Translation
Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease.
Man alone faults this disease; this so as not to be ill.
The sacred person is not ill, taking his disease as illness.
Man alone has this disease; this is because to him there is no illness.
1) know (realize; tell) no (not) know (realize; tell) upper (up; higher; superior; better), no (not) know (realize; tell) know (realize; tell) disease (fault; defect). 知不知上，不知知病。(zhī bù zhī shàng, bù zhī zhī bìng.)
2) husband (man) only (alone) disease (fault; defect) disease (fault; defect), <grm> is (yes <frml> this; that) use (<v> take <p> according to; because of <adj> so as to <conj> and) no (not) disease (fault; defect). 夫唯病病，是以不病。(fū wéi bìng bìng, shì yĭ bù bìng.)
3) sage (holy; sacred) human (man; people) no (not) disease (fault; defect), use (<v> take <p> according to; because of <adj> so as to <conj> and) his (its, he, it, that; such) disease (fault; defect) disease (fault; defect). 圣人不病，以其病病。(shèng rén bù bìng, yĭ qí bìng bìng.)
4) husband (man) only (alone) disease (fault; defect) disease (fault; defect), <grm> is (yes <frml> this; that) use (<v> take <p> according to; because of <adj> so as to <conj> and) no (not) disease (fault; defect). 夫唯病病，是以不病。(fū wéi bìng bìng, shì yĭ bù bìng.)
Third Pass: Chapter of the Month
Corrections?
There are no corrections per se, although it feels like there should be ;-). At the end of Reflections, I include the Word-for-Word again to broaden the meaning of my particular choice of words for the translation. This time, the odd thing is the repeated use of the word fū (夫).
Fū (夫) in the high tone translates as husband; man, porter, manual worker, scholar, old fogey; conscripted laborer (old). In the rising tone, fú it translates classically as: this, that; he, she, they; (exclamatory final particle); (initial particle, introduces an opinion). In the Word for Word, I just put the common current usage, which here falls short. However, none of these other meanings makes that much difference, at least to me. It really boils down to how a reader interprets the meaning of whatever word occupies that position. The next best choice as I see it would be: this, that; he, she, they, but as you see that isn’t much different from the generic Man.
Reflections:
Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease.
First, simply realizing this in a static way is not sufficient. It is essential to maintain an active, moment-to-moment ‘apprehension’ of this realization. Apprehension is the perfect word here. It combines a sense of fear, with an apprehending of something… like realizing I don’t know is better. Fear focuses the mind; we take what we fear seriously. Note: It will be useful to ‘apprehend’ the root meaning of fear here. See Fear & Need Born in Nothing and perhaps Fear Is The Bottom Line.
Man alone faults this disease; this so as not to be ill.
The sacred person is not ill, taking his disease as illness.
Man alone has this disease; this is because to him there is no illness.
It is my sense that, in our heart of hearts, way deep down, we know that we don’t know. The symptoms point of view is a tipoff. We put those who seem to know on a pedestal, and worry about not knowing what we ‘should’. Generally, we are quite insecure about our knowledge. The Blind men and the elephant depict our desperation to be certain. All this comes across to me as a symptom of the fact that we intuitively realize that we don’t know, but don’t realize that it is better to realize that we don’t know. Knowledge is power, and hierarchical instincts, along with fear generally, drive us to pretend that we know. The drive is so strong that it blinds us to the reality (1).
So in a way line 2 and line 4 are both true. Part of us knows we have this disease. We respect and value any displays of humility that exemplify this. On the other hand, we suffer from this disease because we are generally in denial that this is a disease. We are too preoccupied with knowing to apprehend fully that we don’t and can’t know. Another symptom is our myths of sages (Jesus, Buddha, etc.); they keep our hopes alive that knowing is possible.
That leaves us with the question of the sacred person. I assume that the more a person continually apprehends this knowing, the more sacred. I suppose self-honesty is essential for such humility; self-honesty cuts down on hypocrisy. Finally, self-honesty increases with age, in my experience anyway.
Second Pass: Work in Progress
Issues:
This is perhaps the most useful chapter of all, for me anyway. That says a lot considering how superb the Tao Te Ching is as a whole. My first issue concerns the word bìng (病) which means ill; sick; disease; fault; defect (1). Of the thirty-two characters comprising this chapter, one third of them (10) are bìng! Bìng is a big deal. Currently I use fault and illness, but I have also used defect and disease. Disease can be especially good if understood as dis-ease… a cerebral dis-ease. Try substituting dis-ease for illness here and there, as you read it. I’ll do this in SUGGESTED REVISION, B: below.
Next: The word fū (夫) means husband; man; <old> a person engaged in manual labor. It occurs throughout the Tao Te Ching, often in a sage-like context, but also when referring to the common person. It occurs twice here, in line 2 and 4. In my view, it refers not to the sage-like man, but rather to the common man. Line 3, by contrast, specifically refers to shèngrén (圣人) meaning sage; wise man.
Finally: I don’t feel as alone in my ‘put truth ahead of beauty’ approach when I read the Wikipedia on Arthur Waley. In his translations of Chinese, he was apparently careful to put meaning ahead of style. Here is Waley’s translation of this chapter. Alas, he does add concepts not present in the original, (e.g., “making people recognize their disease…”) as you can see. Nevertheless, he nails the core meaning.
To know when one does not know is best.
To think one knows when one does not know is a dire disease.
Only he who recognizes this disease as a disease
Can cure himself of the disease.
The Sage’s way of curing disease
Also consists in making people recognize their diseases as diseases and thus ceasing to be diseased.
