Chapter 53 – Some Dogs (and Sages) Appreciate Word-Play

 If I had any learning
Of a highway wide and fit,
Would I lose it at each turning?
Yet look at people spurning
Natural use of it!
See how fine the palaces
And see how poor the farms,
How bare the peasants’ granaries
While gentry wear embroideries
Hiding sharpened arms,
And the more they have the more they seize,
How can there be such men as these
Who never hunger, never thirst,
Yet eat and drink until they burst!
There are other brigands, but these are the worst
Of all the highway’s harms

 Translated by Witter Bynner (1944)

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 Now as through this world I ramble
I see lots of funny men,
Some will rob you with a six-gun
And some with a fountain pen.

 Woody Guthrie, “Pretty Boy Floyd” (1939)

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 A great thing about the Tao Te Ching is that although it was written 2500 years ago its insights remain valuable today.  In the commentary for Chapter 19, I mentioned the story of how Lao Tzu became disgusted with the corruption at the royal court so, the story goes, he left town on a water buffalo to follow the Way and commune with nature.  Apparently he remained disgusted as he wrote this chapter lamenting that rulers use their wealth and power to tax and coerce the common people – robbing from the poor and giving to the rich (themselves), as it were.

Darcy/Super Dog

Even today, there are many people in many parts of the world who have the same view of governmental oppression.  In the United States, we are also becoming irate over the perceived greed of huge corporations and their executives.  Although Lao Tzu was writing about the abuses of rulers, the thoughts on inequality in this chapter are meaningful when considering the acts of the corporate elite.

This issue was recently given considerable news coverage in connection with the annual shareholders’ meeting of Chipolte Mexican Grill.  That company has two co-CEOs, and between them they were paid just under $50 million last year.  The fast casual restaurant chain has about 45,000 employees whose median salary is less than $9/hour – or about $18,000 per year.  If you do the math, you will see that each of the co-CEOs received as much income as 1,400 of their typical employees.

Let’s take a quick poll.  How many of you out in cyberspace believe that a corporate CEO provides as much value to a company as 1,400 of its employees out in the field doing the work to bring the company income? . . .  OK, I see one – no, two – hands.  It looks like a CEO has raised both hands for this vote.  No one else?

That is just about the result I expected.  At Chipolte’s shareholders’ meeting it wasn’t quite that lopsided.  Still, 77% of the shares were voted against the proposed executive compensation plan.  It was a non-binding vote, but I assume that the recent publicity is going to cause Chipolte to make a show of some type of compensation reform.

For the last few years of my career in the title business, I worked, through no fault of my own (which is a story for another time), for a Fortune 500 company that not only underwrites title insurance but also owns restaurant chains, an auto supply chain and other businesses.  I still work for the company part-time and I own some of its stock through an employee stock purchase plan.  A few days ago I received proxy material for the annual meeting which, among other things, asked me to vote to approve the new executive compensation plan.
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Chapter 52 – Aware

 There was a beginning of the universe
Which may be called the Mother of the Universe.
He who has found the mother (Tao)
And thereby understands her sons (things)
And having understood the sons,
Will be free from danger throughout his lifetime.
Close the mouth.
Shut the doors (of cunning and desires).
And to the end of life there will be (peace) without toil.
Open the mouth.
Meddle with affairs.
And to the end of life there will be no salvation. 

Seeing what is small is called enlightenment.
Keeping to weakness is called strength.
Use the light. Revert to enlightenment.
And thereby avoid danger to one’s life –
This is called practicing the eternal.

 Translation by Wing-Tsit Chan (1963)

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 Welcome to the camp,
I guess you know why we’re here.
My name is Tommy
And I became aware this year.
. . . . .
See me.
Feel me.
Touch me.
Heal me.

From “ We’re Not Gonna Take It,” The Who

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 Ravi Dykema:  Let’s talk about enlightenment. . . .
Enlightenment used to be central to yoga.  What
Does “enlightenment really mean?

