Enlighten Your Days

Lin Yutang

Tao gives them birth,
Te (character) fosters them.
The material world gives them form.
The circumstances of the moment complete them.
Therefore all things of the universe worship Tao and exalt Te.
Tao is worshipped and Te is exalted
Without anyone’s order but is so of its own accord.

Therefore Tao gives them birth,
Te fosters them,
Makes them grow, develops them,
Gives them a harbor, a place to dwell in peace,
Feeds them and shelters them.
It gives them birth and does not own them,
Acts (helps) and does not appropriate them,
Is superior, and does not control them.
– This is the Mystic Virtue.

Douglas Allchin

“The Way conceives them.
Integrity receives them.
Matter allows them.
Nature endows them.
All creatures thus respect the Way
and honor its Integrity.
No one demands that this be so.
Their respect by nature ever flows.
The Way gives birth to them and nurtures them.
It shapes them, develops them,
shelters them, strengthens them,
sustains them, preserves them.
Creating, not claiming as one’s own,
working, not waiting for return,
guiding, not seeking to control:
such is the wonder of integrity.”

Aalar Fex

“The Tao gives birth to them
Virtue rears them
Nature forms them
Conditions complete them.

Therefore, of the ten-thousand things
There are none that do not honor the Tao
And value Virtue.
The honoring of the Tao
The valuing of Virtue:
Man does not command them [to do so]
And they are always genuinely themselves
Because the Tao gives birth to them
And Virtue raises them

Leads them, nourishes them
Erects them, poisons them
Supports them, destroys them.

Giving birth but not possessing
Acting but not presuming
Leading but not oppressively ruling—

This is called “Mystic Virtue.””

Keping Wang

The Dao begets all beings,
And the De fosters them.
Substance gives them physical form
And the environment completes them.
Therefore all beings venerate the Dao and honor the De.
As for the veneration of the Dao and the honoring of the De,
It is not out of obedience to any orders;
It comes spontaneously due to their naturalness.

Hence the Dao begets all beings,
And the De fosters them, rears them and develops them,
Matures them and makes them bear fruit,
Protects them and helps them breed.
To produce them without taking possession of them,
To raise them without vaunting this as its own merit,
And to nourish them without controlling them.
This is called the Profound De.

COMMENTARY: The differences between Lin Yutang’s version, Keping Wang’s and Douglas Allchin’s are rather slight. Most of the terms they use can be considered synonymous. For example: gives birth and begets, substance and material world, environment and circumstances. Anything that has substance is considered material. Also in Chinese thought the term environment (shi) comprises many circumstances including living conditions and geographical surroundings, air quality, local and regional weather and the natural forces created by the change of seasons in a particular region.

Keping Wang’s version is the most specific of the four and, therefore, the most profound while Aalar Fex’ version strays somewhat from the others. You will notice the Fex uses the terms “poisons them” and “destroys them.” This is a bit troubling because I don’t believe those terms are used in any other version of Chapter 51 and most likely not in Laozi’s original version either. In fact, it would seem that Laozi has conceived a short but all-encompassing hymn of praise and honor to the Tao (Dao) and De (Te) in Chapter 51, pointing out the numerous ways it has benefited Nature in general and mankind more specifically without demanding an iota of praise or honor in return. Fex’ version would definitely offset this vision.

While all the commentators/translators use two different terms for the Tao and the Te, they are not two separate entities. They are one and the same, only two aspects of the single essence behind all things. More on that in a moment. As you can see, Lin and Wang are the only two that translate those two terms as Laozi has most likely conceived them: Tao (Dao) and Te (De). Fex uses Tao but translates Te as Virtue. This is the most common translation of Te as found in most versions of the Tao Te Ching. While it is correct, it is not quite accurate as it tends to be misleading. Allchin translates Tao as The Way, the common colloquial translation, but calls Te Integrity. Again, this is not wrong only not entirely accurate. Other translations of Te include Power, Character. Life Force, Living Energy.

