Tao Te Ching
Presented on: Thursday, July 23, 1981
Presented by: Roger Weir
Great Spiritual Classics of the Orient 2500 B.C. to 300 A.D.
Presentation 4 of 13
Tao Te Ching
Lao-Tzu in Early China, Tao, Taoism, and Natural Mysticism
Presented by Roger Weir
Thursday, July 23, 1981
Transcript:
The date is July 23rd, 1981. This is the fourth lecture in a series of lectures on the great spiritual classics of the orient by Roger Weir covering the period of 250 B.C. to 300 A.D. Tonight's lecture of The Tao Te Ching Lao-Tzu and early China. Now, Tao, Taoism and natural mysticism.
Very, very inexcusable characters, but it's just a lack of my education.
Comment from the room: We wouldn't know the difference
My teachers would, and there would be shame to pay. A year study of Chinese is nothing. Two years is nothing.
Comment from the room: Fifty years maybe.
About six years just to read a newspaper. It used to be a
.**inaudible comment from the room**
generation previous to us to derive the authorship of ancient books and say that there is no such person as Homer. No such person is Lao-Tzu. But there was. And if you go to the, some of the classic works like Arthur Willy's translation of The Tao Te Ching he tried to slot Lao-Tzu to in about 240 B.C., which is completely untenable. Or if you go to Feng Youlans History of Chinese Philosophy in two huge volumes published by Princeton University Press in translation by Derk Bodde. Again, the placement of Lao-Tzu is given anterior by at least a hundred years to Confucius.
But in Chinese history, the positioning of Lao-Tzu is quite well known. And there was a historian of the Han dynasty named Sima Qian, who in his history at that time dates Lao-Tzu about 600 B.C. And that's a very reasonable date. Sometimes it's refined to 604 B.C., but 600 B.C. will do. And he was a native of an area that presently as Hunan in Hunan province, which is a sort of a North central province easy to move West into the desert areas. Easy to move East into the main plains area of North China. Sima Qian, whenever he mentions Lao-Tzu, who was the author of The Tao Te Ching, which we're looking at tonight. Whenever Sima Qian mentioned, and he says such and such an Emperor was found of Lao-Tzu, he always mentions another Chinese Sage, the Yellow emperor. So that Lao-Tzu is rarely positioned by himself. It is always that so-and-so Emperor was found of the teachings of the Yellow Emperor and Lao-Tzu. Or such and such a recluse brought back into manifestation and himself, the teachings of Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor and Lao-Tzu. So, they are paired together.
In the earliest mythological histories of China. The Yellow Emperor is third in line. The third of five mythical Emperors. And the first years that elusive person that we have seen on the slide several times in these lecture series, Fuxi, the Chinese with the long mustache, the long fingernails, the long toenails wearing the leopard skin. Long hair. The dragon man. The man who reportedly lived about 2950 B.C. and was the inventor of the eight trigram, The Bagua.
And after Fuxi came Shen Nung, who was said to be the founder of agriculture. And the man who positioned the orderliness of man's relationship to the earth so that sufficient food could be produced. Then after Fuxi and Shen Nung comes the Yellow emperor. And his name, the character for his name is the same as the character for Yellow. Like Huang Ho, the Yellow river. The Yellow emperor, ti being heaven. So, Huang-ti the Yellow Emperor is dated about 2696 B.C., and it said to have lived about a hundred years. To have reigned or lived to a hundred years.
So, when Sima Qian mentions he Yellow Emperor and Lao-Tzu together, he always alludes to the fact that Lao-Tzu is not a perpetrator of something radically new. Nor is he an apostle of something which had come into fruition just in his time. But rather he hearkens back to a tradition, which is always, already seven, several thousand years old by his time.
Now we have a translation of the Yellow Emperors Classic of Internal Medicine, you can see the Fuxi in the middle and then Shen Nung, the gentlemen scholar is Huang-ti. And hes put in scholars ropes. And is said to have been the first human being to have administered **inaudible word**. That is Fuxi was one of these extraordinary dragon-like characters. He was larger than life and evidently never constrained. And Shen Nung also the same way. But the Yellow Emperor, Huang-ti is the essence of that humanness, that **inaudible word**, that human heartedness come into a position of kingship and rule.
So that the order that was established cosmically by Fuxi by arranging The Bagua, the eight trigrams, and giving man's ordering to heaven to the world. And Shen Nungs ordering of the earth, both of those were brought together. And so, Huang-ti in the order of man, because we have heaven, earth and man the bridge between the two. So that they try out of the first three mythical emperors of China present us with a compositional ordering of the universe. First, our understanding of heaven. Then our understanding of the earth. Then our understanding of man. And with that triad and with that positioning together of those three horizons of experience, it is said then that China became an entity. And from that all the dynastys and all the development.
And it's quite interesting. That when we take a look at the date of Huang-ti and Shen Nung about 2,500 B.C., and we look at contemporary archaeological and geological researches, we find that at that time in China there was a monumental change in the positioning of its culture. And I'd like to give you just a paragraph. And this paragraph is from the introductory volume of Joseph Needham Science in Civilization China. It is the first history, ever, of China in Science. And I guess all of this suffered through the quaint notion that there was no science in China. There was a great deal of it. And in fact, perhaps not this coming year, but in the beginning of 1983, perhaps we'll offer a six-month series of lectures on science and civilization in China and read through at least a couple of the volumes together. We can do that. Needhams work is monumental. It's easily the greatest work of our time in that it establishes a new orientation for our understanding of human history.
