Pages 121–132
universe.” CHAPTER 7 The Tao is infinite, eternal: Here is everywhere. Anytime is now. The Master stays behind; that is why she is ahead: She is like a turtle: wherever she is, is home. Actually, she is neither behind nor ahead, but exactly even with all things. She is detached: Bunan said, “It is easy to keep things at a distance; it is hard to be naturally beyond them.” Detachment results in clarity; clarity expresses itself in love. Her heart is like a mirror, which reflects all faces, without judgment, exactly as they are. CHAPTER 8 The supreme good is like water: I asked my friend and teacher Emilie Conrad-Da’oud, founder of Continuum, to comment on this verse. She said, Water is the source of all life, life’s matrix and fecundity; it overflows into everything, it moves everywhere. We are fundamentally water: muscled water. And the idea that we ever leave the amniotic fluid is a misconception. The amniotic fluid is the state of total nourishment and unconditional love. It is always present for us and contains everything we could possibly want. In fact, we are that fluid of love. CHAPTER 9 Do your work, then step back: When you do your work whole-heartedly, you are glad to let it go, just as a parent lets a child go, into its own life.
CHAPTER 10 Can you let your body become: Literally, “Can you concentrate your chi [vital energy] until it becomes…” supple as a newborn child’s: Emilie Conrad-Da’oud’s comment: There is no self-consciousness in the newborn child. Later on, the mind wanders into self-images, starts to think Should I do this? Is this movement right? and loses the immediacy of the moment. As self- consciousness develops, the muscles become less supple, less like the world. But the young child is pure fluidity. It isn’t aware of any separation, so all its movements are spontaneous and alive and whole and perfect. If an adult body becomes truly supple, though, there’s a quality to its movement that the child’s doesn’t have, a texture of experience, a fourth dimension of time. When we watch a seventy-year-old hand move, we feel, “Yes, that hand has lived.” All the bodies it has touched, all the weights it has lifted, all the heads it has cradled are present in its movement. It is resonant with experience; the fingers curve with a sense of having been there. Whereas in a child’s hand there’s a sense of just arriving. The child’s movement is pristine and innocent and delightful, but a truly supple adult movement is awesome, because all life is included in it. until you see nothing but the light: That is, until your heart is at peace. The great modern Indian sage Ramana Maharshi said, There is no greater mystery than this, that we keep seeking reality though in fact we are reality. We think that there is something hiding our reality and that this must be destroyed before reality is gained. How ridiculous! A day will dawn when you will laugh at all your past efforts. That which will be on the day you laugh is also here and now. Can you love people and lead them / without imposing your will: Emilie
Conrad-Da’oud’s comment: The more supple your body is, the less dictatorial you’ll be. The military stance is the most invasive stance that you can possibly take. Its opposite—the boneless, wishy-washy posture of someone who doesn’t stand for anything—is just as unhealthy. Suppleness is really fluidity. It transcends strength and weakness. When your body is supple, it feels like there’s no barrier in you, you can flow in any direction, your movement is a complete expression of yourself. by letting events take their course: Literally, “by becoming the female.” The Ho-shang Kung commentary says, “In arranging one’s life properly, one should be as calm and flexible as a woman.” CHAPTER 11 non-being is what we use: The true teacher realizes that there is nothing to teach; that’s why he can teach anyone who wants to learn. The true lover realizes that there is no one to love; that’s why he is available to anyone who needs him. The Master realizes that there is nowhere to stand; that’s why he can stand anywhere. CHAPTER 12 Colors blind the eye, etc.: We need space in order to see, silence in order to hear, sleep in order to carry on with our wakefulness. If the senses are too cluttered with objects, they lose their acuteness and will eventually decay. Desires wither the heart: Once it has let go of desires, the heart naturally overflows with love, like David’s cup in Psalm 23. his inner vision: There is no inside or outside for him. He reflects whatever appears, without judgment, whether it is a flower or a heap of garbage, a criminal or a saint. Whatever happens is all right. He treats his
own anger or grief just as he would treat an angry or grieving child: with compassion. open as the sky: The sky holds sun, moon, stars, clouds, rain, snow, or pure azure. Because it doesn’t care which of these appear, it has room for them all. CHAPTER 13 keep your balance: The trick is to go up or down the ladder with your feet on the ground. Bravo! Bravissimo!! See the world as your self: The outer mirrors the inner. CHAPTER 14 Look, and it can’t be seen: Another way of saying this: “Look, and it’s right before your eyes.” CHAPTER 15 till your mud settles: “Mud” stands for concepts, judgments, desires, expectations—everything that obscures and narrows reality. The Master’s life is pure and placid: predictable like the seasons, obvious like the moon. When our mind/heart becomes transparent, the light of the Tao shines through. the water is clear: I asked my old teacher, Zen Master Seung Sahn, to comment on this verse. He said, Our mind is like a glass of clear water. If we put salt into the water, it becomes salt water; sugar, it becomes sugar water; shit, it becomes shit water. But originally the water is clear. No thinking, no mind. No mind, no problem.
