Chapter 79 – Obligations

 When a great hatred is reconciled, naturally some hatred will remain.
How can this be made good? 

. Therefore the sage keeps the obligations of his contract and exacts not from others.
Those who have virtue attend to their obligations;
those who have no virtue attend to their claims. 

. Heaven’s Reason shows no preference
but always assists the good man.

Translation by D. T. Suzuki and Paulo Carus (1913)

Like many (or most) chapters of the Tao Te Ching, this one can be read and interpreted on many levels.  The most obvious is that it relates to the “virtuous” (in the sense of Te)

Tao Yuanming by Chen Hongshou (from Wikipedia.org)

resolution of disputes between individuals.  An excellent discussion of that interpretation is given by Amy Putkonen (who initiated the idea of Tao Te Ching Tuesdays) on her website, taotechingdaily.com.  I will let you read what she has to say in her essay while I suggest some other approaches to the chapter.

First, we can consider the well-known Zen saying:  “Before enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water.  After enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water.”  In other words, when a person attains so-called enlightenment, nothing magical happens.  The world remains as it always was, but the way in which it is perceived by the enlightened individual is shifted.  Life goes on, and with it the duties of life such as chopping wood and carrying water.  Emotions like hatred and bitterness, or even greed, would probably not be a part of the psyche of one who is enlightened.  Therefore, such a person would attend to his own duties and let others go their own ways.

The last two lines of this chapter may call to mind Chapter 6 of St. Matthew’s Gospel.  There, Jesus tells his disciples that they should not act like the hypocritical Scribes and Pharisees who perform religious duties like giving alms and praying as a show to impress whoever may be watching them.  Such actions are not truly virtuous, so Jesus tells his followers to retreat privately to a closet or small room to pray without anyone else knowing about it.  He then instructs them in what we now call the Lord’s Prayer (“Our Father, Who art in heaven . . .).  Following the discussion of prayer, he says that no person can serve two masters, those being God and money.  He teaches that the Father provides all the food needed for the birds of the sky, who neither plant nor reap; and that the lilies of the field are more beautifully dressed than even King Solomon.  He concludes by saying, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”  (Matthew 6:33, King James Version of Bible).

Putting that into the context of this chapter, it could be said that the Scribes and Pharisees were a hateful lot who had only contempt for those who did not believe as they did.  Jesus tells his disciples not to be like that.  Instead, they should follow their own virtue and beliefs.  By doing that, they will not only reach the Kingdom of God, but Heaven’s Reason will also assist them in this life.  They will be given all they need.  Bear in mind, though, that when one’s primary duty is to seek God’s kingdom, the things that are “needed” in the physical world may not include wealth, luxury and comfort.

The distinction between the followers of Jesus and the Scribes and Pharisees reminds us that in Chinese philosophy, for many centuries, there has been a distinction between Taoist and Confucian thought.  Continue reading →

Chapter 78 – More Water

In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water.
Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing can surpass it.
This is because there is nothing that can take its place. 

That the weak overcomes the strong,
And the submissive overcomes the hard,
Everyone in the world knows yet no one can put this knowledge into practice. 

Therefore the sage says,
One who takes on himself the humiliation of the state
Is called a ruler worthy of offering sacrifices to the gods of earth and millet.
One who takes on himself the calamity of the state
Is called a king worthy of dominion over the entire empire. 

Straightforward words seem paradoxical.

 Translation by D. C. Lau (1963)

 Straightforward words often do seem paradoxical, but sometimes they begin to make sense when we hear them enough.  Certainly, we have heard most of what is said in this

chapter before.  In bringing forth his teaching about Tao, Lao Tzu uses many images.  The most common one is the image of water, with the feminine and the child or infant running a close second and third.

Here, of course, the image is of water.  Therefore, a good starting place for discussing this chapter is to re-read Chapter 8 which (again in Lau’s translation) contains the following:

Highest good is like water.
Because water excels in benefiting the myriad creatures without contending with them and settles where none would like to be, it comes close to the way.
. . . . . .
It is because it does not contend that it is never at fault.

The fact that the highest good settles in the lowest places calls to mind what was said in Chapter 66 (still using Lau’s translation):

The reason why the River and the Sea are able to be king of the hundred valleys is that they excel in taking the lower position.
Hence they are able to be king of the hundred valleys. 