In the first volume, we find this a quotation,
After the paleolithic, however, there was a remarkable break of continuity. Anderson, one of the investigators, has written the deeper we penetrate into the study of those remote times the more we are impressed by the inflexible riddles barring our way. Foremost of these is the neolithic hiatus during the lowest period, the climate of Northern China was so arid that the region apart from residual Lake areas, might've been largely depopulated. And after this period followed a Fang Chou stage of vertical river erosion during which this lowest, this fine dust.
Lowest is fine, dust fertile, but very apt to blow away like the dust bowl in our 30s.
This lowest cover was largely the sectored and small canyons cut locally into the solid rock. This period, which may correspond to approximately to Mesolithic and early neolithic was a time of abundant rainfall, which in that part of the world must mean a genial climate. In other words, the region certainly abounded in game and must've formed a pleasant habitat for primitive man. However,
And these are researchers in 1943.
They found that suddenly at a time about 2,500 B.C., the apparent empty land begins all of a sudden to support a large and busy population. There was evidence of hundreds, even thousands of villages inhabited by people of agricultural, as well as pastoral economy, acquainted with carpentry textiles, ceramics and so on. Only further archeological work in the field will throw a light on this curious gap.
So, what we have is actually evidence that correlates to the old mythological tradition that at an identifiable time around 25-2600 B.C., China came out of some kind of a chaos, all of a sudden in a few generations and established itself. But what we don't find are great cities. We find villages, hundreds, perhaps even thousands of villages.
And so, the curiosity for us, immediately, what kind of an orientation towards the heavens and towards the earth and towards man produces this kind of phenomenon. And of course, when we take a Lao-Tzu tonight, we have realized that this is the economy, the political economy, of the Tao, of man understanding his place within himself and his horizon of experience. And how that middle ground relates both to heaven and earth in a bridging complimenting kind of a way.
Now the Yellow Emperor, who was always mentioned as a partner with Lao-Tzu by Sima Qian in the Han dynasty, his ancient book on the Tao, abbreviated as **inaudible word** Ching Internal Medicine. And it is actually a dialogue between the Yellow Emperor and one of his ministers, whose name is Chipo. C-H apostrophe I-P-O, like lipo. Only the C-H is pronounced as a G. Chipo. And in this conversation, it is the Yellow Emperor who does the asking of questions. He is not the perpetrator of the wisdom, but rather that central figure who draws out and focuses in himself the wisdom of the people and reflects it back to them. And so he is that man who is the bridge, the transformer, who does not elevate himself only to be cast down, but who makes himself humble before his people and thus performs continuous service of bringing civilization into being literally.
The Yellow Emperor asked the question,
I have heard that people in ancient times live to be over a hundred years old. And yet today we find people half that age, decrepit and failing, is it because the world changes from generation to generation? Or that mankind is becoming negligent? And Chipo answers, In ancient times those people understood Tao, the way of self-cultivation. They patterned themselves on the yin and yang. And they lived in harmony with the arts of divination. They were temperate in eating and drinking and so forth.
And he goes on to describe the life pattern of human beings. He gives the life pattern of a woman seven years at a time. Then the life pattern of a man, seven years at a time. So as to show that all of the stagings of transformation are well-known and have their pattern and their season, and they're cycling.
Then the Yellow Emperor asks his minister about Tao. And he wants to know, Those who followed down the right way and thus reach the age of about a hundred years, can they be get children? That is have they simply lived long, or have they retained their essential human element that is at the apex of human life, the capacity to procreate. Not so much just physically, but as a being the capacity to create. Chipo answers that, those who followed Tao the right way can always escape the decrepitude of old age and are still able to produce offspring in their old age. And not just physically to have children, but to still have their creative powers intact.
And then he says, Chipo says to Huang-ti, that in fact, we, we live in **inaudible word or two**. And in the earliest ages there were spiritual men, far back in history. The dialogue taking place extensively in 2690 B.C. He says,
In very, very ancient times, there were spiritual men who mastered the universe, and they control the yin and yang. They breathed the essence of life, and they were independent and preserving their spirits and their muscles and flesh remained unchanged. They could enjoy a long life in accordance with the Tao. Then the time of the spiritual men ends and in a medieval time, there were the kinds of men called the sapiens, the wisdom man. And their virtue was preserved, and they upheld the Tao the right way. They lived in accord with yin and yang and in harmony with the four seasons. And they departed from this world and retired from mundane affairs. They saved their energies and preserve their spirits completely. They roamed and travel all over the universe and could see it here beyond the eight distant places by these beings. They increased their life and strengthened it. At that last, they attained the position to the position of spiritual men.
So that we're given here a declension of human nature. And we're given this declension and we're halfway through it, at a strategic juncture in terms of Chinese history and development. And it is the source of The Tao Te Ching and Lao-Tzu. And that's why we're dwelling on it. That is to say the first human Emperor in his conversation, his great conversation dialogue with his great minister Chipo, is being given the pattern for human life for an individual female and an individual male. And then he is being given the pattern of all human history. And that the pattern begins not with man as some grubby animal, but with man as a spiritual being, a spiritual man, who has the capacity to be at one with the universe indefinitely and to live a long span of life. And that, that pristine horizon degenerated somewhat into a condition where one could still attain to the spiritual man, but one had to follow a four-season cycle. And one had to orient oneself to the eight directions. In other words, a kind of a geometry of orientation had to creep in because something was lost. The spontaneous continuity of daily spiritual life was lost and had to be reinstated by reminder constantly, by this kind of organization of time, direction, the seasons and so forth. But even so these were fine people and could at the end of their lives attain to the spiritual man.