CHAPTER 16 Empty your mind: This doesn’t mean “suppress your thoughts,” but “step back from them.” Insight into the Tao has nothing to do with the intellect and its abstractions. When we step out of self-consciousness, we step into the Tao. Lin Ching-hsi said, The mind is originally empty, and only when it remains empty, without grasping or rejecting, can it respond to natural things, without prejudice. It should be like a river gorge with a swan flying overhead; the river has no desire to retain the swan, yet the swan’s passage is traced by its shadow, without any omission. Another example: A mirror will reflect all things perfectly, whether they are beautiful or ugly; it never refuses to show a thing, nor does it retain the thing after it is gone. The mind should be as open as this. Does this sound anti-intellectual? But listen to Einstein: The scientist’s religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, in comparison with it, all the systematic thinking of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection. This feeling is the guiding principle of his life and work. CHAPTER 17 One of several chapters that are as relevant to child-rearing as to government. The Master doesn’t talk, he acts: His words are in perfect harmony with his actions. He is always genuine. CHAPTER 18 the great Tao: Jayata said to Vasubandu, “If you have nothing to ask for in
your mind, that state of mind is called the Tao.” goodness and piety appear: When the Tao is forgotten, people act according to rules, not from the heart. This goodness is as insecure as Job’s and can be as self-satisfied as Little Jack Horner’s. Whereas a good father has no intention of being good; he just acts naturally. CHAPTER 19 Throw away holiness and wisdom: When some folks are called saints, other folks think of themselves as sinners. When one fellow is called wise, others imagine that there is something they need to know. The Master doesn’t have these categories; for her, no one is wise or holy; thus, in her presence everyone feels at home. CHAPTER 20 yes and no: Chao-chou asked Nan-ch’üan, “What is the Tao?” Nan-ch’üan said, “Everyday mind is the Tao.” Chao-chou said, “How can I approach it?” Nan-ch’üan said, “The more you try to approach it, the farther away you’ll be.” “But if I don’t get close, how can I understand it?” The Master said, “It’s not a question of understanding or not understanding. Understanding is delusion; not understanding is indifference. But when you reach the unattainable Tao, it is like pure space, limitless and serene. Where is there room in it for yes or no?”
I alone don’t care: If good happens, good; if bad happens, good. I am like an idiot: First you erase the blackboard; then you can write something new. I am different from ordinary people: I am more ordinary. When I am hungry, I eat; when I am tired, I sleep; that’s all. Pai-chang said, After enlightenment one is still the same as one was before. One is simply free from unreality and delusion. The ordinary person’s mind is the same as the sage’s, because Original Mind is perfect and complete in itself. After you have had this recognition, please don’t lose it. CHAPTER 21 before time and space: Philo said, “Today means boundless and inexhaustible eternity. Months and years and all periods of time are concepts of men, who gauge everything by number; but the true name of eternity is Today.” CHAPTER 22 If you want to become whole, etc.: Unless you accept yourself, you can’t let go of yourself. Because he doesn’t know who he is: From the standpoint of personality, he knows very well who he is; that is what allows him to use his personality for people’s benefit, rather than be used by it. But from the standpoint of his true self, there is nowhere to stand and no self to know. He doesn’t know; he just is. Only in being lived by the Tao: This is what Paul of Tarsus meant by, “Not I, but Christ in me.” Or, in a more light-hearted vein, the little boy who
when his mother got annoyed and said “Stop sneezing!” answered, “I’m not sneezing! It’s sneezing me!” CHAPTER 23 trust your natural responses: Trust the intelligence of the body. CHAPTER 24 power over others: The other is the self. When we understand this, we are able to use power wisely. CHAPTER 25 mother of the universe: As chapter 51 says, “The Tao gives birth to all beings, / nourishes them, maintains them, / cares for them, comforts them, protects them, / takes them back to itself.” These are the four great powers: Ho-hum. CHAPTER 26 without leaving home: She never loses touch with who she really is. In the midst of joy or anger or sorrow, she remains imperturbable. CHAPTER 27 This is one of the most important chapters in the Tao Te Ching. First stanza: I have been very free here, because the central point— openness to reality, openheartedness—needs to be made as clearly as
