Journey into Tao Te Ching Three: 3

Three: 3

Jonathan Star
With the people so pure
Who could trick them?
What clever ideas could lead them astray?

D C Lau, 1963
and ensures that the clever never dare to act.

Lok Sang Ho, 2002,
In so doing the clever people will learn
that their contrivance will not work.

Commentary
These lines present the idea of human creation as contrasted with natural creation.  And that those humans who have so created are the ‘Clever’ who are actively doing something to cloud the nature simplicity that exists for all to realize.  ‘Cleverness’ is an artificial and human construct and not existing in nature, and thus is not truly a part of the Dao.  The Dao is elegant simplicity, complexity without complications.  We humans create something artificial which we proudly offer as worthy of consideration, this is our cleverness but the Dao is natural simplicity.

Lao Zi, as the translator’s presented his words, frames the picture that the Clever are tricking, meddling and interfering.  This creation of cleverness is present as a form of deception.

But we can ask, are the Clever really deliberately trying to hide the simplicity of the Dao?  To do so means that they are aware of this true nature and are trying to keep others from recognizing it?  What if the Clever lack the conscious realization of the simplicity of the Dao?  What if they can not see and experience consciously the Dao’s true nature?  If this were so, then their action is not one of intended distortion, but the distortion of the Dao’s true nature is only the unforeseen results from their own misguided understanding.

What if all the Clever is deliberately doing is being egotistical and thrusting their own inventiveness onto others; acting as a child frantically wanting to get their parent’s attention and approval.  If the Clever do not consciously realize the Dao’s simplicity then they can not attempt to hide it from others.

What I am here suggesting is not what Lao Zi’s words are suggesting, but we are capable of our own independent thought on this and other matters.  We can be inspired to consider alternatives.  Lao Zi is not presenting dogmatic truth of an all or nothing nature.  We can ask and answer our own questions inspired by Lao Zi’s teachings.

What I am saying is that Lao Zi’s understanding of the Dao is filtered through his own preconceived perceptions and biases of humanity, society, and the natural world.  Lao Zi sees and experiences the Dao through the tinted glasses that he has been given and he has shaped himself consciously and unconsciously during the experience of his life up to the time that he put these words to paper.

I am not saying that Lao Zi is ‘wrong’ and that I am ‘right’, that would be very un-Daoist.  I am offering a yang to Lao Zi’s yin, to use that metaphor.  To understand the Dao is to realize that we humans can only get a fragmented, static understanding of a thing that is a vast dynamic interactive continuum.  The Dao that is spoken is never the complete Dao, as Lao Zi teaches us.  The Dao we speak of is only a partial vision of the Dao.