But this was not the end. Then came further deterioration and there were, the age of the sages. And Chipo says, the stage as a team harmony with heaven and earth and followed closely the laws of the eight wins. And you have to imagine here eight primal direction and imagine The Bagua, or the trigrams arranged around a center.
They were able to adjust their desires to worldly affairs. And within their hearts, there was neither anger nor hatred. They did not wish to separate their activities from the world. They could be indifferent to customs. They did not over-exert their bodies at physical labor nor overexert their minds by strenuous meditation. They were not concerned about anything. They regarded inner happiness and peace as fundamental and contentment as highest achievement.
And so on. This was the age of the sages. And it's an age where there has to be a conscious philosophic refreshing of oneself. And with that one attain to wisdom man, or the sapiens. And with that hopefully to spiritual man. But even further, the Yellow Emperor is given the final declension, which brings it up to the times in which he finds himself succeeded by the men of excellent virtue who followed the rules of the universe. By now, it isn't simply an inner life. It isn't simply a reminded consciousness. Or even more complexly, a philosophically designated consciousness. Now there are rules. You must do such and such to attain such and such. But still, These are men of excellent virtue. They followed the rules of the universe. And emulated the sun. and they emulated the moon. And they also discovered the arrangement of the stars. In other words, nature by now has become a template for man to learn the rules of behavior and of life. But this is the low point on the totem pole of a declension of man's nature.
And so, the Yellow Emperor and traditional Chinese wisdom, would have held this in traditional mythological confidence. So that by the time that we come to Lao-Tzu about 600 B.C., we're not dealing with somebody who is primitive. We're not dealing with someone who just recently climbed out of a cave and has attained some kind of basic insight and in sort of a folksy way delivers spontaneous wisdom off the cuff at his old age. We have an example of someone who represents the epitome of a culture, which had been civilized for at least 2000 years in the tightest kind of a continuity. And one which recognized that our basic nature has its way of fitting, not as an object would fit into a slot, but as if it were a pitch of sound fitting into a musical flow. And that, that kind of a harmony was not only possible as some distant goal, but had been in fact, the basic normal, everyday condition of Chinese man in the distant past.
And so, when we read Sima Qians Life of Lao-Tzu, which is very brief, it's only about 250 Chinese characters. He has this to say, and this is a basic word for character translation. And this is the only basic information that we actually have. Everything else is speculative. The old philosopher was born in a state whose name is like Bramble Bush. And he came from a district whose name is like thistle. And it was the province of grinding stone. In other words, he came from a desolate area of China, and it was well-named. It was a Thistle County and Bramble State. And the district that he came from was only good to make grinding stone. He came from pretty poor circumstances. There wasn't anything there. It is now sometimes called Goodmans Bend as if they recognition of this Sage coming from that part of the country also had its name given to it. Goodmans Bend. And the bend, the character means crooked. In the sense of life to see these old Taoist stabs and they're never straight. It's always a crooked down piece of wood. Or if you say a Taoist garden is never one of these convenient straight lines, theres always a little meandering. And it's like the, it's like the lightning in the air and it's like the ripple in the water that nature and its essential ordering yet. It's always giving us this kind of a motion and rarely cuts it like the rules with a razor edge. It's always a give and take. Its always sine wave of energy of noting it. So Goodmans Bend village.
A man, indeed. His family name meant plum. And his proper name meant ear. And many commentators have said that the reference to the ear means that Lao-Tzu was probably of a mixed racial stock. That, that part of a Honan province had had exposure to the deserts, which were an interchange point always. And that in fact, some commentators have supposed that they have found traces of old from Hermonical Upanishadic thought and some of the thoughts in the The Tao Te Ching. But the indication here is that Lao-Tzu came of a mixed racial stock. He had large ears. His family name, plum. Plum gentry. And he is styled as the Prince or the count, depending on your orientation, the Prince or the count of the positive principle. And it's colloquial enough to be almost like Norman Vincent Peale, power of positive living. The positive principle. It's something that everybody knows, and you can forget, but you can remember. Or someone can remind you and it's not Titanically complex at all. It's simply there. And when you recognize it, your tendency is to lose it because it doesn't seem like that should be it. The positive principle. We fit as a pitch in harmony, which is everywhere and modulates all things.
Sima Qian goes on to say about Lao-Tzu that post humorously, that is after he died, he was called Long Low. Long Low referring to his ears again. And it's interesting that some of the wonderful early Chinese Buddhist statues always show the long low ear. And it's almost like a early Taoist influence in there. The idea of having heard. Remember, thus, I have heard from some of our other lectures. The Long Low.
He was in charge of the state secret archives. He was an archivist. And he was the historian. And apparently, he did this for a very long time. So that he had access to the collected and organized information of his time in this late Zhou Dynasty period.
Sima Qian says, then that Confucius went to this state, and it was called the state of plenty. The state of plenty. It was well run. Well organized. Confucius went there in order to consult with Lao Tzu on ceremonial. The old philosopher is reported to have said to Confucius, these few words,
You, sir. You of whom you speak. The ones who made these ceremonies, their bones lie moldering. Alone. Only their words exist today. Further the superior Sage while obtaining his time then rises. Not obtaining his time then like a drifting plant is carried about and wanders. I heard it a good merchant, deeply conceals his treasures. And it seems as if his house is empty. The superior Sage of perfect virtue, countenance, incontinence, outwardly resembles the ordinary.
