Lynn's - Daode jing of Laozi

As for those who obtained the One long, long ago,

"Long, long ago" means at the beginning.  One is the beginning of numbers as well as the ultimate number of things.  Each thing, as such, is produced by the One [Unity], and this is why it is the master of them all.  All things achieve completeness by obtaining this One, and, once complete, they exist as complete entities by separating themselves from the One.  Once they exist as complete entities, they lose the mother, and this is why all things deteriorate, disintegrate, terminate, dry up, expire, or collapse. 

Heaven is pure by having obtained the One; Earth is stable by having obtained the One; the gods have their spiritual power by having obtained the One; valleys can be filled by having obtained the One; the myriad things live by having obtained the One; lords and princes provide constancy (1) to all under Heaven by having obtained the One.  This is how they attain to these states. (2)

Each of these, thanks to access to the One, respectively attains purity, stability, capacity to be filled, life, and constancy [zhen]. (3)

If Heaven had not this means to be pure, it would, we fear, deteriorate.

It attains purity by making use of the One; it is not pure by making use of purity.  Because it holds to the One, its purity is not lost, but if it tried to make use of purity, "it would, we fear, deteriorate".  Thus it is that one must not separate from the mother that provides efficacy [gong].  For this reason, if all these did not make use of this source of efficacy, they would, we fear, lose their roots [basis of what they are]. (4)

If Earth had not this means to be stable, it would, we fear, disintegrate.  If the gods had not this means to have spiritual power, they would, we fear, terminate.  If valleys had not this means to achieve fullness, they would, we fear, dry up.  If the myriad things had not this means to live, they would, we fear, expire.  If lords and princes did not have this means to achieve loftiness and nobility, they would, we fear, collapse.  Thus it is that nobility uses humility as its roots and loftiness uses lowliness as its foundation.  This is why lords and princes refer to themselves as "the orphan", "the widower", or "the unworthy".  Is this not using humility as the roots ?  Is this not so ?  Therefore the ultimate number of praises amounts to no praise, so one wants neither "he glows with luster like the jade" nor "he is as hard as hard can be like the stone".

Purity cannot provide purity; fullness cannot provide the capacity to be filled.  As long as they all keep their mother, they preserve their forms accordingly.  Therefore purity is unworthy of being thought noble, and fullness is insufficient to be considered much.  Nobility resides with the mother, but the mother is without noble form.  Thus it is that "nobility uses humility as its roots and loftiness uses lowliness as its foundation".  "Therefore the ultimate number of praises" is really "no praise".  (5) Jadestone glows with luster and is hard as can be, but what it embodies is found entirely in its form.  Thus one should not want [to be praised as if he were jadestone].

Text, in Italics above, is Wang Bi's commentary.

The notes below, are from the translator, Richard John Lynn -

(deb's note - "section" is used for verse in these notes.)

(1)  "Constancy" translates zhen, which is the base text reading.  This zhen also appears in Wang's commentary to this passage, and, although both Mawangdui texts have zhen (governance), Fu Yi's composite text also reads zhen.  See Mawangdui Hanmu boshu, 101.  Cf. the Ming tuan (Clarifying the Judgements) section in Wang's Zhouyi lueli (General Remarks on the Changes of the Zhou): "The many cannot govern the many; that which governs the many is the most solitary [the One].  Activity cannot govern activity; that which controls all activity that occurs in the world, thanks to constancy [zhen], is the One.  Therefore for all the many to manage to exist, their controlling principle must reach back to the One, and for all activities to manage to function, their source cannot but be the One" (Lynn, The Classic of Changes, 25; see Lou, Wang Bi ji jiaoshi, 591).

(2)  This translates the base text.  Robert Henricks, in his own translation of the Laozi based on the Mawangdui manuscripts, renders this line as "Taking this to its logical conclusion we would say", which translates qi zhi zhiwei (Mawangdui A) or qi zhi ye wei (Mawangdui B) (Lao-Tzu Te-Tao Ching, 100-101; see Mawangdui Hanmu boshu, 101-2).  Wang's commentary to this passage indicates that neither of these readings was available to him.