Although most English translations will use the term Virtue, there are two problems with that. First, Te has no connection whatsoever with the everyday, mundane virtues of mankind, namely benevolence, charity, kindness, etc. which, since the days of Confucius, have arisen from the egoic mind, embroiled in pride, patrimony, ambition, competition, and so many other worldly desires.Te is not concerned with any of that. Instead, the second problem with the term Virtue is the fact that Te, as Laozi uses it, is not simply Virtue, It actually encompases all the qualities of the Tao, which include many of the other terms used separately to translate Te: Virtue, Integrity, Power or Potency, Character, Life Force, etc. Te is all of that and more.

This is why Lin Yutang doesn’t just call Te Virtue but Mystic Virtue, and Keping Wang calls it the Profound De. As I mentioned above, Tao and Te are not two separate things. Tao is what generates all Life, and De is what forms, nurtures and sustains that Life. Tao is the invisible, inaudible, intangible essence behind all things while Te is Tao manifested. Therefore, the Profound De or the Mystic Virtue manifests all the qualities of the Tao. One might say the full potency and potential of the Tao.

This chapter is so remarkable because it is Laozi telling us: “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” If you were hoping that something more than a Big Bang existed, something beyond it, something that has existed for all time…”Well. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, but No, Virginia, he’s not real.” Huh?

If Tao is invisible, inaudible, intangible as Laozi tells us in other chapters, and most likely incomprehensible, then that something that has existed for all time is not a something but a no-thing. A being without a form and in that case we can perhaps call it a non-being. Nevertheless, Laozi states that this being without a form or non-being actually generated Life as we know it. Now, when a Taoist uses the term Life or Nature, he/she does not limit that to mean only man or this planet as do most non-Taoists. Instead, Life or Nature means everything, all material things, the Universe, in other words, not just the planet Earth, but all planets, suns, moons, constellations, galaxies. 

Creating or begetting Life is what the Tao, that invisible, inaudible, intangible Being-without-form does. Then, Laozi tells us that De, the Tao Manifested takes over and does the rest. Like a foster parent, Te fosters the Life that Tao has generated. It helps that Life grow, nurtures it, sustains it, matures and protects that Life and helps it to breed so the Tao can generate more Life. However, in human nature, especially, these aspects do not occur so smoothly. Unless that Life is attuned to the Tao, to Nature, it will actually run contrary to the Te and accord with worldly desires and ambitions rather than accord with Nature and the Te. But, as Laozi tells us, the Te, although it is in every way superior to us, it does not try to control us. It guides but does not force. It affords us that freedom to follow nature or to follow our egoic desires.

Here is the other remarkable aspect that Laozi is affirming. If you notice in all the above translations, the tasks that the Te is performing in our lives cannot be coordinated from some wayward post far off in Heaven. It’s an inside job, folks. The Te can only foster, grow, mature, guide and protect us, etc. from the inside out. It cannot work from the outside in. Therefore, Laozi is telling us that the Tao, once it has generated Life, will remain with that Life by transforming into its own Profound Te or Superior Virtue that will work on us from the inside out throughout our lives. This gives credence to the belief held by many other spiritual ideologies that some sort of spirit exists within us. The Hindus, for example, call it the Atman, and Christians, the Soul. And even non-spiritual realms will use words like character, integrity and principles to designate an aspect of human nature that exists within us that is non-material. One might even say that the Tao and Te are comparable to the Hindus’ Brahman and Atman or to a lesser extent the Christian God and Holy Spirit.

We know that the Te as Tao Manifested works from the inside out by what Laozi has told us in the Chapter 50.

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 can find 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.

 (Chapter 50 translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English.)

Why does a true Sage feel this way and have this enormous confidence? Because he/she knows the Tao lives inside of him/her in the form of its Mystic Virtue or Profound De.

One more remarkable aspect about Chapter 51 is that it presents its own condensed version of the Ten Commandments. If you read through the various translations both above and online, you will read all the various tasks that Te is performing in our lives. Those are the tasks we should be performing everyday on our own character and for others and Nature – to help them grow, to mature, to sustain and strengthen them – and to do it quietly, inconspicuously and spontaneously without ruminating and deliberating but as that urge arises from the Te, your Mystic Virtue, the Living Sage within you. And, above all, do it without any ulterior motives, without expecting an iota of praise, gratitude or honor.

