Taoist Philosophy - Chapter 100

[Marblehead]

The Sage Is Hesitant, Undecided

 

The Sage is hesitant, undecided!
Like this is his respect for speaking.
He completes his tasks and finishes his affairs,
Yet the common people say,
“These things all happened by Nature.”

When trust is insufficient,
There will be no trust in return.
Therefore,
When the Great Tao is rejected,
It is then that we have humanity and righteousness;
When knowledge and wisdom appear,
It is then that there is great hypocrisy;
When the six relations are not in harmony,
It is then that we have filial piety and compassion;
And when the country is in chaos and confusion,
It is then that there are virtuous officials.

Banish wisdom, discard knowledge,
And the people will benefit a hundredfold.
Banish humanheartedness, discard righteousness,
And the people will return to true familial virtues.
Banish ingenuity, discard profit,
And there will be no more thieves and brigands.
Be without false adornments,
Preserve inborn simplicity,
Lessen selfishness and desire,
And banish knowledge
In order to live a carefree life.

When people abandon the Tao,
They resort to Te;
When they abandon Te,
They resort to humanheartedness;
When they abandon humanheartedness,
They resort to righteousness;
When they abandon righteousness,
They resort to rites.
The rites are a mere husk of loyalty and faith
And the beginning of anarchy.
Foreknowledge is merely the glitter of the Tao
And the beginning of folly.
Hence,
A man worthy of the name of “Sage”
Chooses the solid and not the flimsy,
The gem and not the glitter.


On Ceremonies

The ceremonies of ancient time were intended to meet the needs of the time. When the time has past and the ceremonies are still not cast away, they become an evil influence to the people and serve to hasten the start of affectations and imitation.

This is why the Holy Man freely dispenses a teaching without words. The Tao does not appear on command; Virtue is not acquired at will. It is possible to practice benevolence or fall into righteousness and the rites, which is going from one sham to another. This is why it is written, ‘When the Tao falls into disuse, Virtue arises; when Virtue falls into disuse, humanheartedness arises; when humanheartedness falls into disuse, righteousness arises; when righteousness falls into disuse, ritualism arises.’ The rites are but the glitter of the Tao and the beginning of anarchy.

This is why it is said, ‘He who practices the Tao diminishes his glitter every day. By diminishing and diminishing he attains the state of inaction; in this state of inaction, there is nothing he cannot do.’ That which has already attained the state of being; how difficult it is for it to go back to its root; to the Tao. It is easy for the Great Man alone. Life is the companion of death and death is the companion of life, but who knows their law? The life of a man is merely gathered breath. When it is gathered, there is life; when it disperses, there is death. Since life and death are each other’s companion, why worry about them? All creatures are one. The life the common people love seems like marvelous vitality to them; the death they hate, foul putrefaction. However, this putrefaction turns back into vitality, and vitality turns back into putrefaction. This is why we should say, ‘In this world, there is one and only one breath of life, and the Holy Man venerates that One.’


Man’s Nature In Motion

Action is man’s nature in motion. When man’s actions are false, it is called the loss of Tao.


On Filial Piety

There was a man who lived near the gate of the city. When his parents died, he was rewarded with an office because in his great show of filial piety he disfigured himself. Because of that, many people in their town tried to follow his example when their parents died and half of them perished; the others were not promoted.


The Origin Of Hypocrisy

Beyond the limits of the world the Holy Man exists, yet does not theorize; within the limits of the world, the Holy Man theorizes yet does not criticize.

You want to discriminate? Some things cannot be discriminated among. You want to argue? Some things cannot be argued about. So what is to be done? The Holy Man embraces everything.

People who argue do so for show. That is why it is said, “When you argue, there are some things you are failing to see.” In the greatest Tao, nothing is named; in the greatest disputation, nothing is said; greatest benevolence is not benevolent; greatest humility is not humble; greatest bravery is not aggressive. If the Tao turns to brilliance, it is no longer the Tao; if speech turns to disputation, it no longer achieves its aim; if benevolence becomes a habit, it is no longer perfect; if humility turns into affectation, it is hypocrisy; if bravery turns to aggression, it ceases to prevail.

These five qualities degenerate from universality into pettiness; therefore the best thing is to stop within the scope of cognition. Who knows how to employ disputation without words, the Tao without name? He who could do so would possess a Heavenly treasury. Pour into it and it is never full, dip from it and it never runs dry; yet no one would know where this wealth came from. This is what is called the Restrained Light.


Flight From Benevolence

The teacher of the Emperor was met by a friend as he was leaving the capital city on the main highway leading to the nearest frontier.

“Where are you going?” the friend asked.

“I am leaving the Emperor. He is so obsessed with the ideas of benevolence that I am afraid something ridiculous will come of it. In any event, funny or not, this kind of thing eventually ends with people eating each other raw.

“At the moment, there is a great wave of solidarity. The people think they are loved, and they respond with enthusiasm. They are all behind the emperor because they think he is making them rich. Praise is cheap, and they are all competing for favor. But soon they will have to accept something they do not like and the whole thing will collapse.

