Two: 4

Jonathan Star
and teaches without talking.

D C Lao
and practices the teaching that uses no words.

Lok Sang Ho
He teaches the unspoken teaching.
No word is ever spoken, yet living things thrive.

Commentary
Lao Tzu returns to describe the Sage, who as Red Pine and Thomas Cleary translates, offers ‘effortless service/deeds’ and ‘unspoken guidance’ and ‘wordless lessons’.

I wonder if the teaching of Lao Tzu the Sage is more about the unspeakable?  Clearly, it would seem to be both.  The Tao is discovered in the silence of the non-actions of the Kosmos, the flowing of all things through their true nature to accomplish what they need to do to be.  To study the silence of the Kosmos is to study the unspoken teachings of the Tao.  To realize that one’s words clutter up and approximate the reality of the Tao is to recognize the unspeakable reality of the Tao’s nature.

We experience the world on the unspoken level in silence.  As Alfred Korzybski wrote in his 1933 book Science and Sanity, p. 399: ‘The objective level is not words, and cannot be reached by words alone.  We must point our finger and be silent, or we shall never reach this level.’’  The word is not the thing.  The map is not the territory.

The Tao itself acts without action in silence – it is the teacher who does not speak.

We, through words divide up the Territory and can create an almost infinite amount of differing maps – as many as there are humans to make them.  But our maps, our words, are not the Territory.  The Territory which is our teacher is silent, is before words and ultimately beyond words and maps.

Yet we must as to be true to our Tao nature, ever make maps – for we are map makers.

To acknowledge that the maps, our words, are our own and not the source, is to possess wisdom and to teach wisdom – to be the Taoist Sage.

Two: 5

Jonathan Star
All things flourish around him
and he does not refuse any one of them
He gives but not to receive
He works but not for reward
He completes but not for results
He does nothing for himself in this passing world
so everything he does ever passes.

D C Lao
The myriad creatures rise from it yet it claims no authority;
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.

Lok Sang Ho
No ownership is claimed, though Nature begets all creation.
Humility is maintained even as achievement is made.
No credit is claimed, even as work is done.
Because no credit is claimed, so no credit is ever lost.

Commentary
Lao Tzu’s Sage exhibits wisdom and modesty – Humble, not seeking praise, not seeking glory – the Sage acts for the sake of acting, teaches and achieves with the sole purpose of benefiting others and thus merit never leaves the teachings of the Sage.

The Tao freely gives, brings forth everything and lay claims to nothing – a shining example of unconditional love and selfless giving.

Wang An-shih, 1021 – 1086, one of China’s most famous prime ministers, wrote: ‘Because the sage is selfless, he does not lose his self.  Because he does not lose his self, he does not lose others.’ [From Red Pine’s collection of commentaries on the Tao Te Ching.]

Interesting translation by Witter Bynner, he translates the first line of this section as “Takes everything that happens as it comes.”  To which I read as saying that the Sage accepts what happens, what happens just is, one deals with it and goes with the flow of it, reacting without overreacting.

Ursula K. LeGuin translates the final few verses as ‘to do the work and let it go; for just letting it go is what makes it stay.’  I take this as point toward the futility of possessiveness – by grasping a thing tightly you can crush it and destroy – thus you lose it in the end.  You truly keep what you are willing to lose, force used to grasp and possess, creates the reaction of resistance in equal measure to your efforts – be it a person, place or thing.

Three: 1

Jonathan Star
Putting a value on status
Will cause people to compete
Hoarding treasure
Will turn them into thieves
Showing off possessions
Will disturb their daily lives

D C Lao
Not to honor men of worth will keep the people from contention;
Not to value goods which are hard to come by will keep them from theft;
Not to display what is desirable will keep them from being unsettled of mind.

Lok Sang Ho
The wise ruler treats able men
The same as he would treat others.
In so doing he avoids strife.
He plays down precious goods.
In so doing he discourages thieves.
He makes an effort to stem the emergence of objects of desire.
In so doing he ensures that his citizen’s minds
Will not be thrown into disarray.

Commentary
Here Lao Tzu as the sage is instructing the wise ruler how to govern in accordance with the Tao.  The key again is the recognition of duality as unity – one gives rise to the other.  The key is to realize that duality manifests as ends of a continuum which flow outward one towards the other, the two exists as an inseparable union and unity.

The starting point is the mind’s recognition of a thing.  Then it is the mind’s evaluation of that thing.  Out of this act of evaluation stems the potential for divisiveness.  Only when one end of the continuum is labeled as having more worth than the other does contention arise.  Putting to much worth on one end of the continuum creates strife.

By focusing on the extreme ends one fails to recognize the flow of the journey between the two.  Contentment and wisdom is found in the harmony of the flow in between the two end points.

Wisdom is found not solely in knowledge.

