Translation
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.
1) use (apply <frml> hence) weapons (private; army) have (exist) speech (word; say; talk): 用兵有言: (yòng bīng yŏu yán:)
2) I (we) no (not) bold (dare; be certain) do (act; act as; serve as; be; mean; support) host (owner) <conj.> and (yet, but) do (act; act as; serve as; be; mean; support) visitor (traveler; customer). 吾不敢为主而为客。(wú bù găn wéi zhŭ ér wéi kè.)
3) no (not) bold (dare; be certain) advance (enter; receive; eat; take) an inch (3 cm, very short; small) <conj.> and (yet, but) back (retreat; cause to move back; remove) a foot (33 cm., (foot, ruler). 不敢进寸而退尺。(bù găn jìn cùn ér tuì chĭ.)
4) <grm> is (yes <frml> this; that) say (call; name; meaning; sense) go (travel, do, be current) nothing (without; not) go (travel, do, be current). 是谓行无行。(shì wèi xíng wú xíng.)
5) reject (resist; seize; grab; push up one’s sleeves) nothing (without; not) arm (upper arm). 攘无臂。(răng wú bì.)
6) throw (toss; cast; throw away; cast aside) nothing (without; not) enemy (oppose, match, equal). 扔无敌。(rēng wú dí.)
7) hold (manage; stick to, carry out; observe) nothing (without; not) weapons (private; army). 执无兵。(zhí wú bīng.)
8) misfortunes (disaster; ruin) no one (nothing) big (large; great; major) in (at, to, from, by, than, out of) light (gently, rashly) enemy (oppose, match, equal). 祸莫大于轻敌。(huò mò dà yú qīng dí.)
9) light (gently, rashly) enemy (oppose, match, equal) a small table (nearly, almost_how many; some) obsequies (funeral_lose) I (we) treasure. 轻敌几丧吾宝。(qīng dí jī sāng wú băo.)
10) reason (cause; on purpose; hence) resist (contend with, be a match for) weapons (private; army) each other (mutually assist) add (plus, increase, put in) sorrow (grief; mourning; pity) (者) victory (success; surpass; be superior to) already (indeed; really; how). 故抗兵相加哀者胜矣。(gù kàng bīng xiāng jiā āi zhĕ shèng yĭ.)
Fourth Pass: Chapter of the Month
(pandemic era) 3
Zoom on YouTube Recordings:
https://youtu.be/JhT5CyVcn0Q 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:
Those who use weapons have a saying:
We dare not act as hosts, but act as visitors.
Line 2 reminds me of the last line of chapter 3, Doing without doing, following without exception rules. Hosts are the people who take the initiative, invite visitors, and set up circumstances. In short, hosts lead the way. Visitors are those invited and feel the need to follow and adapt to the circumstances set.
Broadly speaking, I feel that Earth, Nature, and time overall, are the hosts. I am merely a visitor passing through the circumstances these hosts have set up. When I am following without exception, my life runs very smoothly… even during difficult challenging times. Sure, I may experience exhaustion or pain, but by acting as visitor, it is never an overwhelming suffering. As a visitor, my expectations are naturally lower, and the lower they are, the less I suffer. Conversely, when I jump ahead and attempt to control circumstances, life can easily feel overwhelming, chaotic and ultimately full of missed opportunity.
Of course, our cognitive disease revealed in chapter 71 plays a large role here. It allows me to expect results, “predict” (imagine) outcomes and confidently advance toward my “envisioned solution”, or conversely, perceive (imagine) the cup utterly half empty and give up. Either way, I lose sense of the constant. As chapter 16 cautions, Not knowing the constant, rash actions lead to ominous results.
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.
Having these five lines offered all at once challenges the mind to intuit any possible deeper ‘hidden’ meaning. Now, of course, nothing in these lines is truly hidden. They feel paradoxical with hidden meaning because our thoughts are so habituated to being linearly proactive. We imagine the outcomes we need or fear and proceed accordingly, making the approach presented here so counterintuitive.