Or the vulgar the common. He doesn't look any different.
Let depart your haughty aire, Lao Tzu talking to Confucius, Let go of your haughty manners. Your many wishes affected colors and exaggerated intentions. These all have no use to you or your person. I communicate this to you in this way. And that is all I have to say.
And so, this was the famous reported confrontation and interview. And Sima Qian then relates that Confucius departed. And he addressed his younger followers because he was very famous, and he had an entourage and so forth. And you can imagine somebody coming out with his rope swirling and he says to this collection of younger people in his entourage,
The birds, I know they can fly. The fish I know they can swim. The beasts I know they can run. For running ones one can make nooses. For swimming ones one can make nets. For flying ones one can make arrows. With reference to the dragon, I do not know his bestriding the wind and clouds and ascending heaven. I at the present day saw the old philosopher and he must be like the dragon. The old philosopher practice Tao and Te. And his doctrine and self-concealment, not having any name consists of aspiring actors.
And so, Sima Qian ends this little biography of Lao Tzu here by saying that when Lao Tzus age of fullness came, either 160 years or 200 years, the tradition differs somewhat. He rode off to the frontier. And at this Hangu Pass was approached by the keeper of the pass, Yin Xi. And Yin Xi said, Sir, you are going to withdraw. I urge you to write for me to compose a book. Then the old philosopher, and the words old philosopher are Lao Tzu. Lao Tzu, the old philosopher, thereupon composed a book of a former and the latter part. Two parts. Discussing Tao and Te and out the concepts in 5,000 and some words. And then he departed. And no one knows where his place where he died.
So that's the only testimony that we have. And Sima Qian and his father were very, very dependable historians. So that the book that we have, The Tao Te Ching, which runs between 56 or 5,700 actually has been translated into more languages than any other book except the Holy Bible And very, very early on in our 20th century, there was a driving need to have excellent texts and translations of these classics. Possibly spurred on by the great Oxford series, The Sacred Books of East which James Legging did the primary, primary editing. But this translation here by Dr. Paul Kerris in Chicago is outstanding. Because in order to make this translation as legitimate as possible, he wanted to bring in someone who would complement him. And he being an old westerner wanted to have a young Asian to come over to Chicago and enjoying him and making this translation. And the person who came when was none, other than the great D.T. Suzuki, the great writer on Zen, Buddhism and Shin Buddhism, who as a young man was told by his master Shoin Jaku that he could not go to Chicago until he had had a basic Satori or enlightenment samadhi experience. And Suzuki recounts, he lived to be 96 and he recounted in his very old age after 90, that he was determined that he would satisfy his masters demand, or he would commit suicide. And he wrote once in the issue of The Eastern Buddhist, about 20 years ago that he pressured himself and he got down to within three days and finally had this basic breakthrough, this insight, this experience. And coming out of the meditation hall Suzuki recalled that all the trees look transparent to him. And he realized that he himself was transparent too.
And so, when that condition, the young 21-year-old D.T. Suzuki, or if he went to Chicago and help this old German immigrant Dr. Paul Kerris who set up the open court publishing, which is still going there in LaSalle, outside of Chicago. And the two of them worked together and made this wonderful translation. And it exists today in a paper reprint, except they've left out the most basic part of it to me. And that was in the back they gave us all the Chinese characters, each one, and the English name for that word, which most closely approximated. So that one could look from character to word and eventually build up some kind of a tolerance towards the actual meaning that was emerging from these characters. And when one does that, it's almost as if one is doing a meditation on nature. And you begin to realize when you focus your presence within your own presence, and you stepped back just that one step beyond a simpatico relationship so that you can see the relationship as a whole. The same way as looking at this, it begins to occur to you that the intelligence that is happening here is just like a flower that grows out. That your sense of development has to follow along a stem of information of meaning that begins to bud out into an expression. And as that expression opens out into amplification, it summarizes and reflects back on the whole structure as you've seen it.
And in the beginning of The Tao Te Ching, the most primal situation is and there are four characters in there, one per Tao. One for Tao. One for a name. One for is not **inaudible word**. And one for the eternal. And the beginning of The Tao Te Ching has a character, which means realizing. Realizing. And the second character is Tao. So, the book begins with a journey, a process if you wish, of coming into realization. And what is coming into realization? Tao. This elusive aspect that goes all the way back to the Yellow Emperor and beyond. The third character in The Tao Te Ching is the same character Tao. So, it is repeated. So, we're given, realizing Tao. Then we're given Tao. And then a character for that can. And the next character again, is Tao. And then a character Fay is not. And then the character for eternal. And then Tao again. And then the character for name, me. Then again, the character that can. And then a character, which is a variant of that can, which is, this Ming be named. Then Fay is not. Then the character for eternal and then the character for name.
So, we have just a handful of characters and they're arranged for us in a pattern like that flower coming out of a stem, which begins with the process realizing Tao. The Tao that can be reasoned is not eternal. Tao. The name that can be named is not. Eternal name.
So, we've got a process here where Tao and name that is, let's call it basic nature. And let's call it basic language. Or if some of your like, word or logos, if you prefer that kind of speculation.
So that were, we're given like a tuning fork of realization that nature and name have some kind of a harmonized relationship. Such that if we reflect back upon nature or name with language, we do not have it really, but something else. We have what are those nooses or those nets or those errors of Confucius and we can have birds or fish or a game, but we cannot have the dragon. And what we have here is the dragon, Lao Tzu.