Thanks for joining me. Have a great week!

09/24/2019

After posting what I thought would be the one and only commentary (above) on Chapter 51 of the Tao Te Ching at the beginning of the month, I find there is still a need for more clarity on this very significant chapter.

Back then, I called Chapter 51 Laozi’s Hymn of Praise and Honor to the Tao. Here is my exact quote:

“In fact, it would seem that Laozi has conceived a short but all-encompassing hymn of praise and honor to the Tao (Dao) and De (Te) in Chapter 51, pointing out the numerous ways it has benefited Nature in general and mankind more specifically without demanding an iota of praise or honor in return.”

Even though that may be true, the problem is that it makes the Tao Te Ching sound like any number of creation myths and Beneficent Monarch/Dictator myths from lands like ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, Israel, Persia, India, and Christian Europe, telling us how the Supreme Being is all good, all loving, and all just. Of course, in some of these myths, God just happens to have a fiery Hell waiting for anyone who rubs him/her the wrong way. So, be careful.

Now anyone who is familiar with the Tao Te Ching realizes that Laozi also tells us that the Tao is completely impartial to man and the individual creations: “Heaven and Earth (Nature, the Tao) are inhuman and treat the myriad things as straw dogs. The Sage (the Tao’s human emissary) is inhuman and regards all people as straw dogs”  Chapter 5, Tao Te Ching.

But this idea of impartiality on the part of the Tao was not new to Laozi. He like many of the sages and commentators before and after him were familiar with the I Ching, The Book of Changes, which predates Laozi by some 2500 years. The earliest written works go back some 3000 years, and according to Chinese theorists, oral versions were passed down for some 2000 years prior to that.

Many facets of the I Ching, point to the Tao’s impartiality. For example, the method of casting the I Ching by using 49 yarrow stalks has been devised and revised over the centuries to insure its impartiality. The 64 hexagrams introduce us to the Universal Archetypes embedded within our Collective Unconscious, which C.G. Jung often referred to in his writings. He even wrote a forward to one of the modern editions of the I Ching. Each hexagram relates to some facet of human life that is set for that exact moment in time and one’s position in life as expressed by all six lines and cannot be changed.

Wang Bi an ancient interpreter and commentator on both the Tao Te Ching and the I Ching states: “The hexagrams deal with moments in time, and the lines are concerned with the states of change that are appropriate to those times. Moments in time entail either obstruction or facility, thus the application (of a given hexagram) is either a matter of action or of withdrawal. There are hexagrams that are concerned with growth (of the Tao) and those that are concerned with decrease (of the Tao), thus the tests for them impart a sense of danger or impart a sense of ease.” (from the I Ching as interpreted by Wang Bi, translated by Richard John Lynn.)

Change of fortune one way or the other is determined by the pairs of lines which form by opposites and also change accordingly, depending on the application involved. Wang Bi goes on to state: “Whether to act or remain passive, whether to draw in or extend oneself, there is only change to indicate what is appropriate. Thus, once the hexagram is named, either good fortune or bad ensues, depending on the category to which it belongs. Once the moment of time is posited, one should either act or remain passive, responding to the type of application involved.”

No amount of prayers, pujas, coins in a fountain, incense bundles and other sacrifices to the Tao can change an unfavorable condition to favorable once the change within the hexagram has been determined. If the Hexagram is telling you to stay and not advance or you will encounter disaster, then forget the incense bundles and just heed the oracle’s advice.

Ideas we discover in the Tao Te Ching like Yin and Yang polarity, the Tao’s Te or Mystic Virtue, Wu Wei and the Tao’s impartiality were mostly intuited by mystics and sages who revised and transmitted the I Ching down through the ages. Therefore, when Laozi informs us to follow the Tao or Nature, in essence, he is advising us to consult with the I Ching. In fact, the Tao Te Ching is a short-hand, condensed version of the I Ching, in which all 81 chapters in some way relate to one or more of the 64 hexagrams.

