Tao te Ching: 72

When the people do not fear of what is dreadful,
Then what is greatly dreadful will descend upon them.
Do not reduce the living space of their dwellings.
Do not oppress their lives.
It is because you do not oppress them that they are not oppressed.
Therefore the sages knows himself but does not show himself.
He loves himself but does not exalt himself.
Therefore he rejects one but not the other.

When the people do not notice the small wrongs, or ignore them, then the great wrongs sneak up upon them. Do not take away from the people. Do not make their lives more difficult. Practice the profound and secret virtue.

Really, it reminds me of Pastor Martin Niemoller's poem "First They Came":

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me.

Tao te Ching: 71

To know that you do not know is the best.
To pretend to know when you do not know is a disease.
Only when one recognizes this disease as a disease can one be free from the disease.
The sage is free from the disease.
Because he recognizes this disease to be disease, he is free from it.

Note the similarity to Chapter 56. Additionally, I've found a quote from the Analects of Confucius that agrees with this.

Say that you know when you do know and say that you do not know when you do not know.
Analects 2:17

Interesting that, for once, they agree. Confucianism is ultimately a pragmatic philosophy, so it is a small wonder that Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Christianity all seem to agree on this point.

Tao te Ching: 70

My doctrines are very easy to understand and very easy to practice,
But none in the world can understand or practice them.
My doctrines have a source (Nature); my deeds have a master (Tao).
It is because people do not understand this that they do not understand me.
Few people know me, and therefore I am highly valued.
Therefore the sage wears a coarse cloth on his top and carries jade within his bosom.

I don't really understand this one. I've been pondering it for a few days now, and I've read it each time I've read the Tao te Ching. The final three lines make sense. Because people do not understand Tao and the root of all things, they do not understand the sage (in this case, Lao Tzu himself). But because few people know him and understand him, but they want what he has, he is highly valued. The final line about carrying the treasure within you and keeping to modesty is a lesson in modesty. He writes nearly the same in Chapter 64.

Chapter 43 seems to best explain the first three lines:

Few in the world can understand teaching without wordsand the advantage of taking no action.

The doctrines as written are easy to understand and to do. It is not physically difficult to do them. However, the things that are written are not the true Tao or the true path. They are things, descendants of the root of all things that cannot be named.

Tao te Ching: 69

The strategists say:
   "I dare not take the offensive but I take the defensive;
    I dare not advance an inch but I retreat a foot."
This means:
   To march without formation,
   To stretch one's arm without showing it,
   To confront enemies without seeming to meet them,
   To hold weapons without seeming to have them.
There is no greater disaster than to make light of the enemy.
Making light of the enemy will destroy my treasures.
Therefore when armies are mobilized and issues joined,
The man who is sorry over the fact will win.

If this sounds like The Art of War, then you're right. Sun Tzu's The Art of War can be considered to be the preeminent treatise on Taoism and warfare. Though the actual creation date of the Tao te Ching is questionable, it was in circulation in some fashion or another by the 5th century BC when Sun Tzu was alive and active. I urge you to read through Sun Tzu if you get an opportunity, though it is a longer work than the Tao te Ching and the tactics are dated in some respects. However, the underlying philosophy of making an enemy over extend and commit resources while conserving your own is naught but frugality and wu-wei.

Tao te Ching: 68

A skillful leader of troops is not oppressive with his military strength.
A skillful fighter does not become angry.
A skillful conqueror does not compete with people.
One who is skillful in using men puts himself below them.
This is called the virtue of not-competing.
This is called the strength to use men.
This is called matching heaven, the highest principle of old.

I have yet to find a version of the text that includes the phrase "of old" that thinks the phrase has significance here. Perhaps it was spuriously added, as Chan thinks. Perhaps there is still something to be gleaned from translation.

Notice how Lao Tzu follows again with the hierarchy (admittedly partially out of order) of action, from the individual to the small leader to the big leader. Much like he discussed with virtue in Chapter 54, the skill of the fighter is the skill of the leader which is the skill of the conqueror. And the conquerer must act as the sage and practice hsüan-te and follow wu wei or the world and the men will compete with him and eventually, the conqueror will lose.

