Chapter 3

Translation

Not to value worthy people, enables people to avoid contending.
Not to value rare goods, enables people to avoid stealing.
Not to catch sight of what suits desire, enables people’s heart to avoid confusion.
This is because of how the wise person governs;
Empties their hearts, fills their bellies,
Weakens their aspirations, strengthens their bones,
Always enables the people to be unlearned and without desire,
And enables resourceful men to never dare to act also.
Doing without doing, following without exception rules.

1) no (not) still (yet; value) virtuous (able worthy person), send (tell to do; use; cause; enable) people no (not) contend (vie; strive; argue). 不尚贤，使民不争。(bù shàng xián, shĭ mín bù zhēng)

2) no (not) expensive (valuable) rare (hard to come by) of goods (commodity), send (tell to do; use; cause; enable) people no (not) do (act; become; be) steel (rob; thief). 不贵难得之货，使民不为盗。(bù guì nán dé zhī huò, shĭ mín bù wéi dào)

3) no (not) see (catch sight of) approve (can; may; need doing; fit; suit) desire (longing; wish; want), send (tell to do; use; cause; enable) people the heart (mind; feeling; intention; center; core) no (not) in disorder (in confusion). 不见可欲，使民心不乱。(bù jiàn kĕ yù, shĭ mín xīn bù luàn)

4) <grm> is (yes <frml> this; that) use (<v> take <p> according to; because of <adj> so as to <conj> and) sage (holy; sacred) human (man; people) of rule (govern; manage; order), 是以圣人之治，(shì yĭ shèng rén zhī zhì)

5) void (emptiness; empty) his (her; its; their) the heart (mind; feeling; intention; center; core), solid (true; honest; reality; fruit; seed) his (her; its; their) belly (abdomen; stomach), 虚其心，实其腹，(xū qí xīn, shí qí fù)

6) weak (lose (through death) his (her; its; their) will (aspiration; ideal), strong (better) his (her; its; their) bone; 弱其志，强其骨；(ruò qí zhì, jiàng qí gŭ)

7) ordinary (common; normal; constant; often) send (tell to do; use; cause; enable) people nil (without) know (be aware of; inform), nil (without) desire (longing; wish; want), 常使民无知、无欲，(cháng shĭ mín wú zhī, wú yù)

8) send (tell to do; use; cause; enable) man (a person engaged in manual labor) wisdom (resourcefulness) (者) no (not) dare do (act; act as; serve as) also (too; either). 使夫智者不敢为也。(shĭ fū zhì zhĕ bù găn wéi yĕ)

9) do (act; act as; serve as) nil (without) do (act; act as; serve as), standard (norm; rule > imitate; follow) invariably (all without exception) rule (govern; administer; manage; order; peace). 为无为，则无不治。(wéi wú wéi, zé wú bù zhì)

Fourth Pass: Chapter of the Month (pandemic era) 9/4/2020

Zoom on YouTube Recordings:

https://youtu.be/edFhmh8vQnM is a link to unedited 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

These three lines succinctly point out the unavoidable and unintended consequences of civilization. Civilization requires a hierarchical organization to operate, unlike the more egalitarian social structure of our hunter-gatherer ancestors that died out some 10,000 years ago. Hierarchy provides a means of pseudo social connection for what in reality is a large collection of near strangers. I call it a pseudo connection for it lacks the intimate classless connection our ancestors experienced. This dynamic has become particularly robust, growing exponentially during the last few centuries due to the ever-increasing social niches modern culture generates.

Just consider how ubiquitous media has become in delivering a culture’s worthy people, rare goods, and sight of what suits desire. Most interesting to me is how back when this was written, there was none of the daily flood of influences washing over humanity’s mental landscape. Literacy was minimal, travel was on foot or horse, and the ‘consumer age’ was several millennia away in a future we now inhabit. It is not surprising that there is much confusion the world over currently! In fact, it is a wonder that present circumstances are not even more perplexing than they are. The unintended festering boil that civilization has created must be nearly ready to pop. Of course, ‘nearly’ in real time may still lie many hundreds (or thousands) of years into the future. See The Tradeoff for a deeper look at this fascinating issue.

This is because of how the wise person governs;
Empties their hearts, fills their bellies,

When I read this chapter this morning, these lines came across as utterly unrealistic. I thought, how in the world is the wise person supposed to weaken the aspirations of other people? Then I realized I was interpreting this chapter as some kind of prescription for a wise governor to manage the people. That is a little odd because I have always interpreted the Tao Te Ching as speaking primarily about how one might personally go about managing their approach to life. Interpreting this as a prescription to carry out is an unworthy and unworkable fantasy.

