Verse 41 - Living Beyond Appearances

[Eva Libre]

41st Verse

 

A great scholar hears of the Tao

and begins diligent practice.

A middling scholar hears of the Tao

and retains some and loses some.

An inferior scholar hears of the Tao

and roars with ridicule.

Without that laugh, it would not be the Tao.

So there are constructive sayings on this:

The way of illumination seems dark,

going forward seems like retreat,

the easy way seems hard,

true power seems weak,

true purity seems tarnished,

true clarity seems obscure,

the greatest art seems unsophisticated,

the greatest love seems indifferent,

the greatest wisdom seems childish.

The Tao is hidden and nameless;

the Tao alone nourishes and brings everything to fulfillment.

 

 

Contemplation/Meditation Verse

 

By following the Way,

         I will not become complicated,

extraordinary or prominent.

         Rather, I will become subtle,

and simple, and uncomplicated.

         

            

Do The Tao Now

 

Spend an hour with a child today, taking note of how much wisdom is embodied in what appears to be juvenile behavior and beliefs.  Notice his or her fascination with seemingly insignificant items, repeating the same senseless phrase, tantrums, or laughter.  Jot down your impressions of the wisdom behind such so-called childish impulses and vow to be a kid again as frequently as possible.

 

Source - Change Your Thoughts - Change Your Life (Living the Wisdom of the Tao)

by Dr Wayne W Dyer

 

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Be diligent.

 

You're not an inferior scholar of Tao if you're reading these words.  So if you're a middling scholar who "retains some and loses some" of this wisdom, make a commitment to work toward your greatness.  Just practice a few of these insights each day.  Be diligent about it -- set aside your inclination to be puzzled or argumentative, and allow yourself the freedom to be a persistent practitioner.  Even a small thing such as an affirmation or a rereading of a verse each day puts you on the path of living according to the Great Way.  Lao-tzu simply says to live it by zealously practicing these insights.

 

Here are some lines from Walt Whitman to remind you that you're not who you appear to be:

 

O I could sing such grandeurs and glories about you !

You have not known what you are,

you have slumber'd upon yourself all your life,

Your eyelids have been the same as closed

most of the time . . .

Whoever you are ! claim your own at any hazard !

These shows of the East and West are tame

compared to you,

These immense meadows, these interminable rivers,

you are immense and interminable as they . . .

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

The Tao truth is unprovable in physical terms.

 

Let go of your conditioned way of needing proof in the physical world before something becomes your truth.  The Tao is hidden permanently and it cannot be named, so accept this as a fact.  You're not getting to find it in a material form; it has no boundaries, and the moment you try to name it, you've lost it.  (See the 1st verse.)  Just as modern scientists must accept the fact that quantum particles originate in waves of formless energy or spirit, without their ever seeing that infinite all-creating field, so too can you let go of your need to see and touch the Tao before you can believe it.  By changing the way you look at the world, you'll see a realm beyond the appearance of darkness, difficulty, weakness, indifference, and death.

 

As the poet Rainer Maria Rilke observed,

 

. . . behind the world our names enclose is

the nameless: our true archetype and home.

[Eva Libre]

From Vimala McClure - The Tao of Motherhood

 

41

LISTENING

 

A wise mother learns each day

from quiet listening.  Her

parenting springs from her

children's changing needs.

 

An average mother hears the

lessons but wonders how to be,

and forgets what she learns.

She is often filled with guilt and

is indecisive and irritable.

 

A foolish mother dismisses

what her soul hears in favor of

what the experts tell her.

She is rigid and controlling,

boastful and full of fear.

 

The best parenting springs from

simple love.  The wise attune

themselves to a child's true need

and steadfastly follow it.  Thus,

they cannot be called "permissive"

or "harsh".

 

What is right for each child

may not be right for all children.

What is right cannot always be

proven in a laboratory.

[Eva Libre]

From Tao Te Ching - The Definitive Edition by Jonathan Star

 

When the best seeker hears of Tao

           he strives with great effort to know it

When an average seeker hears of Tao

           he thinks of it now and again

When the poorest seeker hears of Tao

           he laughs out loud

 

Tao is always becoming

           what we have need for it to become

If it could not do this

           it would not be Tao

 

There is an old saying,

          The clear way seems clouded

          The straight way seems crooked

          The sure way seems unsteady

 

The greatest power seems weak

The purest white seems tainted

The abundant seems empty

The stable seems shaky

The certain seems false

The Great Square has no corners

The Great Vessel is never filled

 

A beginner may be clumsy

           but after practice -- what talent !

A large drum may sit silently

           but when banged -- what noise !

Tao lies hidden

           yet it alone is the glorious light of this world

[janice wilson]

yes

very true

[Eva Libre]

From Richard Grossman - The Tao of Emerson

 

From James Legge - The Texts of Taoism, 1891

 

Scholars of the highest class,

     when they hear about the Tao,

     earnestly carry it into practice.

Scholars of the middle class,

     when they have heard about it,

     seem now to keep it and now to lose it.

Scholars of the lowest class,

     when they have heard about it,

     laugh greatly at it.