To wrap up then our discussion on Chapter 51, let’s take a look at the Taoist Theory of Creation as extracted from ideas and assertions presented in the I Ching, Tao Te Ching, and in various medical and exercise texts relating to TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), Taoist meditation such as Zuowang and traditional qigong.

To begin, Laozi tells us in Chapter 14 that the Tao, that Infinite Oneness, is Invisible, Inaudible and Intangible. He states that “these three elude all our inquiries for they are bound together and become the inseparable One. Not by its rising is there light, Nor by its sinking is there darkness. Unceasing, continuous, (Eternal and Infinite). It cannot be defined, reverting again to the realm of nothingness (non-thingness).”

Unlike the non-thingness of the Buddhist Void, which is Kong or completely empty, the Taoist non-thingness is called Wu in which it is both empty and filled. As we read above from Chapter 14, the Tao is invisible and intangible, there is noting of substance anywhere in that mysterious Infinity. But at the same time, it is filled with potential. Thus, in Chapter 21, Laozi tells us what exactly is filling this infinite emptiness, this non-thingness and sets the basis for the Taoist Creation Theory. Again, we call on Lin YuTang to take us through Chapter 21.

The marks of great Character
Follow alone from the Tao.

The thing that is called Tao
Is elusive, evasive.
Evasive, elusive,
Yet latent in it are forms.
Elusive, evasive,
Yet latent in it are objects.
Dark and dim,
Yet latent in it is the life-force.
The life-force being very true,
Latent in it are evidences.

From the days of old till now
Its Named (manifested forms) have never ceased,
By which we may view the Father of All Things.
How do I know the shape of the Father of All Things?
Through these (manifested forms)!

(translated by Lin YuTang)

In the first two lines, Lin translates the word Te or Teh as Character. As mentioned above, Te has been translated as Virtue, Mystic Virtue, Profound Virtue, Moral Principle, Power, Potency. We shall use the term used by Laozi, Te. He tells us that this Te follows or flows alone from the Tao. Then he continues to further describe the Tao as he did in chapter 14. Chapter 21 fits chapter 14 like a glove stating that the Tao is elusive, evasive, yet latent in it are forms. So, that is the difference between the Tao and the Buddhist Void. Then latent in it are objects. Objects? Now, Laozi is speaking about matter, latent or potential matter. Then Laozi says the Tao is dark and dim. So, this must be Tao in its silent, unmoving phase before the beginning of time, before the evolution of space or light when all was dark and dim. Yet, latent in it is the life-force. There! That is the key. The life-force being very true, Latent in it are evidences. Evidences or images of what? Of us! Of all of Nature, our Universe.

Finally Laozi tells us from the days of old till now, its Named (manifested forms, the Universe) have never ceased. By which we may view the Father of all Things.How do I know the shape of Father of All Things? Through these as yet unmanifested forms. But the Father of All Things is not the Tao, for the Tao has no shape and never manifests. The Father of All Things is its Te, its very Character, the Life-Force. Instead, the Tao (as we shall see in Chapter 25) is the Mother of All Things.

So, let us go to Chapter 25 and the final key to the Taoist Creation Theory, again with Lin Yutang.

Before the Heaven and Earth existed
There was something nebulous:
Silent, isolated,
Standing alone, changing not,
Eternally revolving without fail,
Worthy to be the Mother of All Things.
I do not know its name
And address it as Tao.
If forced to give it a name, I shall call it “Great.”
Being great implies reaching out in space,
Reaching out in space implies far-reaching,
Far-reaching implies reversion to the original point.

Therefore:
Tao is Great,
The Heaven is great,
The Earth is great,
The King is also great.
There are the Great Four in the universe,
And the King is one of them.

Man models himself after the Earth;
The Earth models itself after Heaven;
The Heaven models itself after Tao;
Tao models itself after nature.