 Swami Shambhavananda:  I think “spiritual realization”
Is a good definition:  discovering the spiritual aspect of
yourself and having that fulfilled. . . . My teacher talked about
conscious awareness:  you’re totally conscious, present in
each moment, and you’re not projecting.  You’re not in the past,
you’re not in the future, you’re right here . . . In the process of
meditation, you become more and more aware of the absolute,
perfection that exists in you.  A lot of people think turning your attention
inward, and in a spiritual direction, makes you unaware or dysfunctional
out here.  But that’s not true.  The more clarity of mind you have, the
more expanded your consciousness is, the more aware you are of
stuff “out there. . . .

RD:  Have you attained that state?

SS:  (laughter) I refuse to answer that question, because how would
you know if I was telling you the truth?

 From an interview with Swami Shambhavananda, the creator of
Shambhava Yoga, in the May-June 204 issue of Nexus.

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The Prophet Elijah

I would like to look briefly at a watershed moment in religious history.  There is a story in Chapter 19 of the First Book of Kings in the Biblical Old Testament.  The Prophet Elijah was fleeing for his life, which had been threatened by Queen Jezebel.  After walking for 40 days and 40 nights, he took shelter in a cave on God’s holy mountain.  There he was instructed to go outside because the Lord would be passing by.  He stepped out of the cave into a strong wind; but the Lord was not in the wind.  Next there was an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  That was followed by fire; but the Lord was not in the fire.  Finally there was a tiny whispering sound which Elijah recognized as the voice of God. Continue reading →

Chapter 51 – M is For . . .

 The Tao gives birth to all of creation.
The virtue of Tao in nature nurtures them,
and their families give them their form.
Their environment then shapes them into completion.
That is why every creature honors the Tao and its virtue. 

No one tells them to honor the Tao and its virtue,
it happens all by itself.
So the Tao gives them birth,
and its virtue cultivates them,
cares for them,
nurtures them,
gives them a place of refuge and peace,
helps them to grow and shelters them.

It gives them life without wanting to possess them,
and cares for them expecting nothing in return.
It is their master, but it does not seek to dominate them.
This is called the dark and mysterious virtue.

Translated by J. H. McDonald (1996)

This chapter has happened to come up for consideration during the week before Mother’s Day, and that couldn’t be more fitting.  From earlier chapters we know that the “Divine Feminine” is an aspect of the Tao and that the Tao is the force which gives birth to the One – which creates the Two, which creates the Three, which gives birth to the Ten Thousand Things.  The Tao is the Mother of all creation.

Here, the concept is expanded to give a glimpse of the Te (the Virtue) of that creative force.  I am going to use the term “Virtue” here because it is easier for us to understand in English than is “Te.”  However, it should be recognized that this concept of “Virtue” differs from the more common definition which says that is virtuous which conducts itself according to high standards of morality.  The Virtue Lao Tzu is presenting in this chapter is instilled within and pervades all things, whether they be seen as morally good or bad or even as a plant or animal or protozoan that would not be thought of as capable of making moral decisions or taking moral actions.

Aristotle spoke of “virtue” as a “golden mean” in which a trait is exhibited without excess or deficiency.  In a sense, that concept is something like the Virtue of the Tao, but it does not go far enough.  Aristotle was looking primarily at personal traits and personal virtues.

It would be perhaps convenient to say that the Virtue of the Tao is the “spark” that imbues all creation and each aspect of it with the appropriate essence* because the first lines tell us that it is this Virtue that “nurtures” things before they are given form by their “families” and the “environment.”  However, this Virtue must be more than that.  Lao Tzu says it is a “dark and mysterious Virtue.”  As I pointed out above, it is a concept beyond the standard definition of “virtue.”  It is something which gives things life without any desire to possess them; which cares for its creation without seeking anything in return; and which is the master of all, but wishes to dominate nothing.  Thus, it is a personal and trans-personal force.

A famous poem written by a gentleman named Howard Johnson in 1915** tells us:

“M” is for the many things she gave me,
“O” means only that she’s growing old,
“T” is for the tears she shed to save me,
“H” is for her heart of purest gold,
“E” is for her eyes, with love-light shining,
“R” means right, and right she’ll always be,
Them all together they spell
“MOTHER,”
A word that means the world to me.