“When justice and benevolence are in the air, a few people are really concerned with the good of others, but the majority are aware that this is a good thing, ripe for exploitation. They take advantage of the situation. For them, benevolence and justice are traps to catch birds. Thus benevolence and justice rapidly come to be associated with fraud and hypocrisy. Then everybody doubts. And that is when trouble really begins.

“The Emperor knows how dutiful and upright officers benefit the nation, but he does not know what harm comes from their uprightness. They are a front behind which crooks operate more securely. But you have to see this situation objectively to realize it.

“There are three classes of people to be taken into account: Yes-men, blood-suckers, and operators.

“The yes-men adopt the line of some political leader, and repeat his statements by heart, imagining that they know something, and are thoroughly satisfied with the sound of their own voices. They are complete fools. And because they are fools, they submit in this way to another man’s line of talk.

“The blood-suckers are like lice on a sow. They rush together where the bristles are thin, and this becomes their palace and their park. They delight in crevices, between the sow’s toes, around the joints and teats, or under the tail. Here they entrench themselves and imagine they cannot be routed out by any power in the world. But they do not realize that one morning the butcher will come with knife and swinging scythe. He will collect dry straw and set it alight to singe away the bristles and burn out all the lice. Such parasites appear when the sow appears and vanish when the sow is slaughtered.

“Operators are like the Duke. Mutton is not attracted to ants, but ants are attracted to mutton, because it is high and rank. So the Duke was a vigorous and successful operator, and people liked him for it. Three times he moved from city to city and each time his new home became the capital. Eventually he moved out into the wilderness and there were a hundred thousand families that went with him to colonize the place.

“Finally, the Emperor put forward the idea that the Duke ought to go out into the desert to see if he could make something out of that. Though by this time the Duke was an old man and his mind was getting feeble, he could not refuse. He could not bring himself to retire. He had forgotten how to stop his wagon. He was an operator; and nothing else!

“The spiritual man, on the other hand, hates to see people gather around him. He avoids the crowd. For where there are many men, there are also many opinions and little agreements. There is nothing to be gained from the support of a lot of half-wits who are doomed to end up in a fight with each other.

“The spiritual man is neither very intimate with anyone, nor very aloof. He keeps himself interiorly aware, and he maintains his balance so that he is in conflict with nobody. This is your true man! He lets the ants be clever. He lets the mutton reek with activity. For his own part, he imitates the fish that swims unconcerned, surrounded by a friendly element, and minding its own business.

“The true man sees what the eye sees, and does not add to it something that is not there. He hears what the ears hear, and does not detect imaginary undertones or overtones. He understands things in their obvious interpretation and is not busy with hidden meanings and mysteries. His course is therefore a straight line. Yet he can change his direction whenever circumstances suggest it.”

Edited March 2, 2013 by Marblehead

[XieJia]

Thank you Marblehead for sharing.

 

This firefly have a question

 

So is the Sage not that of Holy but an ordinary man?

One that lives in accords with the transformation and embrace the way; welcoming guests with no discrimination, and over-lengthen or shorten their stay.

Where those that strays superficial?

[Marblehead]

Thank you Marblehead for sharing.

 

This firefly have a question

 

So is the Sage not that of Holy but an ordinary man?

One that lives in accords with the transformation and embrace the way; welcoming guests with no discrimination, and over-lengthen or shorten their stay.

Where those that strays superficial?

 

Very fair question. (I don't have many answers but I will try. Perhaps someone can help me here.)

 

The Taoist Sage, the non-religious kind, would not be considered a Holy Man. A religious Taoist Sage, I think would be. There were, and still are, different schools of Taoism. Some followers, for example, hold to only the teachings of Lao Tzu, generally referred to as Laoists.

 

Personally, I believe that Taoist Philosophy is incomplete without the teachings of Chuang Tzu.

 

But yes, I think that someone like Chuang Tzu (or his followers) would accept anyone into his home without discrimination. But he would also tell them when it was time for them to leave if they didn't realize that on their own. Hehehe. And he would be a gracious guest and know intuitively when it was time for him to leave.

 

Taoism really can't be all lumped together and thrown into one basket because there are so many different schools.

[XieJia]

But yes, I think that someone like Chuang Tzu (or his followers) would accept anyone into his home without discrimination. But he would also tell them when it was time for them to leave if they didn't realize that on their own. Hehehe. And he would be a gracious guest and know intuitively when it was time for him to leave.

 

Taoism really can't be all lumped together and thrown into one basket because there are so many different schools.

 

Thank you Marblehead for clearing my curiosity,

I got my questions answered. For me, Chuang Tzu seems to be a bit more like ordinary man (profound).

I think there's a collected feel to Daoism; I shall try to learn more about different schools of Daoism. Maybe I will try to turn to you to correct more of my misunderstandings.

 

Thank you again Marblehead.

[Marblehead]

Maybe I will try to turn to you to correct more of my misunderstandings.

 

Thank you again Marblehead.

 

Any time. But I must first state that I will speak to only Philosophical Taoism. Religious Taoism questions can be directed to someone like Stig and Alchemic Taoism ..., can't recall any specific members' name at the moment but there are a number of members here who can speak to that.