When I view this as an internal self-management suggestion, these lines feel more reasonable. Yet, are they? Take Empties their hearts for starters. The character for hearts is xīn (心 = mind; feeling; intention; center; core). I suspect that at least some people back then realized how connected ‘mind’ and ‘feeling’ were. Indeed, emotion is the foundation of the mind and its thoughts. Other animals have emotions… fear, need, pain, pleasure, envy, competition, etc…. just like us. The difference is that their emotions don’t end up driving a dipolar mind to create stories that reflect those emotions, i.e., a narrative depicting a self-centered simulated reality. When a squirrel feels fear, it reacts immediately—fight or flight. It can’t carry this fear day after day, year after year even, and dwell in a remembered narrative as we can and do. As chapter 2 observes, The simple man alone does not dwell, Because of this he never leaves. I take this to mean, “…he never leaves” the existential moment to dwell in an imagined past and future.

Here is a way to ponder how emotion, fear and need, drive thought:

Need + thinking = Desire
Fear + thinking = Worry

Merely maintaining some peripheral sense of this internal process can serve as a kind of ‘canary in the mind’ to alert you of the true source of your desire and worry. Certainly, it is a biological necessity that animals feel both need and fear. All the same, how these become transformed in our mind’s thought can be useful to contemplate.

Personally, for example, my fear is not particularly directed towards personal safety, as my personal history shows. However, in pondering this, I’ve come to realize how my fear centers on efficiency. Fear of inefficiency drives my need to have life’s actions as efficient as possible. The important thing here is we all inherit fear (a sense of entropy, loss, failure, death, etc.). The exact manner it manifests itself varies with the individual, but it is always there behind the curtain of awareness. Emotion (fear/need) is the engine of life itself.

Weakens their aspirations, strengthens their bones,
Always enables the people to be unlearned and without desire,
And enables resourceful men to never dare to act also.

Thus, as emotion drives our actions and our thoughts, how are we supposed to manage all this? Here is where the illusion of self and its attendant illusion of free will comes into play. We embrace a narrative that constantly tells us we, unlike other animals, have the rational ability to make free choices, independent of instinctive needs and fears that drive other animals. Thus, we can imagine ourselves, indeed expect ourselves, to flip the free will switch and be unlearned and without desire, never dare to act also, weaken our aspirations, strengthen our bones. And if we can’t, surely others can and should. At least, perhaps the wise person who governs…?

This is similar to an addict who tells himself he can quit anytime. No! Nothing will change until he hits rock bottom and realizes he is an addict. Deep self-honesty is the starting point. Only then does one have any hope of managing, even slightly, his life. It is a personal journey, and why my initial interpretation of a wise person carrying all this out struck me as ludicrous.

Personally, I find my survival instinct (emotion) to be the most effective, and truly the only effective, way to begin to get a handle on these aspects: Empties my heart, weaken my aspirations, strengthen my bones, enable to be unlearned and without desire, enables resourceful to never dare to act. The main point to keep in mind here is that there is no actual way to succeed at this. Again, emotion (heart, xīn 心) is completely in charge. Biology rules! And yet, there is the opening… survival lies at the very core of heart.

Honestly feeling my survival (mental, physical, or whatever) is at stake generates the emotional grit I need to manage what otherwise would pass as being to trivial to bother with. The devil in life lies in the details, which are all too easy to overlook as desire looks forward to the “important” future. The more serious it feels, the simpler it becomes to reverse this and, as the last line puts it, follow without exception.

Doing without doing, following without exception rules.

Buddha’s Fourth Truth puts it well, There is salvation for him whose self disappears before truth, whose will is bent on what he ought to do, whose sole desire is the performance of his duty. As long as I believe I am in control of my life, I’ll be unable to have self disappear before truth. Only when my sense of survival aligns with what he ought to do duty, do I have a chance that the inner wise person governs. All this is utterly straightforward, simple, and really quite easy when that alignment exists. Maintaining this alignment is the hitch.

This is where the first two steps on Buddha’s path come into play. The first is Right Comprehension and the second is Right Resolution. The resolution to maintain and constantly return to what I comprehend is vital. As soon as I forget, emotions of the moment drown out wisdom.

Certainly, the difficulty here is the fact that emotion drives thought. Right Comprehension can only occur when emotions are quiescent. In that peaceful moment we can see truth best. However, as soon as emotions rise, deeper comprehension fades into the mind’s background. It is still there; it just is unable to manage anything. Only when the essence of our comprehension connects directly to survival’s emotion is it able to have a continuous voice in our life.

Well, I covered some of this same territory in depth in the reflections on the last chapter, (Monthly Chapter 2 – pandemic era) so there’s no point to beat this to death… more than I have already anyway.