That word is sort of like the dark and mysterious Virtue mentioned in this chapter.  Maybe one day we can write our own poem for “Tao” or “Te”:  “T” is for ….  For now, this one will do.

My mother passed from this world back in 2010, but I would still like to wish her and any other mother who may read this a very Happy Mother’s Day!

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* I am not going to discuss the idea of the form and essence of things here.  It is an interesting intellectual exercise, but is beyond the scope of this essay.

** At least that is the information returned from a quick internet search.

Chapter 50 – One in Ten

 Between birth and death,
Three in ten are followers of life,
Three in ten are followers of death,
And men just passing from birth to death also number three in ten.
Why is this so?
Because they live their lives on the gross level.
He who knows how to live can walk abroad
Without fear of rhinoceros or tiger.
He will not be wounded in battle.
For in him rhinoceroses can find no place to thrust their horn,
Tigers no place to use their claws,
And weapons no place to pierce.
Why is this so?
Because he has no place for death to enter.

 Translation by Jane English and Gia-Fu Feng (1989)

Most of the translations of this 50^th chapter of the Tao Te Ching are similar to the one above, stating three people out of ten are followers of life, three are followers of death and three just pass from life to death without following either.  While it might be instructive to consider what it means to follow either life or death or to pass between the two, the verse seems to force us to look not at the 90% of those with a consciousness that is attached to this world but at the one in ten – the sage who goes his own way without fear of death.  Lao Tzu says he may do so because “he has no place for death to enter.”  In other words, the sage is not attached to his mortality.  He has no fear because his life is lived in the present; fear being a thought of the future.

Han Fei Tzu

In Ron Hogan’s translation, he states that Lao Tzu is telling us that with a sage, “his body is not where he [keeps] his death.”  That is to say that the sage recognizes that there is an immortal part of our nature beyond the physical body.

It is my understanding that the basis for the translations in which the sage is separated from the 90% of the more common humans are ancient Chinese symbols that essentially mean “three-ten life; three-ten death.”  A different interpretation of those symbols is found in Lin Yutang’s 1955 translation which renders this chapter in these words:

 Out of life, death enters.
The companions (organs) of life are thirteen;
The companions (organs) of death are (also) thirteen.
What send man to death in this life are also (these) thirteen.
   How is it so?
Because of the intense activity of multiplying life.
It has been said that the man who is a good preserver of his life
   Meets no tigers or wild buffaloes on land,
   Is not vulnerable to weapons in the field of battle.
The horns of the wild buffalo are powerless against him.
   How is it so?
Because he is beyond death.

Here, the symbols for “three-ten” are translated as “thirteen,” rather than as “three out of ten.”  The ultimate conclusion that the sage is “beyond death” is in line with the other translations, but I find the approach interesting – and I should warn you that the rest of this essay is a digression from the main point of the chapter, which I think has been pretty clearly stated, and which is not that much different from the main point of Chapter 33.

To my knowledge, the first commentator to translate the “three-ten” symbols as “thirteen” was Han Fei Tzu in the third century B.C.E*.  Han Fei Tzu is the most famous proponent of the Legalist School of Chinese philosophy.  That fact is the point of my digression.
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Chapter 49 – Is It Naive?

 The sage has no invariable mind of his own;
he makes the mind of the people his mind.

To those who are good [to me], I am good; and to those who are not
good [to me], I am also good;–and thus [all] get to be good. To
those who are sincere [with me], I am sincere; and to those who are
not sincere [with me], I am also sincere;–and thus [all] get to be
sincere.

The sage has in the world an appearance of indecision, and keeps
his mind in a state of indifference to all. The people all keep their
eyes and ears directed to him, and he deals with them all as his
children.

 Translation by James Legge (1891)

It seems that this chapter should be an easy one for those in our Christian culture to understand.  We know that we should be good and sincere and even-handed for the sake of each of those virtues.  It is not for us to judge others because a loving God sends the rains upon the just and the unjust alike (Matthew 5:45).