(3)  Wang's commentary indicates that the text he knew did not conform to that of the two Mawangdui versions, both of which read "if Heaven remained pure in perpetuity [wuyi]".  See Mawangdui Hanmu boshu, 101; and William Boltz, "The Lao-tzu Text that Wang Pi and Ho-shang Kung Never Saw", 495-501.

(4)  CF. Wang's commentary to section 38, paragraph 5.

(5)  The base text reads yu (carriage) both in the Laozi and in Wang's commentary.  The context of the commentary, however, concerned as it is with praise, suggests that Wang read yu (carriage) as yu (praise).  "Carriage" also occurs in the Mawangdui B text, however, (Mawangdui A is ambiguous), which leads Robert Henricks to translate the passage as: "Therefore, they regard their large number of carriages as having no carriage. / And because of this, they desire not to dazzle and glitter like jade, / But to remain firm and strong like stone" (Lao-tzu Te-Tao Ching, 100-101; see Mawangdui Hanmu boshu, 102).  for detailed discussions of the textual problems associated with this passage, in which it is often noted that, beginning at least with the Fu Yi composite edition, most texts of the Laozi read "praise" instead of "carriage" and that yu should be read as "praise" regardless of which graph occurs in the Laozi and the Wang Bi commentary, see Hatano, Roshi Dotokukyao kenkyu, 276-78, and Lou, Wang Bi ji jiaoshi, 107 n. 7.  Supporting evidence also comes from the Zhuangzi, where a similar expression occurs" zhiyu wuyu, "perfect [the ultimate amount of] praise is no praise".  See Zhuangzi yinde, 46/18/11.  Taking the opposite position, Qian Zhongshu, while noting that such annotators as Lu Deming (556-627) and Lu Huiqing (1031-110) read yu as "praise", surveys with approval commentaries that read yu as "carriage" and concludes, citing the commentary of Su Che (1039-112), that the text should be interpreted as "enumerate all the parts of a carriage and there is still no carriage", Laozi's way of exploding the logical "fallacy of division" (fensan yuanlun), that is, that the sum of parts equals a "real" whole.  Qian's remarks make fascinating reading, and , while he might be right as far as the meaning of the original text of the Laozi is concerned, the commentary indicates that Wang did not read it this way.  See Qian, Guanzhui bian, 3:440-44.  

From Stephen Mitchell - tao te ching - A New English Version

In harmony with the Tao,

the sky is clear and spacious,

the earth is solid and full,

all creatures flourish together,

content with the way they are,

endlessly repeating themselves,

endlessly renewed.

When man interferes with the Tao,

the sky becomes filthy,

the earth becomes depleted,

the equilibrium crumbles,

creatures become extinct.

The Master views the parts with compassion,

because he understands the whole.

His constant practice is humility.

He doesn't glitter like a jewel

but lets himself be shaped by the Tao,

as rugged and common as a stone.

From Byron Katie - A Thousand Names For Joy

- Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are

The Master views the parts with compassion,

because she understands the whole.

Her constant practice is humility.

The voice within is what I honor.  It's what I'm married to.  This life doesn't belong to me.  The voice says, "Do the dishes" -- okay.  I don't know what it's for, I just do it.  If I don't follow the order, that's all right, too.  But this is a game about where life will take me when I do follow.  There's nothing more exciting than to say yes to such a wild thing.  I don't have anything to lose.  I can afford to be a fool.

What fun is it to be God if I can't get a glimpse of myself in the mirror ?  And whether I like it or not, that's what I am.  I'm vanity -- total vanity.  So when people are attached to their looks and their health, it's coming from an honest source; it's just misdirected.  It's pure innocence.

The ego-mind projected as a body, as a you -- is nothing more than a mirror image thinking that it's God and misinterpreting the world.  It's the mirror image thinking that it's the source, misinterpreting It as itself, rather than itself as just a reflection of It.  It's under the painful illusion that it's separate.  But the truth is that the ego goes where God goes.  God -- reality -- is all of it.  The ego has no options.  It can protest all it wants, but if God moves, it moves.