If you’ve not notice already, these lines are simply saying doing without doing (wéi wú wéi 为无为) by using other words. Think of a wild goose heading south for its winter migration. It is merely, flying without flying. It’s not imagining where it’s going or where it’s coming from. It’s not anticipating success or attempting to outwit its intrinsic nature. It’s doing without doing.
The only difference between the goose’s actions and that of a human lies in how easily we get ahead of ourselves—our reality. Instead of just doing the task at hand, we are able to either think we are doing the task great and continue the status quo, or think we’re failing miserably and quit altogether. Either belief easily blinds us to what would otherwise be an opportune moment to change course. Believing what we think blinds us to anything outside the belief.
Besides these two scenarios, we can also become lost in thought “doing” something entirely different in our imagination. The capability of our imagination to either flutter about or myopically focus is a superb survival asset, but this ability also creates our imbalance with nature—our disease. Clearly, chapter 71’s observation, Realizing I don’t know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease, applies to each of these scenarios.
It helps to know that our hyper proactive linear approach to life is a consequence of civilization. Civilization requires the societal value of taking responsibility to make the ‘bee hive’ function. Without this hyper-moral value of responsibility, civilization’s hierarchical social system would collapse (see The Tradeoff). Conversely, our ancestral hunter-gatherer way of life could afford to be much more forgiving and extemporaneous. The question becomes, what is natural and what is an artifact of civilization? Is taking responsibility an intrinsic quality— a natural virtue? Chapter 63 suggests not so much.
The obvious question then becomes how can we manage this disease, our disconnect from Nature, as it were. Clearly, knowing that we don’t know is the “cure”, i.e., Realizing I don’t know is better. Holding this realization in awareness through out daily life is the true challenge, even when we are sober enough to accept the fact we don’t know. Emotion (fear and need) always pull us back into cognitive certainty.
The presence of mind required to maintain physical balance when standing on one leg is not particularly different from that mindfulness required for realizing I don’t know is better. The fact that maintaining physical balance demands an active genuine intention makes that task ‘easy’ compared to continually realizing I don’t know is better.
Being present in either situation hinges on intention, but there is no innate push to be present unless forced into a state of alertness by circumstance. Losing balance and falling over serves as powerful motivation and immediate feedback. Losing the realization that I don’t know comes with little to no immediate feedback, which means that motivation here depends solely on ‘wisdom’ (for lack of a better word). Here alas, if anything, I’m more emotionally motivated to believe that I know what I know. As they say, knowledge is power. How can my ego resist that? In actual fact, motivation here relies on how sincerely I truly want (need) to remember that I don’t know. This “truly want” aspect comes down to a matter of survival. Once I feel my overall survival truly benefits from realizing I don’t know, the required “truly want” motivation comes naturally.
Of misfortunes, none is greater than rashly opposing.
Rashly opposing nearly lost me treasure.
These lines are reiterating the rash actions issue raised in chapter 16, i.e., Answering to one’s destiny is called the constant; knowing the constant is called honest. Not knowing the constant, rash actions lead to ominous results. Note the connection between honest and knowing the constant. I feel when I am present within the moment and discounting the reality of my thoughts, I am capable of being most honest. When thought cloaked in the guise of reality dominates my awareness, I’m much less honest. Here, I can only see what I want to see. Emotions (need and fear) and the thoughts those emotion stimulate influence overall perception greatly.
Therefore contending militantly, adds sorrow to victory.
This line hints at the difference between contending and contending militantly. It is important to know that contending by itself is a primary function of all life on Earth. Life without contending would be impossible… as would life without cooperation. These are the yang and the yin poles of life. I addressed the error of seeing contending as a moral problem in chapter 68’s, This is called the moral character of not contending.
This chapter offers a more balance view of contending. The militant problematic side of contending is a direct result of the interplay between imagination and emotion. Emotion provides the ‘blind energy’ to action. The imagination provides the obsessive direction for the action to take. In other words, the certainty of imagination permits natural forces of contention to snowball way more than circumstances require. It is this militant part of contending that’s problematic.