Video Archive https://youtu.be/edFhmh8vQnM

Third Pass: Chapter of the Month 10/31/2016

Corrections?

None this time

Reflections:

Some regard the Taoist way as mysterious and somewhat impractical. However, the first three lines push back on that opinion, although I can see how these lines may feel impractical on the surface.

If you read them as a proscription to actively not value something, then they are completely impractical, and even silly. On the other hand, if you read these lines as simply pointing out a natural process, then the practical work before you lies in proving this complimentary process through personal observation and experience. This can be actually more difficult to do than it sounds.

The hierarchical nature of civilization compels its citizens to value worthy people, to value rare goods, and even catch sight of what suits desire. Valuing anything in nature over any other thing would be the manifestation of an innate hierarchical instinct. The difference here lies in how civilization over emphasizes our innate hierarchical instinct in order to make its system of social organization function efficiently.

We’re reared from birth onward — ‘brainwashed’ — in this amplified hierarchical system, and so we never question ‘the value added’ nature of our perceptions. We feel it is completely natural to value worthy people, to value rare goods, and even catch sight of what suits desire. Not to value can feel utterly unnatural, which makes deeper insight through personal observation and experience very difficult, at least in youth.

Truth to tell, this is a recent development in human cultural evolution following the Agricultural Revolution. Agriculture necessitates as settled existence of large populations that cooperate and compete together more or less harmoniously. The hierarchical social system that underlies civilization achieves that, but not without costs — contending, stealing, confusion.

Unlearned with weakened aspirations?

This is because of how the wise person governs;
Empties their hearts, fills their bellies,
Weakens their aspirations, strengthens their bones,
Always enables the people to be unlearned and without desire,

These next four lines present the positive view and wisdom of empty hearts, weak aspirations, unlearned and without desire. The only one of these that may feel right is the observation on desire… with caveats aplenty, of course. The other views likely evoke incredulity. These don’t make sense because we all have bought into civilization’s paradigm that encourages us to value worthy people and rare goods.

And enables resourceful men to never dare to act also.
Doing without doing, following without exception rules.

What! Ensuring that resourceful men to never dare to act runs completely against civilization’s grain. Indeed, we value the achievements that accrue when resourceful men dare to act! Then to top it all off, we are presented with the non-sense of Doing without doing, following without exception rules.

Doing without doing, following without exception

The reason we have such difficulty making sense of this is due to the hierarchical nature of how we view life. Sure, following is fine, but leading and taking responsibility is better… right? We feel it is superior to be in control. Isn’t that what sets us above all other ‘dumb’ animals?

Our civilized view of time influences our sense of ‘doing’ and getting life ‘done’ , especially since we found ways to ‘tell time’… clocks and calendars. Our measured view of time augments our hierarchical view of life. Indeed, all forms of measurement go hand in hand with hierarchy. On the other hand, an ‘ignorant’ animal in the wild simply lives life, doing what needs doing at each moment. It exists in a state of pre- intention. There is no future and no past, and thus life is only doing without doing — in the moment of existence.

Whether this feels simple and straightforward, or paradoxical and confusing probably depends on how firmly entrenched one is in a hierarchical point of view. As I said, we’ve all been brainwashed in that point of view to one degree or another. As you wean yourself from that conditioning, doing without doing will feel natural and true.

I’ll stop before I sound even more like a broken record. I’ve commented on this wéi wú wéi and wú wéi (为无为 and 无为) many times in the past. Below are a few links to review if you wish more.

Second Pass: Work in Progress 11/30/2012

Issues:

First, I fixed a spelling mistake, ‘steeling’ to stealing. That’s the easy stuff. Next, came the bizarre practice of fitting Cinderella’s shoe on sister’s big foot. Keeping as close to the literal as possible truly exposes just how poorly words convey meaning. So much of the apparent meaning actually lies in the background of the ‘personal experience’ we bring words. There are other ways to express, in English, the idea conveyed in the original, but in doing so inevitably risks missing the point. I know, I keep whining about this; it is just useful to be mindful of how insufficient words and names (language) are when it comes to ‘capturing reality’. The principle problems we face as a species all boils down to believing to be real what we think. You know… Realizing I don’t know is superior, not knowing this realization is dis-ease.