Therefore, desiring to rule over the people,
One must in one’s words humble oneself before them;

And, desiring to lead the people,
One must, in one’s person, follow behind them.

Therefore the sage takes his place over the people yet is no burden;
takes his place ahead of the people yet causes no obstruction.
That is why the empire supports him joyfully and never tires of doing so. 

It is because he does not contend that no one in the empire is in a position to contend with him.

Applying the thoughts from those earlier chapters to what is said here, I once again get the feeling that this chapter was written by someone other than Lao Tzu, and sometime after his teachings had received a degree of recognition.

This Chapter 78 first re-emphasizes that water, which benefits all things is submissive and weak, yet it is able to gradually smooth away even the hardest rocks or impediments.  That metaphor calls to mind a lazy stream or river following the path of least resistance  – a path that changes over time as it erodes its banks and the surrounding land.

However, water does not always work so subtly.  Continue reading →

Chapter 77 – The Mean

Heaven’s Way is indeed like the bending of a bow.
When (the string) is high, bring it down.
When it is low, raise it up. When it is excessive, reduce it.
When it is insufficient, supplement it. 

The Way of Heaven reduces whatever is excessive and supplements whatever in insufficient.
The way of man is different. It reduces the insufficient to offer to the excessive. 

Who is able to have excess to offer to the world? Only the man of Tao. 

Therefore the sage acts, but does not rely on his own ability.
He accomplishes his task, but does not claim credit for it.
He has no desire to display his excellence. 

Translation by Wing-Tsit Chan (1963)

If these words sound familiar, it is possibly because we have heard them before.  Look at the last lines in the translation above and compare them with the following language in Chan’s translation of Chapter 2: 

“He acts, but does not rely on his own ability.
He accomplishes his task, but does not claim credit for it.”

In Chapter 10 of Chan’s translation, we find:  “To act, but not rely on one’s own ability.”  His translation of Chapter 51 includes:  “[Tao] acts, but does not rely on its own ability.”

The beginning lines in this chapter also come with some familiarity.  In the comments on Chapter 9, I mentioned the similarity between aspects of Tao and the Middle Way of Buddhism and Aristotle’s Golden Mean.  The first four lines seem to follow that line of thought.

The fifth and sixth lines tell us that the way of man generally does not follow that “middle way.”  Rather, those that have take from those who do not have – the rich get rich and the poor stay poor.  This, too, has been said previously; as recently as Chapter 75.

However, I think that rather than a simple repetition of ideas, this chapter is included to make a particular point.  For reasons that will become clear in the following discussion, it also seems that it was probably added sometime after Lao Tzu’s original writing.  Continue reading →

Chapter 76 – You Are Old, Father William

When people are born they are gentle and soft.
At death they are hard and stiff.
When plants are alive they are soft and delicate.
When they die, they wither and dry up.
Therefore the hard and stiff are followers of death.
The gentle and soft are the followers of life. 

Thus, if you are aggressive and stiff, you won’t win.
When a tree is hard enough, it is cut. Therefore
The hard and big are lesser,
The gentle and soft are greater.

 Translated by Charles Muller (2011)

I have come to understand that this is a difficult chapter to translate, and various translations I have read use differing words and images.  All of them, though, convey the sense that all things begin life as something soft, tender, gentle and flexible, only to become stiff and hard as they age and eventually die.  Charles Muller’s translation expresses the concept well without any superfluous language, so it was chosen for this essay.

You Are Old, Father William

Even though the work of translation may be difficult here, the concept expressed is neither difficult nor new.  It can be tied back to chapters like Chapter 6 which praises the receptiveness of the Divine Feminine or to Chapters 10 and 36 in which I referred to the art of tai chi ch’uan to illustrate the power that comes from the gentle and supple movements of the internal martial arts.

A further discussion of the concept might include the words of Jesus in Matthew 18:3 that unless “ye become as little children, ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven”; or in Matthew 5:5 that “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.”  It might also include further discussion of the treasure of humility highlighted in Chapter 67.  Instead, though, I am going to offer for consideration “You Are Old, Father William,” from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which goes:  Continue reading →