) stand (found; exist; live); 企者不立；(qĭ zhĕ bù lì;)
2) step (stride; go beyond) (者) no (not) go (be current; prevail; do; competent). 跨者不行。(kuà zhĕ bù xíng.)
3) self (one’s own; certainly) see (catch sight of_ appear; become visible) (者) no (not) bright (clear; honest; know); 自见者不明；(zì jiàn zhĕ bù míng;)
4) naturally (of course) (者) no (not) clear (evident; conspicuous). 自是者不彰。(zì shì zhĕ bù zhāng.)
5) self (one’s own; certainly) fell (cut down; strike; attack) (者) nothing (without; not; regardless of) merit (achievement); 自伐者无功；(zì fá zhĕ wú gōng;)
6) self (one’s own; certainly) pity (sympathize with; self-important; conceited) (者) no (not) of long duration (forte). 自矜者不长。(zì jīn zhĕ bù cháng.)
7) his (her; its; their, he, she, it, they; that; such) exist (be living) road (way, principle; speak; think) also (too; as well; either) say (call; name); surplus (more than; over) bring food to (feed) superfluous (redundant; be cumbersome) form (entity; look). 其在道也曰：余食赘形。(qí zài dào yĕ yuē: yú shí zhuì xíng.)
8) matter (the outside world as distinct from oneself) perhaps (or> someone) evil (fierce, dislike; hate) of, 物或恶之，(wù huò ĕ zhī,)
9) happening (reason; hence) have (there is; exist) road (way, principle; speak; think) (者) no (not) place (part, be situated in; manage> dwell; live). 故有道者不处。 (gù yŏu dào zhĕ bù chŭ.)
Fourth Pass: Chapter of the Month
(Trump era)
Zoom on YouTube Recordings:
https://youtu.be/Tv9-JAk2Pgo 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:
What we look forward to does not exist;
What we chase after will not prevail.
What we look forward to does not exist exposes a problem caused by our uniquely fertile imagination. First, visceral needs and fears kindle our imagination. Then, any goals arising from this inevitably steer thought to look forward to realizing the goal. We are so caught up in our cognitive ‘virtual reality’ that we fail to perceive any downside of this approach to life.
One certain downside we all experience, at least subconsciously, lies in how chasing the future diminishes our full engagement with the present. Another downside lies in the fact that What we look forward to often turns out to be disappointing, especially if it is fueled by high expectations. (see Science Proves Buddha Right!) And then there is the extremely fleeting aspect of What we look forward and What we chase after. As soon as we achieve the goal, we are soon trapped by the next imagined What we look forward and What we chase after. All this commotion, fueled by a belief in our sense of agency and free will, robs us of being fully present within the eternal moment, unlike other life on earth… as far as we can tell.
Because we experience much of life in the realm of imagination, we miss out on what lies beyond our imagination. Our imagination is something of a cognitive prison masquerading as a life fulfillment center. Our ability to imagine doing something creates a free will belief that we can do it. This is not to say, don’t imagine! The horse began leaving that barn as we gained our cognitive prowess. This is to say, simply realize the emotional and mental processes that are in play. That alone helps one avoid becoming a prisoner of looking forward to and chasing after.
Note: My initial introduction to the first lines of this chapter was via D.C. Lau’s translation which reads, He who tiptoes cannot stand; He who strides cannot walk. I usually saw this as saying if one goes to the extremes, one misses the ‘normal’ way of doing life. While this is true, it isn’t what the actual Chinese characters are saying. So which version is better, D.C.Lau’s more poetic one, or this more literal one? It may be a tossup here, but in other chapters, I find the literal more useful than the poetically beautiful. As chapter 81 reminds, True speech isn’t beautiful, Beautiful speech isn’t true. The attempt to make something beautiful produces unavoidable biases.
Seeing self is not honest;
Of course, this is not evident.
When I read this I had to ask myself, what is honest really mean? At the fundamental level, honest must mean to encompass the whole picture. For example, the news (or gossip) is essentially NOT honest because it reports only the interesting aspects of an occurrence. Of course, this is natural. Novelty stimulates emotions and attracts observers. This appears to be true of many, if not all, animals to some degree.