So, then they take a different tack, and the next character is woo, which means nothing. And those of you who heard Chou Lee Xi (sp?) it doesn't mean nothing at all as if nothing ever. It means no thing. No objective thing. Woo. In fact, woo way, the nothing. Woo way or desireless. Comes out to be, I, I forget the character for desireless woo shin. Maybe that's it. I'll look it up and and give it to you.
But woo and then the character for name again, Ming. Not having name heaven and earth of the beginning. Having name the 10,000 things of the mother. Therefore, the eternally not having desire, thereby one sees its spirituality. Eternally having desire thereby, one sees its limits. And this is very close as a matter of fact, to the kind of old arcane Pythagorean that one would have had Hellenistic Alexandria. That is if one is in a condition where you are polarizing your vision by insisting on there being rules of left and right, and proper names and so forth, you will see only does kind of a pastiche of juxtaposition, which are like the fish or like beasts or the birds. But you will not see dragons. If you do not have this kind of polarizing, which desire tunes in for you. If the desire say is quelled and then tranquility one observes. One observes in a complementarity instead of a polarity. And one sees in terms of wholes, of unities. And when one sees in terms of unities the dragon is there. There is nothing but the dragon. That's the Tao and that is they prevision cue that Lao Tzu is given in The Tao Te Ching.
He begins with it, These two things are the same in origin, but different in name. So, he's going to, after he sounded this keynote, he's going to come around and say, all right, we are going to have language. We are going to talk about it. The two are the same in origin, but different in name. Sameness called is mystery. And the mystery again, any mystery, all spirituality, and then the character of, and then the character, the gate. And its a little scrambled there so I'll take **inaudible word or two** translation of, of that and bring it into focus. Let's try this,
The Tao that can be expressed is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be defined is not the unchanging name. non-existence is called the antecedent of heaven and earth. Existence is the mother of all things. From eternal non-existence therefore, we serenely observe the mysterious beginning of the universe.
That is when we are in a state of tranquility, we may serenely observe the origins of the universe. There, they are for us in that state. From eternal existence, we clearly see the apparent distinctions. These two are the same in source and become different when manifested. The sameness is profundity. Infinite profundity is the gate whence comes to the beginning of all parts of the universe.
So, that we have almost like the beginning of the fourth gospel, we have kind of like a series of language expressions, mysterious, insightful, arranged in parenthetical developing orders to give us the sense of a flowering form of vision. And in the understanding of the form itself, we have the cue of the way in which we see. And through the whole vision itself that perspective, which we actually see with. So, we have a way, and we have the virtue or the power together. The Tao is the way, and Te is the virtue, the capacity. And we have both right at the beginning. The process and the event at the same time.
So that the second, the second chapter, and there are 81 in The Tao Te Ching, and they are divided into two sections, largely. Number one through number 37 are sort of the Tao Ching, the book about Tao. And from there on to the end, it's like the Te Ching, the book about Te. So that, for instance, if we come to number 37 at, and we'll come back to number two. If we come to 37 at the end of the Tao Ching, we are still talking about the Tao in this way.
The way to use life is to do nothing through acting. The way to use life is to do everything through being. When a leader knows this his land naturally go straight. And the world's passion to stray from straightness is checked at the core by the simple unnamable cleanness, through which men ceased from coveting. And to a land where men cease from coveting peace comes of course.
And then 38 begins right away, almost like Machiavelli, the Te Ching,
A man of poor fitness without making a point of his fitness stays fit. A man of unsure fitness assuming an appearance of fitness becomes unfit. The man of sure fitness never makes an act of it nor considers what it may profit him. The man of unsure fitness makes an activity and considers where is the profit.
And so on. So, that Lao Tzu gives us the Tao and then it gives us the Te.
Well, the second chapter in here, while he's developing the Tao. And I think I'll use a different translation. This one was by Witter Bynner, an American poet living in New Mexico, did this right after the second world war. This one by **inaudible name** was the first translation into English by Chinese and was commissioned by the Buddhist society in London in the 30s. And I find it very, very useful.
The second part of The Tao Te Ching, the second chapter after the discussion of the Tao and the name and what is eternal and what is changing, comes in like this, When all of the world understand beauty to be beautiful, then ugliness exists. That is as soon as there is a form, which is differentiated, you have the opposite or the background come into being, and it also has been made. So,
When everyone understands beauty to be beautiful, there is also ugliness then. When all understand goodness to be good then evil exists. Thus, existence suggests non-existence. Easy gives rise to difficult. Short is derived from long by comparison. Low is distinguished from high by position. Resonance harmonizes sound. After follows before. Therefore, the Sage carries down his business without action and guess is teaching without words.
And it's almost as if one hand the **inaudible word or two** to the lowest level here. That we can have men of excellent virtue. But only by paying attention to the cutting out forms and organizing ourselves by rules to see that every time we differentiate and bring into being or into manifestation something here, the rest of it also comes into being. So that one never has the dragon without the tiger. They are always there together. So that if you have short, you immediately have long. If you have this, you have that.
And this is the net. This is the Maya. This is the illusion. This is the classic conundrum in which we find ourselves as beings. Because constantly the desire is to differentiate further and refine further. And it's like dicing up the monster and producing infinitely smaller and smaller and smaller monster. And they proliferate. And pretty soon we have an architecture of chaos from the exact success of our effort to compartmentalize. And then the cry goes up, what do we do? It almost reminds me of that star Trek episode of the tribbles, where they kept multiplying and multiplying. They were lovable and there was nothing wrong with them, except that they constantly multiplied odd infinitum. And so, Lao Tzu gives us this conundrum in the second chapter.