possible. The original text reads: A good walker leaves no traces or tracks. A good speaker makes no slips or errors. A good calculator needs no counting-sticks or tallies. A good locksmith uses no bolts or keys, yet no one can open. A good binder uses no ropes or cords, yet no one can loosen. available to all people: Because he is not attached to his own ideas. you will get lost: In moral judgments. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is the Tree of Death. CHAPTER 28 Know the male, I yet keep to the female: Keeping to the receptive allows the creative to arise. Actually, the creative and the receptive are complementary sides of the same process. CHAPTER 29 Do you want to improve the world: Ramana Maharshi said, Wanting to reform the world without discovering one’s true self is like trying to cover the world with leather to avoid the pain of walking on stones and thorns. It is much simpler to wear shoes. It can’t be improved: This is the Sabbath mind, as in the first chapter of Genesis: when God, from a state of perfect repose, looks at the world and says, “Behold, it is very good.” Actually, this “it can’t be improved” is the greatest possible improvement. Compare chapter 35: “She perceives the universal harmony, / even amid great pain, / because she has found peace in her heart.”
CHAPTER 30 doesn’t try to force issues: He lets the issues resolve themselves. out of control: Out of the control of his own, tiny, personal, conscious self. CHAPTER 31 Peace is his highest value: Peace means wholeness. CHAPTER 32 Smaller than an electron: Neither small nor large. Neither here nor there. Neither past nor future nor present. Also (as long as we’re discussing this) all of the above. CHAPTER 33 true wisdom: When I know myself, I know others. When I master myself, I don’t need to master others. CHAPTER 34 it doesn’t create them: It is more like a mother than like an artisan, giving birth rather than making. It acts without any conscious plan or purpose. God doesn’t say, “Let there be light.” The light simply is, and is God. CHAPTER 35 peace in her heart: She is centered in the peace; thus she can give herself
fully to the pain. without flavor: Zen Master Seung Sahn’s comment: The Great Way has no gate. Clear water has no taste. The tongue has no bone. In complete stillness, a stone girl is dancing. CHAPTER 36 If you want to shrink something: For example, defects in your character. When suppressed or ignored, they continue; but when allowed to be present in your awareness, they eventually wither away. Or, as Blake said from a slightly different perspective, “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.” CHAPTER 37 If powerful men and women / could center themselves in it: They can! CHAPTER 38 The Master does nothing: He has no goal in mind, doesn’t think that he is doing anything. He’s just along for the ride. yet he leaves nothing undone: No expectations. No regrets. No residue. When the Tao is lost: You can never lose the Tao. But you can find it.
Therefore the Master concerns himself / with the depths and not the surface: In the depths, there is no distinction between depths and surface. Fruit in autumn, flowers in spring. He enjoys the flowers, as he enjoys the fruit. CHAPTER 39 lets himself be shaped by the Tao: As a piece of marble lets itself be shaped by the sculptor, so that the statue inside can be revealed. Hammer and chisel are necessary agents. Ouch. CHAPTER 40 Being is born of non-being: “Non-being” means beyond the categories of being and non-being. CHAPTER 41 the greatest love seems indifferent: Because it has no preferences. A good father loves all his children equally, whether they turn out to be thieves or carpenters or messiahs. As Jesus of Nazareth said, “Love your enemies [i.e., treat them with generosity and compassion], so that you may be children of your father in heaven: for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends his rain on the just and on the unjust.” CHAPTER 42 The Tao gives birth to One: When it’s called One, it is no longer the Tao. (When it’s called the Tao, it is no longer the Tao.) One gives birth to Two: Oy!