Tao te Ching: 67

All the world says that my Tao is great and does not seem to resemble (the ordinary).
It is precisely because it is great that it does not resemble (the ordinary).
If it did resemble, it would have been small for a long time.
I have three treasures. Guard them and keep them:
   The first is deep love,
   The second is frugality,
   And the third is not to dare to be ahead of the world.
Because of deep love, one is courageous.
Because of frugality, one is generous.
Because of not daring to be ahead of the world, one becomes the leader of the world.
Now, to be courageous by forsaking deep love,
To be generous by forsaking frugality,
And to be ahead of the world by forsaking following behind—
   This is fatal.
For deep love helps one to win in case of an attack,
And to be firm in the case of defense.
When heaven is to save a person,
Heaven will protect him through deep love.

 Lao Tzu is acknowledging that the beliefs captured in the Tao te Ching, and the previous buildup of Taoism, are recognized as having merit because they aren't like anything else. The ordinary can be translated to mean unworthy or folly or indescribable. Also, he uses great as the antonym of small, not as a synonym for amazing or good. Tao is great (large) because it does not resemble the small. People follow it because it is not the same as everything else available (another slight against Confucianism).

Each of the three gifts goes back to a previous chapter. The love he talks of is the love from Chapter 10, when describing the love a parent has for a child and first defining hsüan-te. It is not the filial piety he scorns as a symptom of the decline of Tao and the rise of humanity (jen) and righteousness (yi).

Frugality returns to back to Chapter 59. Remember that frugality gives options and flexibility. By conserving one's resources they can be spent to the best benefit when necessary.  Not daring to be ahead of the world is simply wu-wei. Do not try. Just do.

What happens if you take a bold action without the right motivation? The Buddhists call it Right Intention, and it is the second step on the Eightfold Path. It is a renunciation of the selfish and self satisfying endeavors and mindset. Actions should be undertaken for the benefit of others. This is how the sage should behave as well.

Greater love hath no man that he lay down his life for one of his friends. John 15:13

What happens if you give to charities and loan to friends and spend all of your resources on others without having any for yourself? What happens if you spend without discretion? You lose the ability to sustain that level of activity. You put yourself in the same location, and the same situation, as those who need your assistance in the first place.

Tao te Ching: 66

The great rivers and seas are kings of all mountain streams
Because they skillfully stay below them.
That is why they can be their kings.
Therefore, in order to be the superior of the people,
One must, in the use of words, place himself below them.
And in order to be ahead of the people,
one must, in one's own person, follow them.
Therefore the sage places himself above the people and they do not feel his weight.
He places himself in front of them and the people do not harm him.
Therefore the world rejoices in praising him without getting tired of it.
It is precisely because he does not compete that the world cannot compete with him.

Note the last line repeating Chapter 22. This is another example of Lao Tzu taking a geographical or physical phenomenon and lauding behavior that follows the same path. It's a carefully chosen physical analogy and not the root cause, of course. Lao Tzu did not study geology and decide that good leadership would be based upon it, but rather it is easy to imagine that the mountains contribute to the sea because their streams and tributaries eventually flow back into it, and it is the water from the sea that goes into the clouds and returns to the mountains as snow and frost that eventually break the mountain down.

We return again to hsüan-te, the profound and secret virtue, as the method by which the sage should lead. Put others first, and by their benefit you gain your own.

Tao te Ching: 65

In ancient times those who practiced Tao well
Did not seek to enlighten the people, but to make them ignorant.
People are difficlt to govern because they have too much knowledge.
Therefore he who rules the state through knowledge is a robber of the state;
He who rules a state not through knowledge is a blessing to the state.
One who knows these two things also (knows) the standard.
Always to know the standard is called profound and secret virtue.
Virtue becomes deep and far-reaching,
And with it all things return to their original natural state.
Then complete harmony will be reached.

We live in an infocracy these days. It has become our life's blood. More information, better information, and get it to me faster. 24 hour news channels, internet feeds, alerts to your cell phone, videos posted almost the moment they happen. Media is enormous and it does make people difficult to govern because it factionalizes and polarizes the population.

Is information bad? No. Is a glut of information bad? Potentially. Lao Tzu thought it was a bad practice. Too much talk destroys truth, after all.

So why would he think it was a bad practice? Unless it is a holiday, no one wants to cook when my family gets together for the weekend. Instead, everyone agrees that they would like to eat out. But then they cannot decide whether they should pick it up and we can eat at the table or if we ought to just go out to the restaurant. And then comes the debate about where to go. But the debat is never a debate of strong opinions; rather, they have so many choices that none particularly appeal. The solution to this problem (and take note of it if you have the same problem with loved ones) is to sharply curtail the options and make them pick from those. Mexican or Chinese? Ok, Mexican food it is.