Anyway, first comes shǐ (使) which means: send, tell somebody to do something, use, employ, apply, make, cause, enable, envoy, messenger, if, supposing. I changed ‘leads’ to enables. There is a very passive quality to this, which the English words don’t convey. Not because there is anything deficient in these words per se; rather, it is the cultural understanding we give them, i.e., in the modern era, people have a free will, ‘just do it’, master of our destiny approach to life which they bring into word meaning. One reason for this may be due to the effect that the industrial age has had upon the human psyche. I mean, the ability to just push a button and start a car, turn on a light, or launch a missile hoodwinks us into seeing ourselves in control (or capable of being in control). You might say, we fallen for our own con-game—a result of the one we try to play on nature.

zhì (治) which means: rule, govern, administer, manage, order, peace, harness a river. I left the first instance of this character as is—This is because of how the wise person governs; However, the next instance I changed from governs to rules. I also made a minor change,’Do’ to Doing. Altogether, Doing without doing, following without exception rules. My thinking is this: the wise person governs (gentle feeling here), yet also, following without exception rules (rules emphasizes the point, yet along with following balancing the harsher connotation of rules).

I actually prefer the idea behind harness a river, in that life is like a river flowing through time (times that ‘turns back’—In the opposite direction, of the way ‘it’ moves.) However, I couldn’t find a way to put it concisely and still convey the broadest sense of harnessing a flowing life. Should I just say, following without exception harnesses the river of life? I can’t because the harnessing (zhì 治) isn’t explicitly referring to life. That’s the stuff of commentary.

wúzhī (无知) which means: nil, without, not (+) know, realize, be aware of, inform, knowledge (=) ignorant. My original choice of ‘without awareness‘ just didn’t encompass it. Our problem isn’t a lack of awareness; it is more about the content of our awareness! Ignorant doesn’t really encompass that either. So, I went this unlearned. In some ways, to be unlearned is what I’ve been enabling in myself (actually, we evolve with age) most of my adult life (i.e., having been culturally brainwashed for the first 20 years or so).

Commentary:

I was particularly struck today by Always enables the people to be unlearned and without desire. On the face of it, this is the complete opposite of the modern paradigm of “universal education”. The wisdom of enabling the people to be unlearned and without desire lies in the simple fact that our cleverness, knowledge and awareness far exceeds our emotional capability to Act without existing, Govern without disorder. Our cleverness far outweighs our wisdom.

D.C. Lau put this enable idea more forcefully as: He always keeps them innocent of knowledge and free from desire, and ensures that the clever never dare to act. “Keep them” and “ensure that” are out-of-sync with the final line, Doing without doing, following without exception rules. It is true that ‘powers that be’ throughout history have tried to “keep them…” and “ensure that…”, but less from wisdom and more from needing to hold onto power.

History shows that imposing such limits always backfires. If we evolve in a direction that rectifies this imbalance between our cleverness and our emotional ability to ‘know the constant’, we’ll be fine. If not, our species will end up like the dinosaurs whose imbalance in body size did them in eventually. As chapter 16 puts it, Not knowing the constant, rash actions lead to ominous results.

Suggested Revision:

Not to value worthy people enables people to avoid contending.
Not to value rare goods enables people to avoid stealing.
Not to catch sight of what suits desire enables people’s heart to avoid confusion.
This is because of how the wise person governs;
Empties their hearts, fills their bellies,
Weakens their aspirations, strengthens their bones,
Always enables the people to be unlearned and without desire,
And enables resourceful men to never dare to act also.
Doing without doing, following without exception rules.

send (tell sb. to do sth.; use; employ; apply; make; cause; enable)

First Pass: Chapter of the Week 10/27/2008

When my mind goes blank I’m tempted to look back at how I (or another) interpreted a chapter. I’ve learned, however, to take a deep breath, just wait and let ‘it come to me naturally‘. I’ve found that I am always happier with my most recent ‘take’ than anything previous, which helps makes trusting this contemporaneous approach to the Tao Te Ching easier. Besides, this approach surely suits any attempt to deal with ‘the indescribable teaching’. (That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.) Come to think of it, this approach also suits any attempt to deal with life… ‘the indescribable experience’!

I prefer using aspirations rather than will. Aspirations arise from a future thinking ability highly developed in humans. Our aspirations become the idealistic laden fantasies to which we cling. Or as they say, “the best laid plans. . . ” We perpetually leap forward to aspirations in lieu of ‘converging on the origin’. The illusion is so powerful it takes forever to realize the promise is never realized, even if and when we realize an aspiration. The promise we feel (nature’s biological hoodwink) is that we will be happy once we satiate our desire. The Taoist (and Buddhist) view sees it otherwise.

D.C. Lau use ‘will’ instead in his translation. ‘Will’ though is far more mysterious in my view. Animals have ‘will’. Perhaps ‘will’ is another name for the survival instinct. We can survive and prosper without aspirations, but not without ‘will’.

Oh there is so much that begs commentary in this chapter! But I know when to stop and meet no danger … right?