So then in the third chapter of The Tao Te Ching, he brings us back to this kind of a statement,
Not exalting the worthy keeps the people from emulation. Not valuing rare things, keeps them from theft. Not showing what is desirable, keeps their hearts from confusion. Therefore, the Sage rules by emptying their hearts, filling their stomachs, weakening their ambitions, strengthening their bones. He always keeps them from knowing what is evil and desiring what is good. Thus, he gives the crafty ones, no chance to act and he governs by nonaction. Consequently, there is nothing on governed.
And what it is, is moving back away from this polarizing and this proliferating through the differentiating to that position where wholes are seen. And unities are apparent. And the dragon becomes visible. And in this condition, and I'm going to give you about three paragraphs from the librarian at the New York public library. A beautiful book of The Tao Te Ching. He was the president of the theosophical society also, at that time. And Beauregards book is almost impossible to find. I think the PRS library is the only copy, other copy in town, besides mine.
He says then,
Who and what is the Sage? The holy man. The Sage is occupied only with that which is without self-assertion. And he conveys his instructions by silence. He does not refuse the world's 10,000 things, but he does not possess them. He works but claims not the fruit of his action. He has merit but does not dwell on it and therefore no one robs him of it.
In short, he is in the world but not of it. If you remember the description of simplicity, you will see that the Sage is simplicity realized. And remember The Tao Te Ching begins with that jarring(?) process, realizing Tao.
Simplicity realized, the Sage and simplicity are two sides of the same truth. They may be compared to the approaches to the bridge and of the two voices spoken of in former chapters. The Sage is neither self-sufficient nor does he claim the honor for that which Tao accomplishes through him. Nor even the fruits thereof. How thoroughly the character of water and grass exemplify the Tao. The Sage knows no distinctions. He has no love but looks upon all men and things as made for Holy uses.
That is to say, separateness does not exist for him. We are part of a whole and not a part as an objective differentiatable part, but as the stem to the bud to the flower. We are in a process of unity. And it is just the motion of the intervaling that creates the harmony. That to the polarized mind makes it episodic and dispersed and broken. But to the mind of the Tao of the old spiritual men, it is a whole, it is a unity.
And one is reminded, and I think we'll take a little break here, of that wonderful photograph that the NASA brought back of the earth as a whole rising over the moon. And one the astronauts who held up his hand was surprised that we'd got to a position where physically we could eclipse our whole planet just by raising our hand.
END OF SIDE ONE
And Beauregards book is almost impossible to find. I think the PRS library is the only copy, other copy in town, besides mine.
He says then,
Who and what is the Sage? The holy man. The Sage is occupied only with that which is without self-assertion. And he conveys his instructions by silence. He does not refuse the world's 10,000 things, but he does not possess them. He works but claims not the fruit of his action. He has merit but does not dwell on it and therefore no one robs him of it.
In short, he is in the world but not of it. If you remember the description of simplicity, you will see that the Sage is simplicity realized. And remember The Tao Te Ching begins with that jarring(?) process, realizing Tao.
Simplicity realized, the Sage and simplicity are two sides of the same truth. They may be compared to the approaches to the bridge and of the two voices spoken of in former chapters. The Sage is neither self-sufficient nor does he claim the honor for that which Tao accomplishes through him. Nor even the fruits thereof. How thoroughly the character of water and grass exemplify the Tao. The Sage knows no distinctions. He has no love but looks upon all men and things as made for Holy uses.
That is to say, separateness does not exist for him. We are part of a whole and not a part as an objective differentiatable part, but as the stem to the bud to the flower. We are in a process of unity. And it is just the motion of the intervaling that creates the harmony. That to the polarized mind makes it episodic and dispersed and broken. But to the mind of the Tao of the old spiritual men, it is a whole, it is a unity.
And one is reminded, and I think we'll take a little break here, of that wonderful photograph that the NASA brought back of the earth as a whole rising over the moon. And one the astronauts who held up his hand was surprised that we'd got to a position where physically we could eclipse our whole planet just by raising our hand. And yet it was done not with that objective disenchanted, episodic mentality of eclipsing the world, but noting that kind of relationship with maturity. And then taking the photo to show it to everyone that it is a whole. It is a unity. And the first time I saw that it was in a poster and the caption was we didn't make it full, it is already there full.
Well, let's take a break there and then we'll, we'll come back.
Comment from the room: Can I ask you. You pronounce, how do you pronounce Tao, like you pronounce a D?
Its best to pronounce it D.
Comment from the room: Even though its spelled Tao?
Yeah. Yeah.
Comment from the room: Like The I-Ching is an I, its not an E.
Yeah, thats right. Its better to pronounce it Dao.
Comment from the room: But the T is a T? Tao, Tao **inaudible word**
Whenever there's a T with an apostrophe after then the T, like Tian, which means heaven. It has a T with an apostrophe then you say Tian. T without an apostrophe is just D. Dao.
Comment from the room: Well, this is Dao dae, Doa dae. Both are Ds.
Yeah. Dao De Ching. Here, this is how they say it. Heres the
Dao De Ching.
Comment from the room: Oh. Dao De Ching.
Thats the way the Chinese say it.
Comment from the room: Funny, Ive never known that. I thought it was like its a T-A.
