Chapter 12 – Fast of the Heart

The five colors make man’s eyes blind; The five notes make his ears deaf; The five tastes injure his palate;

Riding and hunting Make his mind go wild with excitement; Goods hard to come by serve to hinder his progress.

Hence the sage is for the belly Not for the eye.

Therefore he discards the one and takes the other.

 It is time for Tao Te Ching Tuesday, Chapter 12.  For this chapter I have set out the translation of  D. C. Lau.  Like most of the Tao Te Ching, Chapter 12 lends itself to several interpretations and can be commented upon from many perspectives.

One approach would be to read these words as telling us to avoid excess and live in moderation.  The physical world with its sights and sounds and emphasis on the pursuit of pleasure and accumulation of physical goods deludes our human minds into thinking those things are important.  The sage, though, seeks only what is necessary and does not lust after worldly pleasures that others may inappropriately value.  “Take what you need and leave the rest,” as we have been told by the Band (“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”).

Another interpretation would be to say that one who sees only the colors of the physical world may as well be blind; who hears only the sounds of this world may as well be deaf.  Instead, we should bring our senses away from the exterior – bring them back within to experience the worlds beyond worlds.  We should not limit ourselves.

To draw these various approaches together, it is helpful to consider again the writing of Chuang Tzu.  Continue reading →

Chapter 11 – The End of Endless Possibilities:  Lao Tzu, Neils Bohr and Jerry Garcia

 Thirty spokes are united around the hub to make a wheel,
But it is on its non-being that the utility of the carriage depends.
Clay is moulded to form a utensil,
But it is on its non-being that the utility of the utensil depends.
Doors and windows are cut out to make a room,
But it is on its non-being that the utility of the room depends.
Therefore turn being into advantage, and turn non-being into utility.

Chapter 11 of the Tao Te Ching talks to us about space – which is the emptiness between objects or between parts of a single object.  My initial thought was to play on the words of “Star Trek” and write about this space as the final frontier.  In my first 30 seconds of research, I found that had already been done – and quite well – by Amy Putkonen.  Therefore, I have taken a different approach.

I have chosen Wing-Tsit Chan’s rendition here because it concludes somewhat differently than many translations.  Others tell us “usefulness comes from what is not” (Stephen Mitchell) or “existence may be said to correspond to gain, but non-existence to use” (John Chalmers) or “emptiness is what we use” (J. H. McDonald), describing a state of being or passiveness.  Chan’s translation, though, directs us to act, to turn being into advantage and non-being into utility.

This very practical advice seems to square with the concept of the Tao that is presented by Lao Tzu.  The Tao’s presence is seen in the world through its manifestation which brings order to the primordial chaos.  In other words, the Tao is a utilitarian force which acts – through “non-action” (wu wei) – and allows us to exist in the universe as we know it.

In Chapter 42 we will hear that it was the Tao that produced the One, which produced the Two and then the Three and then the 10,000 things.  But what was there before the One?  There was the chaos of infinite possibilities. Continue reading →

Chapter 9 – On the Natural

Filling a cup to the brim
is not as good as
stopping in time.
Staying constantly sharpened
can wear out the blade.

One cannot protect
a home full of jewels.

Position and prestige
lead to arrogance
and eventual downfall.

When your work is done,
gently withdraw.

This is the natural way.

In this chapter, Lao Tzu’s advice is fairly straightforward and easy to understand.  Still, I would like to make a few comments.

It is appropriate to to read these words as telling us to act with moderation, as in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics; or to follow the Middle Way as Buddha taught.  Looking at the last line, though, the focus is actually a little different.  We are not told to follow the Middle Way or the moderate path; but the natural way, or as it is sometimes translated, the way of Heaven.

Once again, we are shown the wu wei.  And again we learn that the way of nature is not to strive or hoard, but to take the action necessary to accomplish what is necessary.  When a container must be filled, it is imprudent to add liquid until it cannot be lifted without spillage.  Although a blade must be sharp in order to cut, whetting it excessively destroys its stability and function.

Lao Tzu warns against striving for too many valuables or too much fame and power because such ambition ultimately leads to a position that cannot be maintained.

Continue reading →

Chapter 6 – The Divine Feminine

The Valley Spirit never dies.
It is named the Mysterious Female.
The gate of the Mysterious Female
Is the root of heaven and earth.
It is continuous and seems to be always existing.
Use it and you will never wear it out.

A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words; and our friends the ancient Taoists have drawn a good one for this Tao Te Ching Tuesday’s consideration of Chapter 6.  It looks something like this: 

Continue reading →

Chapter 5 – Straw Dogs

Heaven and earth are not humane:
The 10,000 things are straw dogs to them.
Sages are not humane:
People are straw dogs to them. 

Yet heaven and earth
And all the space between are like a bellows:
Empty and inexhaustible,
Always producing more. 

Longwinded speech is exhausting.
Better to stay centered.

 Perhaps we should blame Sam Peckinpah for some of the misconceptions people have about regarding or treating things and other humans as straw dogs.  His 1971 movie, Straw Dogs, took its name from this chapter of the Tao Te Ching.  It showed a dark, primal side of humanity through graphic scenes of violence and rape.

I’m sorry, Sam, but that is not the way of the sage or of Nature.

However, Peckinpah was not alone in what might be said to be his “interpretation” of the text.

Twenty-five centuries ago in China, straw dogs were just that – dummies made of straw in the shape of a dog.  At an even earlier time, real dogs had been sacrificed in religious ceremonies.  That practice changed so that the straw dummies were substituted for the living animals.  It is often said (dating all the way back to Chuang Tzu) that before the ceremony, the straw dogs were venerated and treated with extreme respect; but when it was over they were tossed aside and trampled in the ground.  Pieces were taken to be used as kindling.  Knowing that history, a number of translators working 40-50 years ago, produced works saying that both heaven and earth and sages are “ruthless” or “unkind.”  Peckinpah’s movie took such translations to a ridiculous extreme, but we can’t lay all the blame at his feet. Continue reading →

Chapter 4 – God and the Lexicographers

Tao is empty (like a bowl),
It may be used but its capacity is never exhausted.
It is bottomless, perhaps the ancestor of all things. 

It blunts its softness,
It unties its tangles.
It softens its light.
It becomes one with the dusty world. 

Deep and still, it appears to exist forever.
I do not know whose son it is.
It seems to have existed before the Lord

There are few words in this chapter, but they convey so much more than I could possibly discuss in this essay.  It speaks of substance and function, of time and space.

I have a friend named Rick who tells me he can mentally grasp the concept of infinity.  I tell him, if we take your concept and add one more of anything to it, do you still have an understanding of what that is.  He says he does; so I tell him that what he conceived before was not infinity.  Infinity seems to me always to be represented by a mathematical formula:  (The limits of what may be conceived) + 1 = ∞. 

He tells me he can grasp that concept, even if it cannot be expressed.  Perhaps.  I need to ask him to explain Chapter 1 of the Tao Te Ching.”

I bring this up now because I am not going to even consider what most of the present chapter may mean.  I want to focus only on the last line (and maybe mention another just to show that I am thorough). Continue reading →