Chapter Archive https://youtu.be/3eWqIbt-ZbA
This is the complete video. It begins with blowing Zen followed by the meeting
Third Pass: Chapter of the Month
Corrections?
The only correction I felt like making was to smooth out the phrasing. It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. I often need to remind myself that rolling off the tongue smoothly can be more disadvantage than advantage in attempts to understand the Tao Te Ching. The awkward phrasing forces my mind to either fight the phrasing or ponder more deeply. I’ve learned that the later usually serves me best. After all, as Line 9 says, Rashly opposing nearly lost me treasure.
Reflections:
I would sum up this chapter as being a call to patience. The beauty of this chapter lies in how it draws out the meaning of that word. Words are very ‘one dimensional’ by themselves. The meaning of a word lies in the emotion it evokes. However, one word, by itself, rarely evokes that, or if it does, that deeper meaning can soon wear off. Having the word patience drawn out, especially in a roundabout peculiar way, the mind can chew on deeper meanings longer. That process cultivates intuitive perspective… feeling!
Maintaining the feeling of this going without going helps me to drop much of my own expectations and rely on nature to play itself out (Expectations? See Science Proves Buddha Right). Life feels as if it offers me two paths: living in the process, or living in the expectations of results… or a muddy mixture of the two. The former is very much more peaceful, and as such, not truly ‘natural’.
What?… not truly ‘natural’? Haven’t I always said nothing is outside nature? The point here is that all living things are biologically set up to work, not rest in blissful peace. More to the point, life is set up to seek balance… work and rest, ‘war’ and peace, and so on. The symptoms point of view tells me that I’m seeking “more peaceful” because that is the direction in which balance lies, for me. Conversely, if I was seeking life’s thrills that would tell me I was too ‘peaceful’ within, i.e. bored to death. (Note: bored and death correlate.)
Balance
Human cultural evolution following the agricultural revolution has made it much more difficult for us to achieve a natural state of balance… most likely resulting from losing a sense of balance between ‘we’ and ‘me’. “I” the individual — this illusion of self/ego — dominates now. This is almost certainly a prerequisite for civilization to function. The ‘we’, which individuals identify with for a sense of social security, must extend beyond one’s immediate family and relatives. Civilization goes hand in hand with individuality. And that, my friends, is the ultimate source of imbalance from which we suffer.
I view this imbalance (tension) as driving each of us to seek out a niche that promises us the greatest sense of connection. Naturally, that is just what civilization requires; each individual filling a niche with a particular expertise to benefit the whole. Like the tribal process of the old way, but on steroids.
Of course, individuality (ego) also threatens the Meta-we of civilization. There have always been attempts via religious and cultural taboo (etiquette) to suppress individuality for the good of the group. These do not eliminate it; they only channel individual drives (ego) to find expression in other ways. It is crazy stuff.
Truth
The Tao Te Ching is the best attempt I’ve found to speak the truth, although, in such an inscrutable way so as not to offend those for whom their civilization’s story holds meaning. Written this way also gives something for anyone receptive. In other words, one can grow into it over time. As I’ve said before, a Taoist worldview is the religion of last resort. 😉
(For more on balance, see Exquisite Balance, Balancing Difference With Similarity, Counterbalancing I.Q.).
Second Pass: Work in Progress
Issues:
There’s not much to take issue with this time. I added a colon (:) to the first line, some commas (,), and an ‘s‘ to add… Therefore contending militantly, adds sorrow to victory. I neglected to give some on the other meanings for āi (哀) which besides sorrow means grief; mourning; pity, so I’ll include those in the word for word section.
Commentary:
Few of us living ordinary lives will find Taking charge without weapons practical if taken literally, save perhaps for those obsessive buying guns (although I doubt they would be receptive to this message). That is easily fixed by simply regarding the words, thoughts, and ideas you use as potential weapons. Then, can you honestly say a day goes by without you resorting to those weapons? As I see it, the strong emotions we feel (lust, need, fear, competition, anger,…) all drive our thinking to support what we are currently feeling. Emotion is the engine that powers thought and the driver that directs thought. Only when I am emotionally neutral can I approach Taking charge without weapons.