The same is true for two party governments versus coalition governments from what I can tell. One might align with this block or that block in a coalition government, and you could be torn between two choices if one appeals to your job and the other appeals to your ethnicity. And then you have a predominantly two party government such as in the United Satates, and the parties are heavily polarized.

In all cases, decision making, progress, and happiness are curtailed by the wealth of choices. Reducing the number of choices increases the response to the remaining options. That isn't always desirable, by the way.

Instead, Lao Tzu advocates following the middle road, Tao, and keeping to the profound and secret virtue (hsüan-te) of ruling without mastering.

Tao te Ching: 64

What remains still is easy to hold.
What is not yet manifest is easy to plan for.
What is brittle is easy to crack.
What is minute is easy to scatter.
Deal with things before they appear.
Put things in order before disorder arises.
A tree as big as a man's embrace grows from a tiny shoot.
A tower of nine stories begins with a heap of earth.
The journey of a thousand li starts from where one stands.
He who takes an action fails.
He who grasps at things loses them.
For this reason the sage takes no action and therefore does not fail.
He grasps nothing and therefore he does not lose anything.
People in their handling of affairs often fail when they are about to succeed.
If one remains as careful in the end as he was at the beginning, there will be no failure.
Therefore the sage desires to have no desire.
He does not value rare treasures.
He learns to be unlearned, and return to what the multitude has missed (Tao).
Thus he supports all things in their natural state but does not take any action.

Lines 1 through 6 harken back to the previous chapter. Take care of things before they get out of hand. Deal with small tasks to deal with the larger task. In fact, the third line echoes Chapter 22 very nicely:

To yield is to be preserved whole.To be bent is to become straight.

Problems should be dealt with while small and easy, but the sage should learn to yield to things larger than him so that he is not the small and brittle thing that the problem "deals with".

The second section is the birthplace of another commonly used saying: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Something changes in the translation (a li is an odd unit of measurement for westerners). The next lines are found elsewhere in the Tao te Ching but readers will know them from somewhere else. Master Yoda. "Do or do not. There is no try." Don't take an action. Just do it. Don't covet things and wrap yourself up in desire, because eventually you will lose them. Things are just things. You can't take it with you.

A sage does. A sage handles everything seriously and gives it enough to succeed without expending himself with wasted effort. A sage doesn't form attachments to things because all things are a part of the ten thousand things and ultimately, a part of Tao. If you attain Tao, you attain everything. The Buddhists have a train of thought that runs parallel to this.

I like the last two lines the best. "He learns to be unlearned" means to return to  a childlike state without bias and discrimination and preconceptions. That childlike state is the natural state where one can attain the true Tao. The Buddhists call it Buddha Nature. It is the non-dualistic property inherent in every person and everything. For the Buddhists, enlightenment causes Buddha Nature to blossom like a flower. For Taoists, the only non-dualistic thing is Tao.

Tao te Ching: 63

Act without action.
Do without ado.
Taste without tasting.
Whether it is big or small, many or few, repay hatred with virtue.
Prepare for the difficult while it is still easy.
Deal with the big while it is still small.
Difficult undertakings have always started with what is easy,
And great undertakings have always started with what is small.
Therefore the sage never strives for the great,
And thereby the great is achieved.
He who makes rash promises surely lacks faith.
he who takes things too easily will surely encounter much difficulty.
For this reason even the sage regards things as difficult,
And therefore he encounters no difficulty.

More actions for the sage to take. More actions for all of us to take, truly.

It seems a collection of folk wisdom, doesn't it? But even that has an origin. And likely a origin that predates the Tao te Ching. Yet it's worth collecting here. Wasn't it also worth including in the New Testament? Surely the Golden Rule wasn't new there either.

Practice wu-wei. Be serious and do your best, even when you think something is easy or trivial. If you do, you'll succeed. If you succeed in the little things you'll build the great thing.

Treat everyone well. Contribute virtue to the world, and not hatred. Recall Chapter 38 saying that the man of superior virtue takes no action and has no ulterior motive to do so. Act seriously but do not overreact. Do what is necessary and no more or less. Wu-wei isn't only doing the least of what is necessary, but also doing the most of what is necessary. It means to take correct action.

Tao te Ching: 62

Tao is the storehouse of all things.
It is the good man's treasure and the bad man's refuge.
Fine words can buy honor,
And fin deeds can gain respect from others.
Even if a man is bad, when has (Tao) rejected him?
Therefore on the occasion of crowning an emperor or installing the three ministers,
Rather than present large pieces of jade preceded by teams of four horses,
It is better to kneel and offer this Tao.
Why did the ancients highly value this Tao?
Did they not say, "Those who seek shall have it and those who sin shall be freed"?
For this reason it is valued by the world.