Here, Laozi sets the stage for creation, telling us that the Tao, this nebulous non-thingness existed before Heaven and Earth. Silent and alone, unchanging. He states that it is Worthy to be the Mother of All Things. He addresses it as Tao, which means The Way, but if forced to give it a physical name, he will simply call it “Great.” Why Great? Because Greatness implies reaching out in space, and reaching out in space implies far-reaching or “infinite.” Then he tells us that far-reaching implies reversion to the original point, which has become one of the fundamental laws of Taoism down through the ages, the reversion of all things to their origin, which is the Tao. Finally, Laozi offers us the four “Greats:” The Tao, Heaven, Earth, the King or Man and that each one models itself after that which preceded it. However, nothing has ever preceded the Tao, thus it models itself after itself. Lin YuTang translates “Tse-jan” as Nature, meaning the Tao’s very own Nature. In other words, the Tao is tse-jan or self-so, self-formed, that which is So by itself.

Having examined Chapters 51, 14, 21, and 25 now we are ready to look at the Taoist Creation Theory:

Before Heaven and Earth, before Time and Space, Sight and Sound, this nebulous mystery, dark and dim, existed, an Infinite Oneness, formless, invisible, inaudible, intangible, and incomprehensible, still and silent. No words, no thoughts can accurately describe it. Then as the movement of its Yin-Yang polarities commences, the darkness is suddenly eclipsed by a clear, brilliant light, not from any external source but from the Tao’s own brilliance, and a tremendous energy-field spontaneously arises that carries the full potency and potential life-giving energy of the Tao. This energy-field or Life-Force has become known by sages and mystics as the Tao’s Te or Profound Mystic Virtue.

As the spiralling movement of the Yin-Yang polarities reverses direction and increases, the Te forms and projects appearances or traces that had previously been latent with itself as the ground of space, growing and sustaining those appearances – stars, planets, galaxies – all traces formed by its subtle, invivible, life-giving energy, also known as Qi.

The Te’s formation of these myriad appearances, which have become known as the Universe or Nature is of no concern or interest tthe Tao, which remains completely present and intent upon its Infinite Oneness. It’s Te however continues to embrace all of Nature and the 10,000 things within itself. Though it, too, is impartial, it carries the full potential and potency of the Tao’s Flow. By attuning to it, we, too, enjoy the optimum benefit of that Life Force.

So, as you can see, Creation in the true Taoist realm is not like that in many of the other holy books. Neither the Tao nor it’s Te are a loving mommy and daddy. Both are impartial to their Creations or manifestations, which, after all, are only images, appearances or traces within the Te or Life-Force itself, which is an energy field within the invisible, inaudible, intangible Tao. These traces, like footsteps in the sand, are not self-so, but are empty and have no form of their own but the form that the Te has given them.

Thus, we see that there is no need to pray to the Tao or Te since both are impartial and indifferent to human desires and needs. However, the Life Force continues to flow from the Tao, the Mother of All Things, through its Te,  the Father of All Things within, without and throughout all of Nature. Therefore, to express gratitude to our Source for being able to experience human life is always a good idea. Nevertheless, meditation and not prayer is the top priority in order to connect to the Tao’s Flow by attuning our awareness to that flow. Meditation can enable us to empty ourselves of the worldly desires and egoic ambitions that limit our awareness and have us hopping all over the place, stressed and agitated. Meditation will calm our sensitive nervous systems and relax our minds so we can move in lock-step with the Tao’s Flow and live spontaneously with all our actions arising from that Flow. In short, meditation can help us reset our entire organism to its Original Nature.

So now the Big Question becomes: If we are nothing more than empty traces that have no form of our own but take the shape that the Te, our fostering parent, has given us, are we real or are we just imaginary appearances like the characters in our dreams? 

Damn good question!  My response: Who’s Asking?

Gate, gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate…gone, gone, gone beyond, gone far beyond time and space, sight and sound, life and death, beyond words, thoughts and forms to a place that is everywhere and nowhere, returning Home.

Be well. See you next time.