This chapter should also be an easy one for those who have even a basic notion of the Tao.  Lao Tzu has told us in many ways that the sage treats all humanity as straw dogs, so no distinction is made between those who are good and those who are not, or between those who are sincere and those who are not.

Still, many who read what Lao Tzu tells us in this chapter are going to think that his admonitions are a bit naïve.  Even in Christian society we are regularly told that we must “trust but verify.”  There are famous works such as Machiavelli’s The Prince that teach us to manipulate others for our advantage.  The same could be said of Chinese classics like Sun Tzu’s The Art of War.  After all, if you don’t look out for your own interests, you can’t expect anyone else to do it for you.  No one except maybe your mother or father who deals fairly and lovingly with all his or her children (like the sage here).

The way of the world is not the subject of this chapter.  The subject is Te – Virtue.  This is how the sage does it.  The more we each emulate the sage, the more the world becomes good, sincere and unified.  Thus, the way of the world can ultimately follow the way of the sage.

Chapter 48 – Watching the River Flow

One who seeks knowledge learns something new every day.
One who seeks the Tao unlearns something new every day.
Less and less remains until you arrive at non-action.
When you arrive at non-action,
nothing will be left undone. 

Mastery of the world is achieved
by letting things take their natural course.
You cannot master the world by changing the natural way

 Translation by J. H. McDonald (1996)

I intend to keep my comments on Chapter 48 brief.  The way which is called “Tao” is the way of Nature.  We humans think we truly can master our world using our intellect and willpower and technology.  We look around and believe it most of the time – believe it until we are faced with a tsunami or tornado or wildfire or any of the other “disasters” through which Nature gives us a wake-up call.  It has been said that “you can’t push the river.”  That is true, so why try?

My approach to non-action here is to refer you to an excellent discussion of Chapter 48 by a Swedish gentleman named Stefan Stenudd.  On taoistic.com (which you can visit by clicking here), he says pretty much what I think one should get out of this chapter.

Having nothing much left to say here, I would like to go on for a few minutes and talk about Bob Dylan.  By the mid-1960s, Dylan seems to have forced himself about as far from Nature as he could get.  He had electrified his music, made himself the spokesman for a generation seeking to change the world and used and abused numerous drugs.  That lifestyle was taking its toll and he moved his family to Woodstock, New York to escape the frenetic pace of New York City.  A short time after that he was injured in a mysterious motorcycle accident and became reclusive during his recovery.

When he did start recording again, the general tone of his music had changed.  His next two albums were John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline.  Compare those to his next previous album, Blonde on Blonde – or perhaps contrast them, for there is a great difference.

In the early 1970s, Dylan recorded some music that seems to fit into the theme of this chapter.  I would invite you to listen to “Watching the River Flow” (click here), in which the singer feels he should be in the city where the action is, but recognizing the problems there (“I saw somebody on the street who couldn’t help but cry…I saw somebody on the street that was really shook”) finds contentment just where he is, “watching the river flow”; and “Sign on the Window,” (click here) in which the apparent recent break-up of a relationship leads the singer to realize that “what it’s all about” is to have a small cabin and a family and to “catch a rainbow trout.”

Chapter 47 – Inner Light

One may know the world without going out of doors.
One may see the Way of Heaven without looking through the windows.
The further one goes, the less one knows.
Therefore the sage knows without going about,
Understands without seeing,
And accomplishes without any action.

 Translation by Wing-Tsit Chan (1963)

This chapter of the Tao Te Ching is really rather amazing.  In one sense, it could be said that Lao Tzu is again telling the reader to “Know Thyself” and to practice wu-wei.  From that starting point, it is only natural to ask what this verse would sound like if it were rendered into English and performed by the Beatles with Indian scales, instruments and musicians.

Fortunately, there is an answer to that question.  The “B” side of the Beatles’ 1968 single

George Harrison

“Lady Madonna” was a George Harrison composition called “Inner Light.”  It was the first song written by George to be included on a Beatles’ single.  The song itself consists of the words from this chapter arranged for Indian instruments and recorded in Mumbai with Indian musicians.  You can hear a version of the song by clicking here.  Listening will give a sense that we should probably all be meditating.

