Tao Te Ching Passage 2
With the first section of the Tao Te Ching I showed how various sources presented different translations of the same verse. With the rest of the Tao Te Ching I will present one verse at a time, showing what I think is the translation of that verse that makes the most sense, at least according to the various translations that I have. I will then add my own interpretation of what the verse is saying.
I understand quite well that my interpretation will not be the same as that of others; it just will present my own idea of what that verse is discussing.
The following is taken from Lao Tse: Tao The Ching: Classic of the Way and its nature as translated by John R. Leebrick.
"When the whole world recognizes the beautiful as the beautiful, there arises the idea of ugly.
When the whole world recognizes the good as the good, there arises the idea of the bad.
For is and is not produce each other.
Difficult and easy complete each other.
Long and short contrast each other.
High and low distinguish each other.
Before and after define each other.
Therefore, the sage manages affairs without taking action, and teaches not by speech, but by accomplishment.
The ten thousand things rise from it, none are denied.
It gives them life, yet claims no possession.
It benefits them, yet exacts no gratitude.
It accomplishes its task, yet lays claim to no merit.
It is because it lays claim to no merit that its merit never deserts it.
I separated this into two sections since they discuss somewhat different things. The first part is stating the concept of Duality, Yin/Yang, polarity or any of a variety of other terms that you wish to give it. We define something by noting what it is not; someone who is beautiful is the opposite of someone who is ugly. If everyone looked exactly the same, then there would be no concept of "beautiful" or "ugly" since there would be nothing to contrast a person's appearance to.
We know something is short when we know it is not long; it's tall because it's not short; it's high because it's not low; its before because it's not after, and so on. Existence is filled with these polar opposites and that is one way in which we define things, by define something in terms of what it is not.
The ones that are straight-forward are the contrasts dealing with physical things, of course. Contrasts dealing with things like "so-and-so is a good person," or they are a "bad" person are much more complicated because they involve non-physical determinations.
This is where, of course, the conflict between Science and Religion comes into play. Science measures physical reality, and in physical reality contrasts are relatively easy to define. It's when we move beyond the merely physical into the world of judgment that things become complicated. If we say one person is "good", then we are judging them based on our personal concepts of what makes a person good and bad. Science, in effect, is objective, not relying on personal opinion (at least ideally; science doesn't always work that way, of course.) Religion/spirituality/morality is subjective, based on what a person/group of people/"leader" believes something is. So the duality of things involving morality, for example, is much more hazy than the duality of physical objects, yet the duality still does exist.
The thing I am drawn to the most is the latter part of the verse and its similarity to certain Christian sayings. "The sage manages affairs without taking action, and teaches not by speech, but by accomplishment." Compare this to when Jesus talked about "by their fruits ye shall know them." A person can say anything, make any claim, yet only by observing the things that they actually do can you get an idea of the nature of the person.
The old Native American expression "white man speak with forked tongue" also comes to mind, along with the saying "if you can't walk the walk, don't talk the talk." It is what an individual does, that is the true measure of that person. Gandhi is a good example of this; he preached and he practiced non-violence. Martin Luther King, Jr. is another example of a person living the way they talked.
"It accomplishes its task, yet lays claim to no merit." There is something in the Bible about Jesus basically saying something along the lines that if you do good things, don't go bragging about it. Just do them. If a person does good things thinking that they will be earning some kind of brownie points in heaven, then that is something totally different from the person that does good things simply because that is the kind of person they are.
"It gives them life, yet claims no possession." Parents, for example, give a child life yet most parents eventually realize that the child is a person in his/her own right and they stop trying to run every detail of the child's life, this being just one example of how this works ideally.
"It benefits them, yet exacts no gratitude." People should do good for the sake of doing good. If you do good but with the expectation of receiving something in return, then the good you are doing is tinged with selfishness.
"It is because it lays claim to no merit that its merit never deserts it." Here is where I have a problem with many of the world's major religions since the deity that heads the religion is a deity that demands worship; it demands people bow down to it because it's done this-or-that for them. This is not a Taoist approach. Again, going back to the examples of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., neither of these two great men ever demanded that their followers praise them continually, bow down to them, or do anything like that at all. Such things would probably have horrified both of those men.
What they wanted their followers to do was to live the type of life that they felt was a "good" life, and to oppose "badness" (in the form of bad government, discrimination, etc), in a totally peaceful manner. In this regard, both men were actually Taoists in their approach to life.
So all life is composed of dualities; some harder to define than others, and we should live the life we talk about and do good without expectation of praise or merit. If we recognize the dualities and do good in that manner, then we will be following the Tao.
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