Tao te Ching: 2

What is it like outside? Light and breezy with pale gray clouds covering the sky. Silver drops of rain rest on green leaves.

When the people of the world all know beauty as beauty,
There arises recognition of ugliness.
When they all know the good as good,
There arises the recognition of evil
Therefore:
Being and non-being produce each other;
Difficult and easy complete each other;
Long and short contrast each other;
High and low distinguish each other;
Sound and voice harmonize with each other;
Front and back follow each other.
Therefore the sage manages affairs without action (wu-wei),
And spreads doctrines without words.
All things arise, but he does not turn away from them.
He produces them, but he does not take possession of them.
He acts, but does not rely on his own ability.
He accomplishes his task, but does not claim credit for it.
It is precisely because he does not claim credit that his accomplishment remains with him.

Lao Tzu and Gautama Buddha might have been contemporaries. Tradition holds that Lao Tzu lived in the 6th century BCE, but the literary style suggests that the book may have been written in the 4th century BCE. It is possible that the Tao te Ching was written by followers of Lao Tzu rather than by the man himself, much the same way that many of the Christian gospels have literary patterns that suggest they were written many years after the events that they describe. It is also possible that hundreds of years of transcription, and possible blatant rewrites, will obscure the actual time frame of writing forever.

The dates of the Buddha's lifespan are a little more firm, placing his birth at 563 BCE and death at 483 BCE. This gives some latitude that leads to an overlap. That disclaimer aside, so we can lay to rest about which school of philosophy existed first, it is assuredly true that Taoism predates Zen (Ch'an). Zen was first taught by early Buddhist masters somewhere between 150 and 450 CE.

This is striking because here we find the origin of the silent teaching.

And spreads doctrines without words.

In fact, the Zen school starts because Chinese Taoism influences Indian Buddhism when it comes to Japan. I'll have to address that at a later time, because that is history and I want to look at the text of the chapter.

Continuing on from the first chapter and the idea that naming the Nameless causes there to be distinct things instead of an inclusive one-ness, Lao Tzu says here that by naming a thing we name its opposite. If we recognize good, we find evil. If we recognize beauty, we find ugliness. He lists several pairs, and I think it is only the art of writing and translation that gives us the different methods of comparing the terms. Each thing listed has its opposite, though I suspect that "sound" in the mention of "sound and voice" is actually melody, as played by an instrument.

We also come upon wu-wei  for the first time here. Wu is non-being, and yu is being. So in wu-wei we have the non-being combined with action, but it doesn't simply mean inaction. It means to take no unnatural action, in this context. So the sage rules his kingdom by taking no unnatural action. He doesn't own his work, he doesn't brag, and he doesn't do it for the money. It doesn't even cover why it is done, yet, but simply how it was done.

I've experienced this. I think that most of us have before. Imagine that you have spent the entire day doing chores and running errands. You have to buy cereal, pick up the dry cleaning, and fold the laundry. At the end of the day there is a positive feeling of accomplishment, but you didn't do it for admiration, recognition, or do anything at all other than the task in front of you. This is the first step.