Tao te ching_ annotated & explained - Derek Lin [29]
1 The Tao always exists, so how can it fade away? This chapter isn’t talking about the ever-present Tao of the universe, but the concept of it in our thoughts. When that concept fades away, we can no longer be congruent with the Tao in a natural way. We need concepts such as benevolence, compassion, justice, and righteousness to guide our actions and behavior. (back to text)
2 The six family relationships are parent, child, older sibling, younger sibling, husband, and wife. When these six are in a state of harmony, the family enjoys a strong bond that requires no effort to maintain. When they degenerate into a state of disharmony, we must work on filial piety, obedience, and affection to keep the family together. (back to text)
3 When a country descends into chaos and anarchy, it becomes crucial to make the distinction between ministers who are loyal and those who are not. In general, the further we stray from the harmony of the Tao, the more necessary it becomes to make distinctions. “Good” and “bad” end up so polarized that we tend to forget they emerged from the same Tao.
Think about what happens when hatred takes over your thoughts. Your antagonism against your enemy is so intense that it is impossible to see any common ground between the two of you. This harsh sense of separation is a sign that you have become too removed from the positive and uplifting Tao.
If it is possible for you to draw closer to the Tao, the hatred will begin to lose its grip. You gradually gain an ability to see things from the other person’s perspective. Even if you cannot agree with that perspective, at least you begin to see the cause of the conflict. This is the beginning of understanding. (back to text)
19 Annotations
1 The character jue, translated as “end,” means to discontinue. The concept is clear: we should put a stop to the obsession with book knowledge and focus on the wisdom of living outside of books. It is the ancient Chinese way of telling a bookworm to “get a life.”
Some people have such a powerful desire for ever more knowledge that they fail to hear this message. They interpret “end” to mean “extreme” or “ultimate”; they change the first line to say that if one could gain the ultimate knowledge so that there is nothing more to learn, then people would benefit a hundredfold.
In this fashion, they have taken a warning against the blind pursuit of knowledge and transformed it into a rallying cry to acquire even more. The fact that this distortion can happen at all is the very reason Lao Tzu warns against it.
As we cultivate the Tao, let us keep Lao Tzu’s admonition in mind. Knowledge isn’t a bad thing per se, but book smarts can never replace street smarts, and school learning can never compare to life learning. We need both.
This is one of the most difficult chapters to understand, because we have a strong tendency to worship knowledge. We have all been conditioned to believe that knowledge is power, so how can having more be a bad thing?
Lao Tzu is unique among all the ancient philosophers in consistently highlighting the pitfalls of knowledge. In several chapters, including this one, he points to the link between intelligence and arrogance. He also points to the ease with which we can use knowledge in a shrewd way to twist the truth. In fact, this very chapter provides an excellent example. (back to text)
20 Annotations
1 The blind pursuit of learning leads to excessive desires—the more you see, the more you want. Excessive desires, in turn, lead to anxiety and misery. (back to text)
2 We tend to place too much importance on value judgments like good and evil. In reality, they are relative variables that change according to perspective. (back to text)
3 Lao Tzu went about life with a healthy dose of caution. If people considered something to be bad, there was probably a reason for it, so he would proceed with care, even though he understood the relative nature of value judgments. (back to text)
4 This is a reference to the vast gap between Tao cultivators and ordinary people. Lao Tzu uses