An intuitive sense of self is part of the survival mechanism of all animals. Human cognition, driven by this sense, fabricates an idea of self. The “illusion of self” that Buddha notes in his 2nd Noble Truth comes to mind. Thus, Seeing self is not honest because we are seeing a mere slice of the whole picture, of the whole self. This Seeing self is not honest because the self we see is a narrow projection of the needs and fears we harbor, as well as a lifetime of accumulated personal memory—what we ‘cleave to’. Such a reflection is terribly skewed and not honest.
Seeing self is not honest, looking forward to and chasing after are not evident, naturally. This is due to the abiding trust we place in our imagination and the thoughts it spawns. In a way, this causes us to see ourselves as the center of the universe… emotionally anyway. Chapter 71 calls out the serious downside of trusting our thoughts: Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease.
Attacking self is without merit;
Self pity does not endure.
Attacking self and Self pity can only occur if there is an “illusion of self” field. Seeing self creates this field, where emotional needs and fears play themselves out, sometimes indefinitely for some unfortunate people. So why does this say, Self pity does not endure? First, I return to the character for pity—矜. While the most direct meaning now is pity, it also means “sympathize with, self-important, and conceited”. These are connected in that you can’t feel pity without some degree of “sympathize with, self-important, or conceit”. “Self-importance” does not endure may be easier to picture.
Such ways are called surplus food and superfluous forms.
Such matters of the outside world are perhaps loathsome.
Hence, one who has the way does not dwell in them.
The line Such ways are called surplus food and superfluous forms threw me at first. What do the psycho-emotional matters raised in this chapter have to do with food? Then I realized, What we look forward to and the rest is a form of emotional sustenance not that different from what we look forward to in food. Actual food of course, is not superfluous. Without food we die. Not so with any absence of looking forward to, chasing after, attacking self or self pity. Indeed, just the opposite. A life lived mostly in the present is only possible if one realizes how imagination and all it creates traps us in a virtual reality.
Chapter Archive https://youtu.be/ZYRhAdRVEok
This is the complete video. It begins with blowing Zen followed by the meeting
P.S. The movie we are discussing at the end of the meeting is “The Man from Earth“. For me it does a good job of portraying the relative and conditional nature of knowledge. As human animals, much of our reality is a virtual experience taking place in the mind’s knowledge base, so to speak. Putting trust in such a conditional realm causes us much joy balanced by much grief, the likes of which no other animal on earth experiences. Our cognitive ability to build knowledge and use it to manipulate nature has brought humanity to the pinnacle of survival. Naturally then, the cost of this profound benefit has been the rift from nature we experience, and we’ve been seeking to connect with the way ever since.
Third Pass: Chapter of the Month
Corrections?
None this time
Reflections:
What we look forward to does not exist;
What we chase after will not prevail.
‘Does not exist’ comes with a caveat seeing as how looking forward only exists in imagination. And what is imagination really? Fundamentally, it is a cognitive projection of our needs and fears. It is what we dream of having or avoiding. Yet, it is easy to give the virtual reality we imagine as being the equal of our visceral ‘here and now’ reality. We flee our imaginary tigers; we pursue our imaginary pots of gold.
It takes a while of living to realize fully that what we chase after will not prevail. Part of this is due to the nature of changing conditions. A subtler side of this quixotic quest lies in the natural fact we lack an innate instinct for appreciation. Yes, we can appreciate things, but only when we are contemporaneously conscious of the opposite. Once I forget, I’m off chasing again. The grass is always going to feel greener ‘over there’. Such is the instinct that drives animals to hunt and gather enthusiastically. It serves survival. Civilized circumstances make this natural ‘grass is greener’ instinct more stressful and so much less balanced.
Seeing self is not honest threw me off today. I wondered, “What is honest exactly, and what is seeing self really mean?” Here is an example of the benefit of referring to the various synonyms the Chinese characters embody, i.e., Seeing self is not honest; =自是者不彰 = self (one’s own; certainly) see (catch sight of_ appear; become visible) (者) no (not) bright (clear; honest; know). In other words: Seeing self is not know. Or perhaps, Seeing self is ignorant.
What do we tend to see when we are seeing self? Right off the bat, from infancy, we learn to see ourselves as a name, a gender, an age. Later we see our self as the diploma we earned, our skills and profession, our affiliations (religious, political, hobby, sports, music, food… the list goes on), and of course, what we need and fear. (See Fear & Need Born in Nothing.) No wonder some long to return to original self. Chapter 1 hints at what that might be. To paraphrase: The self possible to think, runs counter to the constant self. The self possible to express runs counter to the constant self.