Rashly opposing is somewhat an odd way to say it. I think of rashly opposing as two bull elk locking horns to gain ascendancy. The blinding quality of rashly opposing is just another device in nature hoodwinking toolkit to get animals to interact. I find it helps to know this dynamic is ‘jerking my chain’. These are a few posts on the ‘hoodwinking’ dynamic:
Peeking In On Natures Hoodwink
How The Hoodwink Hooks
He Who Conquers Self
Suggested Revision:
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.
āi (哀) sorrow grief; mourning; pity
First Pass: Chapter of the Week
A treasured lesson I learned from years of global hitch hiking was the benefit of daring not to play the host but play the guest, (i.e., not taking the initiative). Granted the wisdom of dare not act as host came gradually. Circumstances gave me no choice but to act as visitor. Although, I fought this at first for I was a 110% rash, impatient and action oriented American lad. Several times rashly opposing nearly lost me treasure (i.e., life, body parts). Fortunately these circumstances wore me down enough for wisdom to slowly seep in.
The act as host approach to life shows up in various ways, most noticeably as impulsive buying, eating, driving, working, etc. In every case there is an object ahead, either literally or in the mind’s eye, to be gained, conquered, solved, or just dealt with. In our pre-civilized wild state this innate drive to ‘just do it’ would be counter-balanced by the natural lack of opportunity to go hog wild (i.e., buy, eat, drive, work, etc., as much as we desired). When hungry we’d simply have to hunt or gather up something to eat. Such ruthless, wild simplicity fosters sanity in all living things. Willfully innovating while ignorant of this constant interferes with this natural balance. Given all this, it is not surprising how progress often leads to difficulty.
Another way of thinking of the going without going, grabbing without an arm, and such, is to imagine dealing with ‘things behind’, rather than ‘things ahead’. Our thinking mind allows us to jump forward out of this moment into the imagined one just ahead. Balance lies behind us, and so, turning back is how we arrive. The special nature of daring not to advance an inch is also addressed as: He who is fearless in being bold will meet with his death; He who is fearless in being timid will stay alive. Of the two, one leads to good, the other to harm.
To me, this parallels Buddha’s last words before he died, “all things created pass away; strive on”. Whatever is, eventually isn’t, and so without an arm corresponds to “all things pass away”. Nevertheless, “strive on”; keep on grabbing. Thinking allows us to approach life excessively goal oriented rather than process oriented. We look to the future objectives rather than watch the moment to moment where the actual “strive on” and grabbing take place. On balance, life is on the side of “striving” and grabbing at the most basic level—breathing, heart beating, with senses aware and grabbing the world around us. Daring not to advance an inch, but withdraw a foot pulls the mind back into the moment. This approach is also called: Returning to one’s roots is known as stillness, and Block the openings, shut the doors.
This is known as marching forward when there is no road, as D.C. Lau puts it, describes the essence of Hatha Yoga. In many postures, for example, you reach up as though you are touching the sky, even though touching the sky is impossible. You march forward when there is no road, you strive on even though all things pass away. This emphasizes the integrity of your approach to life, rather than on any particular accomplishment (which in the case of touching the sky is impossible from the outset). I suppose you could call this ‘thinking and acting outside the box’.
The Bhagavad Gita expresses this marching forward when there is no road approach to life a little more earthy:
2:47 Set thy heart upon thy work, but never on its reward. Work not for a reward: but never cease to do thy work.
5:12 This man of harmony surrenders the reward of his work and thus attains final peace: the man of disharmony, urged by desire, is attached to his reward and remains in bondage.
18:12 When work is done for a reward, the work brings pleasure, or pain, or both, in its time; but when a man does work in Eternity, then Eternity is his reward.