Yeah, like Tao.
**inaudible crosstalk and background chatter for over a minute**
Works of art to help us **inaudible word or two**. This one is small bird. The artists name is **inaudible few words**. Chou Ren(?) was the artist. **inaudible few words** about 70 or 80 years old. I got it in San Francisco oh, 20, 25 years ago. This particular mode of expression gives an emphasis in Taoism. So that the unexpressed is as important as that which is expressed. And anything formal as discursive and cryptic has the informal surrounding it, complimenting it. And it's not all just vague and mysterious. The branch upon which we are sitting of existence has its extension back in time and space and implication to a tree, who is patterned on old one includes the branch upon which we metaphorically find ourselves. And that tree is in a landscape which extends on there. So that we do not ever exist isolated or alienated, but that our existence is rather like a manifestation of a bird on a brand. And just for convenience sake, we frame the event and say that this is the situation.
In The Tao Te Ching we're encouraged to see that this is always an imperious flow. And the earliest commentators and editions of The Tao Te Ching emphasize this. This book is very difficult to find. This is Heshang Gong Commentary on Lao Tzu published by **inaudible word** in Switzerland about 30 years ago. And it's unfortunate that it has not been properly reprinted and designated Heshang Gong. His name just describes his condition. A hermit who lives next to the Huang Ho River, living in a little hut. And who was the **inaudible word** emerged and developed along the lines of Lao Tzu and the Yellow Emperor.
Chapter 40 chapter 40 of The Tao Te Ching. Let's see if we can perceive this and then we'll go on to this landscape scroll. We looked at **inaudible word or two**. **inaudible name** translates it into just four lines
Returning is the motion of Tao. Weaknesses is the appliance of Tao. All things in the universe comes from existence. And existence from non-existence. Returning is the motion of Tao. Weakness is the appliance of Tao. All things in the universe come from existence. And existence from non-existence.
And **inaudible word or two** gives us this. Subversion is Taos movement. Subversion is the root. The root is that by which Tao moves. Movement generates all things. If they turned their back to it, they perish. This throws light on consideration. Subversion means to, to the overthrow of tradition and to unite to justice. To overthrow tradition and to become united to justice means the **inaudible word** adapting himself to condition. Adaptation to conditions is the movement of Tao. Therefore, it said subversion is the movement of Tao or return. Its coming back again. Those of you who've been coming for a long time recognize that kind of Hermetic questing pattern of the infinity sign and the linking together of those together into that great chain of being. That kind of returning motion coming back again and again and again and going out again and again. Thus, the pattern in time becomes a, Plato says time is the moving image of eternity. Like that.
Heshang Gong on Lao Tzu, Weakness is Taos use. Tenderness and weakness are what Tao always uses. Therefore, it is able to last long. Weakness, not in the sense of fragility, in sense of not assertiveness. In the sense of grasping, to have, to own, to possess, to codify, to categorize. These are fragile. And these movements are forever bankrupting the envisioning capacity, which would give a unity and a whole to ones sense of being. Weakness, tenderness are what Tao always uses. Without Tao weakness is the appliance of Tao. Weaknesses is Taos use.
This throws light on reality, says Heshang Gong,
Weakness chooses tenderness and stillness. Stillness is the saint remaining within reality. To stay within reality is the eternal use of Tao. Therefore, it is said weaknesses is Taos use. Within the world all things originate from existence. All things within the world are produced by heaven and earth. Heaven and earth give form and play. Therefore, they are said to originate from existence. Existence originates from non-existence. Heaven and earth, the spirits and everything flying, and creeping originate from Tao which is formless. Therefore, they are said to originate from non-existence.
This means that the fundamental vanquishes eternal. That weakness vanquishes strength and humility, self-contentedness. Now this, this kind of a formulation when we read it in terms of language, even when we have the best material available, produces an effect in our mind and in our attentiveness of polarity and confusion. Because we are struggling to objectify it in terms of an ideational structure. We are contending with our feeling tones, which are thing themselves sympathetically to go out to understand. And yet we are rebuffed because our mind is being brought into play to formulate objective ideas, images, pictures. And so, we have a difficulty, even with the best equipment. And that is why from time to time, we have to, even with the best material, set it aside and bring into play our capacities as experientially alert beings.
As so something like this, like this landscape scroll. And Ive decided to use an original rather than slides tonight, because this is really one example of unity. Its superfluous to go on. Simplicity at this point is all of this required. And so, one real landscape scroll. The reoccurrence here of this form. And as you let your eye come into the work and it begins to move around you notice a repetition. And immediately we are alerted to the fact that we normally in some kind of photographic reproduction of nature would not have the time of a triad about **inaudible few words** one. And even that would be fantastic, even just that. So, we're not looking at something that reproduces an image that is referring back to some other **inaudible word** experience but rather all of this imagery is in this frame and is rather presenting rather than representing. This presenting an imagery, which has its world here. And which we are capable of entering in here. And not by using our minds as a reference back to some other horizon. That we've seen that in Yosemite. We've seen that in Switzerland. We are seeing it here.
