Chapter 45 – Calm and Harmony
People may confuse the Greatest Perfection with insanity,
great volume with void, great curvature with straightness,
great humor with foolishness,
a great speaker with the one unable to speak.
Intense movement overcomes cold.
Stillness overcomes heat.
Only calm and harmony can ensure
the correct understanding of everything that happens in the world.
Translation by Dr. Vladimir Antonov (2007)
It is once again Tao Te Ching Tuesday. For the consideration of Chapter 45, I have chosen to use a rendition that I believe is more an interpretation than a true translation. I have done so mostly because I feel this rendering captures much of the meaning of Lao Tzu’s words and partly because many of the more traditional scholars translate the last two lines of this chapter something like this: “By being greatly tranquil, one is qualified to be the ruler of the world” (from Wing-Tsit Chan’s 1963 translation).
In my thoughts on Chapter 29 I considered those who want to rule the world and concluded that Lao Tzu was telling us that such people are lost – that to the extent that ruling implies imposing one’s will rather than following the natural order, the world will be ruined or lost to the supposed ruler. Here, the more literal translation of this chapter does not contradict what was said earlier. Rather, we are now told what qualifies one to rule, and that is great tranquility. One possessing that quality may well have no desire to rule, but he is qualified. Unfortunately, most of those who are now trying to rule lack that essential quality. Still, most members of society seem to feel that a political leader should have more Yang attributes – a man of action and not of tranquility.
That brings us to what I like about this translation by Dr. Antonov. He tells us simply that the majority of our fellows see and judge from a decidedly human perspective that leaves them confused and unable to see the natural way that is followed by Lao Tzu’s sage.
However, we are told how to correct that misunderstanding. If one can live and think and perceive from a state of calm and harmony, he or she is able to understand the natural flow of all life.
So what do we do, take a deep breath? That is probably a good start. What really must be understood, though, is that all action and creation comes from a place of non-action and nothingness. That place is not really a place. It is that which the Tao Te Ching has called the Tao. It has also been called the Void, the Implicate Order, the Field, the Mind of God. “Larry” might be a good word for it. As we learned back in Chapter 1, we are considering something that is nameless.
A few years ago I became aware (and I am using that term intentionally) of an interesting and simple approach to that nameless nothing by a gentleman named Frank Kinslow, who is chiropractor by training and formerly a long-time transcendental meditator. He has written several books, the best known of which is The Secret of Instant Healing, and the most recent of which is The Kinslow System.
Continue reading