This is another one of my favorite chapters. Tao does not judge. All things come from it; both good and evil. A good man follows Tao and is rewarded for doing so. It isn't a material reward, but the benefit of being one with the Tao. The same is true for the bad man. There is no judgement of past actions where Tao is concerned. Simply follow the Tao and reap the benefits.

You can manipulate your way into honor and respect and positions of authority. In fact, that's how most people acquire them.  They climb the corporate ladder. They toady to the higher ups. Sometimes they sell out their competitors and coworkers alike. So why should you give a material gift to one who maneuvered his way into a position of authority? Does that activity merit such a thing?

The Tao is a gift suitable for all men, regardless of who they are and what they have accomplished. We are all good men or bad men, and sometimes alternately so. The Tao is always there, the mother of all things, and anyone can reap its reward. Thus it is valued by the world.

Tao te Ching: 61

A big country may be compared to the lower part of a river.
It is the converging point of the world;
It is the female of the world.
The female always overcomes the male by tranquility,
And by tranquility she is underneath..
A big state can take over a small state if it places itself below the small state;
And the small state can take over the a big state if it places itself below the big state.
Thus some, by placing themselves below, take over (others),
And some, by being (naturally) low, take over (other states).
After all, what a big states wants is but to annex and herd others,
And what a small state wants i merely to join and serve others.
Since both and big and small states get what they want,
The big state should place itself low.

So little states want to serve big empires. That sounds like something a big country uses as a justification for annexation to me, but I live in a big state in modern times. There isn't much danger of physical annexation where the United States is concerned. Economic and cultural annexation seems more likely, and the river metaphor stays there.

If a state (which is really an analogy for a person) is at the mouth of the river, it is as the lowest. It is also better able to use wu-wei. After all, how much less action can one take than to be the gate through which all others pass? Your views and beliefs are naturally transmitted by virtue of being the gate.

The important part is that tranquility and passivity can overcome or outlast the more energetic actions of the country on top.

Ultimately, Lao Tzu is advocating passivity to get what you want while letting others expend their energy.

Tao te Ching: 60

Ruling a big country is like cooking a small fish.
If Tao is employed to rule the empire,
Spiritual beings will lose their supernatural power.
Not that they lose their spiritual power,
But their spiritual power can no longer harm people.
Not only will their supernatural power not harm people,
But the sage will also not harm people.
When both do not harm each other,
Virtue will be accumulated in both for the benefit [of the people].

"Too many cooks spoil the stew." Cooking a small fish is the same. It means that excessive handling, even with the best intentions, can ruin something. It is a violation of wu-wei to do so. So the Tao is employed to rule the empire, then one practices wu-wei and does not compete with the world. Lao Tzu says in Chapter 22:

It is precisely because he does not compete with the world the world cannot compete with him. 

So what are these spiritual beings and their supernatural power? Superstition. Taboos. The amalgamation of various forms of spiritual practice and belief that guides people even though it doesn't follow the Tao. This isn't the "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" of Exodus 20:3. That is competition, and those that choose the path of Tao do not compete with the world, or any of the ten thousand things.

It also doesn't advocate abandoning the practices. The Pentateuch (notably Leviticus and Deuteronomy) lay down a series of laws and commands that formed a practical basis for living. Whether or not it was divinely inspired is going to be laid aside here. I'm not interested in the religious aspect of this as much as I am about the precedent it sets. It gives laws for what days to hold holy, how to dress, how to treat crime, and even what to eat.
In 1996, comedian Chris Rock gave a perfect example of a spiritual being losing it's power to hurt people,

"Religious books were written by man. ... Before there was refrigerators, before there was freezers, before there was seasoning, a pork chop might kill you! ... But times have changed. ... Five thousand years ago, they're like 'Damn, this pork is killing everybody. How can we get people to not eat pork?' OK, tell them God said don't eat it. Everybody said, 'OK, God said don't eat it.' and  they stopped eating it.  Times have changed, though. And now we got 'frigerators, we got freezers. We got Saran wrap. We got Reynolds wrap. Now a pork chop's your friend. That's right, if you're starving a pork chop will save your life!"