Commentary:
Thinking that I know is very blinding. Where There’s Passion (fire), There’s Blindness (smoke) touches on this. Well, probably half my posts touch on this in some fashion. A sense of this dis-ease rarely leaves my mind. Reserving a corner of my awareness for remembering that thinking I know is a dis-ease, lessens this illness’s impact on my life.
In my mind, this is no different that paying attention to the road when I’m driving, or where my fingers are when I’m using a table saw. The more sincerely cautious and alert I am to this trap, the easier it is to nip slip-ups in the bud. Chapter 15 speaks to this caution: He prepares as if fording a river in winter; as if like in fear of neighbors as does Buddha’s R. Understanding, R. Mindfulness, R. Attentiveness, R. Concentration.
Ah Ha!
An interesting connection between sincerity and thought just occurred to me. Looking back, I can’t remember ever meeting a non-human animal that wasn’t sincere. They are authentic, for lack of a better word. Thought enables us to don a virtual persona and be someone else on the outside. Non-human animals don’t pretend.
Considering the high virtue value we place on sincerity (and its synonyms: honesty, naturalness, genuineness, authenticity, earnestness, seriousness), it is surprising that thinking is not sincerely acknowledged for the insincerity, unnaturalness and dishonesty it enables. To my knowledge, only the Tao Te Ching focuses on the difficulty thought causes. Naturally, there could be no thought or speech without names; here are a few chapters covering this: ch.1; ch.32; ch.37; ch.56.
On second thought, it isn’t surprising at all. Believing what we think makes it impossible for us to suspect the thinking that props up the belief in the first place. Is the not a quintessential Catch-22? (i.e., a problematic situation for which the only solution is denied by a circumstance inherent in the problem or by a rule.)
Suggested Revision:
A:
Knowing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is illness.
Man alone faults this illness; this so as not to be ill.
The sacred person is not ill, taking his illness as illness.
Man alone has this illness; this is because to him there is no illness.
B:
Knowing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease.
Man alone faults this disease; this so as not to be ill.
The sacred person is not ill, taking his disease as illness.
Man alone has this disease; this is because to him there is no illness.
(1) Wanting to leave no stone unturned on how bìng (病 ill; sick; disease; fault; defect) relates to this chapter, I looked into English meanings:
Dis·ease noun, verb, -eased, -eas·ing.
1. a disordered or incorrectly functioning organ, part, structure, or system of the body resulting from the effect of genetic or developmental errors, infection, poisons, nutritional deficiency or imbalance, toxicity, or unfavorable environmental factors; illness; sickness; ailment.
2. any abnormal condition in a plant that interferes with its vital physiological processes, caused by pathogenic microorganisms, parasites, unfavorable environmental, genetic, or nutritional factors, etc.
3. any harmful, depraved, or morbid condition, as of the mind or society: His fascination with executions is a disease.
Sick adjective, -er, -est, noun
1. afflicted with ill health or disease; ailing.
2. mentally, morally, or emotionally deranged, corrupt, or unsound: a sick mind; wild statements that made him seem sick.
3. characteristic of a sick mind: sick fancies.
Ill adjective, worse, worst, noun, adverb
1. of unsound physical or mental health; unwell; sick: She felt ill, so her teacher sent her to the nurse.
2. objectionable; unsatisfactory; poor; faulty: ill manners.
3. hostile; unkindly: ill feeling.
4. evil: to know the difference between good and ill.
Knowing I don’t know is best, not knowing this knowing is ill.
Knowing I don’t know is best, not knowing this knowing is sick.
Knowing I don’t know is best, not knowing this knowing is disease.
Knowing I don’t know is best, not knowing this knowing is defective.
Knowing I don’t know is best, not knowing this knowing is illness.
Knowing I don’t know is best, not knowing this knowing is sickness.
First Pass: Chapter of the Week
Knowing I don’t know puts the unknown (questions) ahead of the known (answers). The void, Nothing, empty and silent all correlate to the unknown, the question… reality! Not knowing this knowing is defective because it becomes all too easy to think I know the answer. Conversely, ‘to know yet to think one does not know‘ values the question far beyond any answer.
Ever since receiving my sobering wake-up call from correlations, I’ve regarded questions and problems as being akin to invariable reality, and any resulting answer or solution as merely transitions to yet deeper questions or problems. Whether or not this is true makes little difference, practically speaking, as long as it makes my life a saner experience. I need all the help I can get. 😉
Animals, including us, generally fear the unknown. This fear makes us impatient to know ‘the answer’ yesterday. Answers allow us to think that we know, and that promises us peace of mind. Some of this may also result from an urgent need to fill our big-brain’s imagination space. Like they say, nature abhors a vacuum. We’ve got to fill it with something; filling mind space with questions (as a child does), more than answers (as adults do) helps us avoid thinking our way into a corner. This is not saying to avoid answers; just know what is at stake. In other words, well placed questions bare useful fruit. Only such fruit will holds the seeds for even better placed questions… a virtuous circle, as they say.
Being alive to difficulty is accepting that life is difficulty. As Buddha said, birth is suffering; growth, decay, and death are suffering. Sad it is to be joined with that which we dislike. Sadder still is the separation from that which we love, and painful is the craving for that which cannot be obtained. The more I try to avoid or escape difficulty, the more difficult life ends up feeling. The courage to bite the bullet, take this defect as a defect, and get on with living, especially as Buddha puts forward in the other three truths, is actually the easiest to live. Yet, our pleasure seeking nature is always dragging its feet. It wants comfort and safety above all else. And so we struggle, torn between what we ideally desire from life, and what we are really faced with in life.