However, as the next line states, Of course, this is not evident.
‘Attacking self is without merit’ and ‘Self pity does not endure’ are the inevitable consequences of seeing self. When the self we see is a jumbled mixture of arbitrary and artificial labels, we easily tangle ourselves into a competition between who we think we are and who we think we want or ought to be. Much of this is a result of the hierarchical pressures we face to find our ‘perfect’ niche. (For a deeper view, see The Tradeoff)
Line 5 offers another occasion to check the synonyms—the literal meanings of the characters. The words “without merit” break down this way:
无【wú】 nothing; nil; not have; there is not; without; not; regardless of; no matter whether, what,
功【gōng】 meritorious service (or deed); merit; exploit; achievement; result; skill; work.
One problem with the word merit can lie in the morality it could convey, as in meritorious deeds. Considering the synonyms helps. For example, Attacking self is without result, achievement. In other words, it is futile, useless, a waste of energy and time. Yet, Seeing self drives us to attack. Again, no wonder some long for what chapter 52 describes as, Already knowing its offspring, return to observe the origin. Nearly rising beyond oneself.
Such ways are called surplus food and superfluous forms.
Such matters of the outside world are perhaps loathsome.
Why are we so drawn to what, in the natural wild, would seem obviously to be surplus food and superfluous forms? The fact is, we are biologically drawn to pursue the reality we perceive. We chase the superfluous contents of our expectations and imaginations. And in ignorance we do just that. It is not that ignorance is the problem; it is the fact that we are ignorant of our ignorance. As chapter 71 advised, Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease. Only a lifetime of chewing on experience seems to bring us closer to that realization… if we are fortunate! But, is it really fortunate? The cost of realizing this is the realization of the widespread disease afflicting humanity. Every advantage comes with a cost. I call it natural, cosmic justice. Free anything is foolish illusion born of wishful thinking.
Hence, one who has the way does not dwell in them.
This last line, unfortunately can make it sound like a prescriptive ‘should’. It helps to see it just as stated. It can help to think, If and when one has the way… In other words, one cannot willfully choose to not dwell in them, in order to have the way. Having the way happens by de fault when we are not dwelling on anything. In other words, having the way is a pleasant symptom of not dwelling in them!
Everything that lies beyond our control is, “By the grace of God”, as the Christians say, or “Insha’Allah (if God wills)” as Islam puts it. I suppose non-theistic paths could say, “by the grace of nature”. One of the benefits of losing my belief in free will has been my sense that everything in life is ‘by the grace of nature’… or God, if you like. After all, God is just a fancy word for nature. Or is it the other way around? Of course, God degrades once you name it; to paraphrase chapter 1,
Oh well..
Second Pass: Work in Progress
Issues:
For this chapter, I just needed to remove a few superfluous comas and the prefix ‘your‘ from yourself in several lines. I figure why not stick to the simplest literal meaning. This character in question, zì (自) means: self; oneself; one’s own; certainly; of course; from; since, depending on context and other duel character uses. We can see that ‘yourself‘ is not at all wrong; it just presents an overly narrow view of self in aspect here; it is oneself and much more. It really helps to plumb what we mean by self…
I’m looking at this character in a larger context, more along the lines of zìrán (or zìran) (自然). Rán (然) means: right; correct; so; like that and together as zìrán mean: natural; free from affectation, at ease; natural world; nature; naturally; in the ordinary course of events; of course. This zì (自) is more along the lines of true self, or original self, rather than the various nuances that culture imparts.
Commentary:
What we look forward to does not exist, so why do we spend so many of our waking moments with the mind’s eye looking to the future? For the same reason, what we look backward upon does not exist also.
The best moments of my life are when I wake to each moment as though I were waking from sleep. The time I spend with my mind in the future or the past is sleep-time compared to being awake to the flow of the moment. It is sobering to realize the extent our thinking and wandering (and wondering) mind can dull or suppress the flow of awareness. Awareness is repeatedly hung up in whirlpools and eddies, and is only pulled into mainstream consciousness when novelty stimulates (especially worry and desire related).