And so, The Tao Te Ching does to have this kind of direct attentiveness to presentation. And as we look at that, as the phrase goes in those terms, the repetition here gives us just a sense of reassurance. Of return. Tao returning. The coming back again and again. And the going out again and again. And only after long experience with this phenomenon, with this event as it is does one finally come to some kind of a clearing of vision. And later on, you can check for yourself. that in this meandering of gorges and cloud and rivers, streams and mountains without end as the Chinese praised. There is one single solitary **inaudible word** possible, who is not reproduced or is not presented again and again. But is has a uniqueness as a single solitary one simplicity of individual existence but is presented in a fashion that is **inaudible word or two** that is commensurate with the **inaudible word or two** phenomenal work itself **inaudible word**. So that when one is far away you cannot see it. When one gets to a medium ground, a middle path one can see it through recognition. And then when one gets very close it disappears again. And thus, the Tao. And one would experience the presentation. That from far away or from too close it doesn't exist at all. It only exists in a medium realm when one is in tune to the presentational mode that it is there. And that recognition come into play. And through this we **inaudible word**. But if we seek to desperately and come to close it disappears into the presentational process itself. Disappears into the background. And we get something like **inaudible word or two**. Or if we get too far away, if we are far flum
far from the perspective we can't see it. And just so this scroll then, I hope, will give you some kind of a clue of taking a look at The Tao Te Ching. Don't read it too close, and don't read it just once every 10 years. Seek some kind of a middle ground and try to comport to it that way.
Comment from the room: Excuse me, Ive got a question.
Yes, go ahead.
Comment from the room: What does it mean to **inaudible word** archetypal activity it might have to be **inaudible word or two**. It begins on the grounds that are **inaudible word**. The whole thing is **inaudible word**.
Yes.
Comment from the room: I forgot my question.
No need. **inaudible word or two**. Keep the desire for asking a question in suspension. The I-Ching often says Heaven suspended **inaudible word**. Meaning that in that state of non-selective, non-forced suspension, all kinds of possibilities, entrances and exits occur, which were only discoverable when one was suspended. Yin.
And apropos to that chapter 52 of The Tao Te Ching bringing us ever closer to this perspective and gain some kind of a foothold on this mountain of experience, which is this little book. Chapter 52, two different translations of it. Witter Bynner records it this way,
The source of life is a mother. Be found of both mother and children but know the mother dearer and you outlive death. Curt your tongue and senses and you are beyond trouble. Let them lose and you are beyond help. Discover that nothing is too small for clear vision. To insignificant for tendered strength. Use outlook and insight. Use them both. If you are in **inaudible word** for you have witnessed eternity.
**Inaudible name** presents this,
The beginning of the universe when manifested may be regarded as a mother. When a man has found the mother, he will know the children accordingly. Though he has known the children, he still caters to the mother. Thus, however his body may decay he will never perish. If he shuts his mouth and closes his doors, he can never be exhausted. If he opens his mouth and increases his affairs, he can never be saved. To see the minuteness of things is called clarity of sight. To keep what is weak is called power. Use your light but dim your brightness. Thus, you will cause no harm to yourself. This is called following the eternal.
And so, we have these. And I think
I was going to present a few other things, but let's just round it out this way. And then perhaps we can have a short question period.
The Tao Te Ching as an objective collection of homespun philosophy will become quickly inadequate and boring. It won't last three or four years. But if it is suspended and not tied down to any particular categorical informational plot, it will grow and become like one of those tools, which is clearing up and clarity gives us a chance both to see ourselves instead of a narcissistic kind of a way in which we find ourselves becoming more and more attune to a kind of a process-oriented reality. Rather than a straight objective world. Rather than a linear world. We find ourselves very good at making these kinds of patterns. Or we have a chance for observing that mystery, which goes beyond the reflection through the pool, through the water, to a sense of the unity of the pool and ourselves together. So, we have that capacity.
And The Tao Te Ching has served many people well for many centuries. And those who most have loved it have been those who have carried it lightly a page or two at a time for months at a time and come back to it again and again. And contempt to just brush against it. And if there's a relationship to The I-Ching, much in a similar way that The Upanishads that we covered last week bare to The Vedas. That there is somehow some quintessential structuring of vision, which becomes possible at this time in Chinese history. At the Upanishadic time in Indian history. Where we have moved out of that ritual ceremonial capacity and moved into that presence within the mythological patterning to where we finally began to conscientiously symbolize the world. And when we are able there to symbolize the world and give ourselves presentational modes of experience, we have extracted ourselves temporarily from the root ground and transcend it. With the Tao always return to it **inaudible word**. There's always that motion of coming back and putting on the old clothes again for a while. The ritual, the ceremony, the mythologies, the images, and so forth. The polarity. But no longer being weighted down by them but being conveniently temporarily served by them and then moving out again into the non-polarized complimentary relationship.
And the symbol, of course, in The Tao Te Ching and in The I-Ching, which is for many centuries presentationally given us that insight is the Taiji **inaudible word**, which we, or the Taiji, which we've looked at through many different ways in here. I can think of at least five or six different lectures. And if some of you missed them, we have tapes of at least three different people talking about the Taiji in here. That's the symbol. That yin-yang in a complimentary mode whose motion and rotation create time and temporality. And who's radiation in terms of spatiality creates feelings and those tones and the development of thinking. So that time-space itself symbolized by the movement of the Tao. And I think that the method of presentation that has served most people best is to get five or six different translations of The Tao Te Ching and meander through them a little bit at a time. Unlike The Upanishads where you could read them through, stay with them. The Tao Te Ching is something that come back to from time to time.
Now, next time we're going to have something a little bit different. That'll be the great sage Confucius, **inaudible word or two**, The Analects. And we'll see a contemporary, a young contemporary of Lao Tzu and we'll see what he's up to.
If any of you have questions, you can stay. Other than that, why by let's call it a night.
END OF RECORDING