This is exactly what Lao Tzu means about spiritual beings losing their supernatural power. The spiritual power can no longer harm people because they recognize the habits and taboos for what they are. One might realize that they shouldn't covet because it's competing with the world, not because of the fear of reprisal. In the case of pork, we developed sufficient technology that it's no longer hazardous to eat easily perishable meat.

But the sage should not compete with these spiritual beings. Competition and fighting only leads people to hold more tightly to what they know (reversion). And when the leaders do not fight tradition but allow change (wu-wei), it benefits everyone.

Tao te Ching: 59

To rule people and to serve Heaven there is nothing better than to be frugal.
Only by being frugal can one recover quickly.
To recover quickly means to accumulate virtue heavily.
By the heavy accumulation of virtue one can overcome everything.
If one can overcome everything, then he will acquire a capacity the limit of which is beyond anyone's knowledge.
When his capacity is beyond anyone's knowledge, he is fit to rule the state.
He who possesses the Mother of the state will last long.
This means that the roots are deep and the stalks are firm,
Which is the way of long life and everlasting existence. 

I'm onboard with this for the first few sentences, but I wind up taking a left turn where Lao Tzu says that to recover quickly is to accumulate virtue heavily. I've spent time pondering this, because I really like the first two lines. Frugality allows flexibility because you have more resources to work with. It's easiest to think of it in terms of money, but it holds true for other things. If you're not emotionally invested and drawn you have depths to draw from when something awful happens, such as losing a job or a loved one. Frugality lessens the number of straws on the camel's back.

So what could be the accumulation of heavy virtue? Perhaps it means that the recovery allows one to stay in an advantageous position. That seems a bit too cunning an answer. So let's look at it from the other direction. Overcoming everything due to the accumulation of virtue. This is enlightening. To overcome everything is to be like water, which overcomes mountains in time and dwells in the low places. So what is virtue here? I think virtue, here, means opportunity. Frugality allows one to recover quickly. Recovering quickly allows opportunities. Opportunity allows one to overcome everything. Once one is like water, one can hold everything like the sea. Chapters 28 and 43 also explore this.

Note the final two lines echoing Chapter 22 and the metaphor of the reed coming back once more. With deep roots and firm, but not unyielding, one perseveres. One can overcome anything.

Tao te Ching: 58

When the government is non-discriminative and dull,
The people are contented and generous.
When the government is searching and discriminative,
The people are disappointed and contentious.
Calamity is that which upon happiness depends;
Happiness is that in which calamity is latent.
Who knows when the limit will be reached?
There is no correctness? (used to govern the world)
Then the correct becomes the perverse
And the good will again become evil.
The people have been deluded for a long time.
Therefore the sage is as pointed as a square but does not pierce.
He is as acute as a knife but does not cut.
He is as straight as an unbent line but does not extend.
He is as bright as light but does not dazzle.

Which would make you feel better? Let's say that your office has a troubled person in it. Someone who is disruptive, abrasive, and doesn't do their work. It's starting to become a problem. Now, your managers have to act. They need to change this person's behavior. They try and they fail, so they find a way to get rid of him.

So far, so good. Now, if they keep operating in this high security, questioning and doubting fashion afterward, do you feel better? It was necessary to solve the problem of the troublemaker. But now that everyone else is fine, the behavior seems scary and invasive and that doesn't help anyone.

That's sort of what Lao Tzu is saying with the beginning, though honestly, the true Taoistic way to handle it would be to continue to do nothing and manage that person as best you can until it's time to renew their contract. Then exercise wu-wei by simply not doing that

Also, reversion makes an appearance here once again. I like the question about correctness. Having an ideology with a fixed good and bad simply means that those who disagree with your ideology have an easy list of things that they can, in turn, label bad. Look at the Democrats and the Republicans in US politics. Perfect example.

Don't rule with ideology. Rule with hsüan-te.

State of the Blog

I've transcribed all of the chapters. I'd done so when I started this and they've been sitting in the drafts folder with no commentary.

Somehow, this fell by the wayside. Probably a few days of not doing it and then getting interested in something else. I tend to wander about and explore things. That's what this was about.

So I'm returning to it. I've already told it to publish the few I had commentary on, and I'll be resuming today with Chapter 58. There are only 81 chapters. Once I'm done, I'd like to go on to something new. Perhaps a look at some of the Buddhist ideas and traditions, or maybe Confucius.

If you have any ideas, let me know. It doesn't have to be eastern philosophy. The Toltecs are pretty interesting as well, though I don't have a ready supply of information about them.