When someone says that the world is a terrible place, he becomes the champion of suffering, projecting that there's something wrong here, something less than beautiful.  It's the mirror image without a clue that it's just a mirror image.  You are the is, the reflection, the storyless movement.  As soon as you realize that, the source is merged with; the reflection moves, without argument, as the source.  And that is simple awareness, the joy of what people call the world and what I refer to as the image of God itself dancing.

Humility is what happens when you're caught and exposed to yourself, and you realize that you're no one and you've been trying to be someone.  You just die and die into the truth of that.  You die into what you have done and who you have been, and it's a very sweet thing; there's no guilt or shame in it.  You become totally vulnerable, like a little child.  Defense and justification keep falling away, and you die into the brilliance of what is real.

As I noticed the falling-away of the self and saw that its construct was absolutely invalid, what remained was humbled through the recognition.  Everything dissolved -- all that I had imagined myself to be.  I realized that I was none of it, that everything I'd stood for was insubstantial and ridiculous.  And what remained from that fell away, too, until finally there was nothing left to be humble about, no one left to be humble.  If I was anything, I was gratitude.  As the circle comes to a close in this way, it's difficult to tell whether the feeling is humility or gratitude.  Names no longer fit.

Gratitude, you could say, is what remains of the experience of humility.  That's my favorite position.  It's a sense of kissing the ground, licking the ground for its pure deliciousness, kissing the feet of the master that is everything without exception.  There is such a sense of thankfulness for no longer being the person who thinks she knows and who has to live life out of that limited, claustrophobic mind.  And of course I am that person as well.  I remember when I believed those thoughts, so I have a reference, I understand how others see it.  I watch their confusion with nothing but love, because they're innocent children who feel that something's askew, yet keep moving toward the polarity that never works, where they want to win, to do it right, to do more, to have more, to plan, to defend, to protect, to be loved, to be admired, and to undergo the shame of settling for less than their heart's desire. 

Dr Dyer's Essay on Verse 39 -

We traditionally think of wholeness as something that's complete.  "The whole nine yards", for instance, implies the entire distance.  "I ate the whole thing" signifies having consumed something completely.  Lao-tzu, however, seems to view the concept differently: Wholeness, he writes, has roots in humility.  When humility evokes our wholeness, we live the reality that we're pieces of the whole.

With this attitude, you want to exist harmoniously with the entire universe -- cooperating with, and being subjugated to, other aspects of the whole.  You can't even consider interfering with any piece of it because you're one with it.  The moment you begin to place yourself in a transcendent position in relation to others, or to your world of the 10,000 things, you're interfering with the Tao.  I encourage you to examine your concept of wholeness based upon this 39th verse of the Tao Te Ching.  I can assure you that the world will appear to have changed when you see it through this lens.

Lao-tzu insists that the universe is whole; that is, it's in a state of oneness.  There are no parts needing separation from this state.  Sky, earth, spirit, and the 10,000 things are all parts of the whole -- and what's more, that's their virtue !  Now while the sky and the trees may truly be in a unified state, your ego insists that you're separate, distinct, and generally superior.  But if you can modify your ego's viewpoint, your life will change. 

When you're cooperative and looking for signs of oneness, you'll begin to see and feel the interconnectedness of everything.  For example, your body is a convenient analogy for a universe all unto itself.  While it is one entity, it certainly has trillions of individual, although interconnected, cells.  Just one cell with an arrogant relationship to the whole makes all the cells suffer and ultimately become extinct, much like the individual who interferes with the Tao by polluting the sky, depleting the earth, and disrupting the equilibrium of the whole.  A cancer cell that refuses to cooperate with the cells adjacent to it will ultimately gobble them up, and if left unchecked, will destroy the whole.  Why ?  Because that cancerous cell has no relationship to the whole.  It will destroy itself as it kills the host upon which it depends for its own survival.  And you'll destroy yourself if you participate in destroying the Tao upon which you are dependent for your survival.

Each seemingly individual part of a whole is potentially dangerous (and generally useless) if it doesn't function in harmony.  What's true for the chariot in this verse of the Tao Te Ching is true for you as well.  Your life needs to have a relationship with the Tao, and that relationship is characterized by Lao-tzu as a bond forged by humility.  In other words, wholeness and humility are one and the same, so update the way you think about your relationship to life, and play your part "in accordance with the whole".