The obvious follow-up question is:  Did Gene Roddenberry know about this?  Well, that, too, has a simple answer. Continue reading →

Chapter 46 – Contentment (All the Brave Horses)

When the world follows the Tao,
horses run free to fertilize the fields.
When the world does not follow the Tao,
war horses are bred outside the cities. 

There is no greater transgression
than condoning people’s selfish desires,
no greater disaster than being discontent,
and no greater retribution than for greed.

Whoever knows contentment will be at peace forever.

Translation by J. H. McDonald (1996)

Horses are but one example of how the natural world may be used to destroy or to bring forth life.  Of the horses I have known in my time,* every one of them would prefer grazing tranquilly and contentedly to fighting and facing death.  Unfortunately, in this world it is not the horses that make the choices. The choices are made by humans.

What could cause a human to choose to fight when every horse would advise against it?  Lao Tzu mentions several causes here – selfish desires, discontent and greed.  He also tells us the antidote for such thinking.  It is contentment which will bring peace forever.

Since great minds think alike, echoes of these sentiments may be heard across the centuries:

Socrates is reported to have said:  “Contentment is natural wealth; luxury is artificial poverty.”

Herman Hesse wrote:  “This happiness consisted of nothing else but the harmony of the few things around me with my own existence, a feeling of contentment and well-being that needed no changes and no intensification.”

The Dali Lama has said:  “When you are discontent, you always want more, more, more.  Your desire can never be satisfied.  But when you practice contentment, you can say to yourself, ‘Oh yes – I already have everything that I really need.’”

And I think I will be content to leave this comment at that.  I want to listen to John Stewart singing “All the Brave Horses.”  If you would like, you can click here for the YouTube version.

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*I am writing this in the Year of the Horse and I have mentioned a horse or two that I have known in my essay discussing what to expect during this year.  You can click here to read those thoughts.

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)

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.
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Chapter 44 – When To Stop

 Which does one love more, fame or one’s own life?
Which is more valuable, one’s own life or wealth?
Which is worse, gain or loss?
Therefore he who has lavish desires will spend extravagantly.
He who hoards will lose most heavily.
He who is contented suffers no disgrace.
He who knows when to stop is free from danger.
 Therefore he can long endure.

Translation by Wing-Tsit Chan (1963)

This chapter begins with three questions, the answers to which should be obvious.  Any reasonable person would love his or her life more than fame, would value life more than wealth and would rather gain than lose.  Then two examples are given of the consequences of answering incorrectly.  Finally, Lao Tzu tells us how the sage should live.

The sage is contented with the world as it is, so there is no attachment or desire to obtain fame or wealth.  The sage does not hoard material things.  The sage recognizes the natural flow of life.  Knowing when to stop, he or she does not exhaust energy or resources.

Nazgul from Lord of the Rings film

I would like to now look at two events from recent world news from the context of this chapter.  The first is the election that was held to make Crimea a part of the Russian Federation.  The United States and other Western countries seem to view what occurred as a “land grab” (to quote Joe Biden) by Russia; and history seems to superficially support that view.

Western powers have gone to war with Russia over that very issue in the past.  We call it the Crimean War, which lasted from 1853 until 1856.  Some 200 years earlier, Russia had forcibly annexed the Eastern half of Ukraine, and since that time had been progressively extending its territorial boundaries.

For most of those two centuries, the Ottoman Empire was a major world power that controlled the territory between the expanding Russia and the Western European powers.  However, by the mid-19^th Century Ottoman might was decreasing, giving the Russians an opportunity to gain even more land.  Based on the assertion that it had the right to protect Orthodox Christians who were being persecuted by the Ottomans, Russian troops and naval forces attacked.  They quickly took control of Ottoman lands near the Russian borders and destroyed the Ottoman fleet in the Black Sea.

The French and British saw these actions as a threat and an opportunity.  Continue reading →