That’s the tradeoff: Thought in exchange for an ’empty free-flowing mind’. However, is this really true? Each condition produces its counterpart according to the Taoist view. Every river has its eddies and its mainstream current. Why should the river of life, of awareness, be any different? So perhaps there is not all that much different between other animals and ourselves. Line 3‘s, Seeing self is not honest points to the blindness inflicted by a self-centric awareness. Then, an animal’s awareness dulls and they become easy prey for the predator. Then, our awareness dulls and we become easy prey to the vortexes of imagination. I suppose this is especially true now that we have eliminated all the predators that used to snatch us—now we must serve both roles in nature… see, Self-Predation.
Suggested Revision:
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.
Attacking self is without merit;
Self pity is does not endure.
Such ways are called surplus food and superfluous forms.
Such matters of the outside world are perhaps loathsome.
Hence, one who has the way does not dwell in them.
First Pass: Chapter of the Week
I’ve long seen this chapter as pointing out symptoms that reveal one’s deeper reality (i.e., underlying causes). For example, D.C. Lau translation says ‘He who brags will have no merit‘. This implies that bragging causes one to have no merit. Seeing it that way is putting the cart before the horse. Bragging is simply a way to compensate for feeling a lack of merit (a sense of self worth). In other words, we counterbalance our inner reality with external opposites. The more extreme the inner, the more extreme the external ‘counterbalance’ one can notice. That is, provided one knows this counterbalancing process runs the show. There’s the hitch. The tendency judge a book by its cover blinds us to underlying causes.
Interestingly, the original says: ‘self (one’s own, certainly) fell (cut down, strike, attack) (thing) nothing (without, not, regardless of) merit (achievement)’. How faithful is D.C. Lau’s translation? A translation is, in part, an interpretation arising from one’s own world view. I’m guessing D.C. Lau holds the view that ‘he who brags will have no merit’. The word will gives the time line, i.e., this will produce that. On the other hand, simply saying ‘He who brags is without merit’ is closer to the original and more vague as to which causes which.
Again, the original states: self (one’s own, certainly) fell (cut down, strike, attack) (thing) nothing (without, not, regardless of) merit (achievement). D.C. Lau translated this as ‘He who brags will have no merit‘ while last time I translated this as In self attack, we achieve nothing. Let’s break that down: When one achieves nothing, one often attacks oneself (self blame). That is a more symptomatic point of view. The achieving nothing precedes the self blame. Of course, if one is always attacking one’s self, one will not achieve much of anything. I suppose both are true. The fundamental cause though, is a sense of lacking. This drives self blame which in turn inhibits achievement. It can become a vicious circle leading one to seek therapy or booze!
This time I am inclined to put it this way: Cutting down one’s self is without merit, or perhaps, Cutting down one’s self regardless of one’s merit. Both sound reasonable. The former says there is no merit in demeaning yourself. The later says just the opposite in a ‘positive’ way. To put it another way, take the lower position regardless of any meritorious achievements.
While I rather prefer the later, ‘positive’ view, I went with: Attacking your self is without merit. This illustrates the role one’s own world view plays in ‘understanding’ the Tao Te Ching. At best, in truth, you only end up ‘understanding’ your own world view a bit more broadly. In this case, I have two opposing ways to ‘understand’ it. The bottom line: I can not learn what I do not ‘know’ already for the learning is a function of what is already within my current world view. Goodness, what a radical view! It’s something Chuang Tzu might have liked.
The ‘stand on tiptoe (look forward to) (thing) not stand (found; exist; live); step (stride; go beyond) (thing) not go (be current; prevail; do; competent) ‘ also raises the question of which causes which. I experience it this way: not existing in the here and now causes me to look forward; not being current causes me to go beyond. Again, this easily becomes a vicious circle. The more I look forward the less here and now I am; the less here and now I am, the more I look forward to… foreknowledge
We must be innately set up to see the symptoms we see, not as the symptoms they are, but as causes. I suppose this is biologically more expedient survival wise, especially for species that don’t think. That way an animal need not sweat reality’s details, but simply react to how reality appears. The downside for humans is that we fail to get to the bottom of ‘things’. ‘Thing’ being the mountains we make out of the mole holes we see. Regarding what I see ‘out there’ as merely a symptom of something ‘in here’ helps me get deeper toward the bottom of ‘things’, and so avoid the vicious circle my mind can sometimes lead me into.