Better is not the same as Best.  Better is a direction, a journey, a goal.  Best is a fiction that leads to strife.

Beauty resides everywhere.  Wisdom resides everywhere.  Truth resides everywhere.  Goodness resides everywhere.

It is only folly and foolishness to declare that “Only this is good.”  Or “Only this is beautiful.” Or “Only this is true.”  The folly is the statement: “Only this…”

Three: 2

Jonathan Star, 2001
Thus the Sage rules
by stilling minds and opening hearts
by filling bellies and strengthening bones
He shows people how to be simple
and live without desires

D C Lao, 1963
Therefore in governing the people,
the sage empties their minds but fills their bellies,
weakens their wills but strengthens their bones.
He always keeps them innocent of knowledge and free from desire,

Lok Sang Ho, 2002
Thus the Sage’s governance
Satisfies the real needs of people,
While emptying their minds of desire;
Builds up the inner strengths (bones) of people
While weakening their vain ambitions

Commentary
Lao Zi uses the metaphor of bones – the skeleton, as Lok Sang Ho notes in his translation, for the inner source of strength.  Lao Zi also uses the metaphor of the belly and later Daoist traditions expand upon this metaphor.

Lu Nung-Shih [1042 – 1102, a High court official] “The mind knows and chooses, while the stomach doesn’t know but simply contains.” [From the commentary collection compiled and translated by Red Pine, 1996]

As explained in ‘The Gold (or Yellow)  Pavilion’, Huang-t’ing Ching, a Daoist treatise written by Wei Hua-ts’un/Wei Huacun), by a woman Daoist priest living in around 330 C E at the court in Nan Jing, which was then called Jin Ling “Gold Hill”; there are three centers of the body.  These are the three cinnabar fields.  The lower cinnabar field, hsia tan-t’ian/xia dantian, is the true center of the body.  It is the seat of yin and thus intuition, wisdom and direct awareness of reality not filtered through the mind and the heart – the locations of the other two cinnabar fields.  The location of the lower cinnabar field is found two or three inches below the navel and two or three inches inward.

The lower cinnabar field, the belly, is thus the seat of yin.  The belly is the receptacle of the body; things of nature physically are put into the body through the mouth and come to reside in the belly.  Thus the metaphor of “filling the belly” is to fill the mind/body with the wisdom of the Dao by receiving it into oneself – hence yin.

The heart is the middle cinnabar field, chung tan-t’ian/zhong dantian.  Here resides yang, considered the source of will, desire, hatred and love.  Here is the conceptions of the mind get translated into assertive action and reaction to the outer world.

The upper cinnabar field, shang tan-t’ian /shang dantian, is one aspect of what we in the West would describe as attributes of the mind, the location in the brain for this field is the pineal gland – and synchronistic note – in the West Descartes in his mind and body split, his separate duality system, choose the pineal gland for the point of connection between his physical body and the non-physical mind.  This upper cinnabar field is where Qi/Ch’i resides.  This is one’s mental energy, thought, discernment, imagination, judgment, and many other activities associated with the mind in the West, take place.

Michael Saso, offers a translation and commentary to this Daoist treatise of the Lady Sage Wei Huacun in his book “The Gold Pavilion: Taoist Ways to Peace, Healing, and Long Life”, 1995, Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc.

I offer this summary of the three cinnabar fields:

Upper cinnabar field = Qi/Intellect/processing into words/mind
Middle cinnabar field = Yang/Will/outer assertive actions and reactions/heart
Lower cinnabar field = Yin/Intuition/inner receptive actions and reactions/belly

We have a question to ponder Jonathan Star in line 8 refers both to minds and hearts, while D C Lao and Lok Sang Ho refer only to mind.

Actually the problem first arose in line 6 where the word first appeared and was translated as ‘mind’.  The Chinese word is hsin/xin.  Which is it, heart or mind?  The Western/English translators used the term ‘mind’ while for Lao Zi the word xin would be the anatomical/metaphoric word ‘heart’.  As we learn from Wei Huacun the heart is the Middle cinnabar field, the dwelling place of Yang, will and desire.

Therefore in this line Lao Zi is describing the ‘emptying’ and ‘stilling’ of the heart.  What does this mean’?  The answer is found in line 12 referring to being simple or innocent of knowledge and free from desire.  It is in innocent knowledge, simplicity and lacking desire that the heart can be stilled or emptied.

The continuum seems to be innocence/simplicity at one end and at the other sophistication/complex recognition.  Our level of desire increases according to Lao Zi with increase in our discernment of complex recognition and sophistication.  We desire things when we choose and evaluate them as being best.  When we keep it simple and fail to make final judgments such as what is best, then we dwell in simplicity and we will still our desires and our ‘vain ambitions’, as Lok Sang Ho translated.

The themes of chapter three recall those in chapter two.