If it were not thus laughed at,

     it would not be fit to be the Tao.

 

Therefore, the sentence makers have

     thus expressed themselves:

          The Tao, when brightest seen seems light to lack;

          Who progress in it makes, seems drawing back;

          Its even way is like a rugged track.

          Its highest virtue from the vale doth rise;

          Its greatest beauty seems to offend the eyes:

          and he has most whose lot the least supplies.

          Its firmest virtue seems but poor and low;

          Its solid truth seems change to undergo;

          Its largest square doth yet no corner show;

          A vessel great, it is the slowest made.

          Loud is its sound, but never word it said.

          A semblance great, the shadow of a shade.

 

 

From the Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - "The Method of Nature" (address), "The Over-Soul"

 

There is a certain wisdom of humanity

Which is common to the greatest man with the lowest;

The learned and studious of thought

          have no monopoly of wisdom.

We owe many valuable observations to people

          who are not very acute or profound.

The action of the soul is oftener in that

          which is felt and left unsaid.

Than that which is said in any conversation.

We know better than we do.

 

That which once existed in intellect as pure law

          has now taken body as nature.

It existed already in the mind in solution;

Now it has been precipitated,

And the bright sediment is the world.

We could never surprise nature in a corner;

It is inexact and boundless.

Talent goes from without inward.

When Genius arrives, it flows out of a deeper source

          than the foregoing silence.

Here about us coils forever the ancient enigma,

          so old, and so unutterable.

[Eva Libre]

Tao Te Ching - The Classic Book of Integrity and The Way by Lao-Tzu

A New Translation by Victor H Mair

based on the recently discovered Ma-Wang-Tui Manuscripts

 

41 (3)

 

          When the superior man hears the Way,

               he is scarcely able to put it into practice.

          When the middling man hears the Way,

               he appears now to preserve it, now to lose it.

          When the inferior man hears the Way,

               he laughs at it loudly.

          If he did not laugh,

               it would not be fit to be the Way.

 

For this reason,

There is a series of epigrams that says:

          "The bright Way seems dim.

          The forward Way seems backward.

          The level Way seems bumpy.

          Superior integrity seems like a valley.

          The greatest whiteness seems grimy.

          Ample integrity seems insufficient.

          Robust integrity seems apathetic.

          Plain truth seems sullied.

 

          The great square has not corners.

          The great vessel is never completed.

          The great note sounds muted.

          The great image has no form.

 

           The Way is concealed and has no name."

 

Indeed,

            The Way alone is good at beginning

                            and good at completing.

[Eva Libre]

Lynn's - Daode jing of Laozi

 

When the superior man hears the Dao, he diligently practices it. 

 

He has the will to do so.

 

When the average man hears the Dao, sometimes he retains it, sometimes he forgets it.  When the inferior man hears the Dao, he laughs loudly at it.  If he did not laugh, what he heard would not be worthy of being the Dao.  Therefore, as the established adage has it:

 

Jian [established] is similar to li [established].

 

The bright Dao seems dark. (1)

 

"He is bright but does not shine." (2)

 

Advancing on the Dao (3) seems retreat.

 

"The sage places himself in the rear yet finds himself in front.  He puts aside his person, yet his person is preserved." (4)

 

The smooth Dao seems rough.

 

Lei [estangled, knotted] hear means kuai [rough]. (5)  The great smooth Dao follows the nature [xing] of things and does not grasp the carpenter's level in order to make them smooth.  Because its own even smoothness cannot be seen, people take it for the complete opposite, as if it were rough and bumpy.

 

Superior Virtue is like a valley. (6)

 

Because it does not regard virtue as virtue, (7) it is devoid of content.

  

Great whiteness seems soiled.

 

It is only by "know[ing] the white yet sustain[ing] the black" that great whiteness can be achieved. (8)

 

Vast virtue seems wanting.

 

Vast virtue is not filled with anything, for it is so capacious and formless that it cannot be filled. (9)

 

Established virtue seems stealthy.

 

Tou [stealthy] suggests "congenial" [pi]. (10)  Established virtue follows the natural bent of the people and does not set itself up and work on them.  Thus it appears stealthily congenial.

 

Simple authenticity seems compromised.

 

Simple authenticity [zhizhen] does not take credit for its authenticity [zhen].  Thus it appears compromised [yu].

 

The great square has no corners.

 

It is square but does not cut, this is how it has nor corners. (11)

 

The great vessel is slow to form.

 

The great vessel forms all under Heaven without holding on to anything completely separate form it [as a model to follow], (12) thus, it necessarily is slow to form.

The great note is inaudible.

 

"When we listen for it but hear it not, we call it the inaudible." (13)  The great note is the note that we cannot get to hear.  If it had a sound, it would be distinct, and, once distinct, if it were not the note gong, it would be the note shang.  If it were distinct, it would not be able to govern all the other notes.  Therefore, if it has a sound, it is not the great note. (14)

 

The great image is formless. (15)

 

As soon as there is a form, distinctions exist, and, with distinctions, if something is not warm, it must be cool; if not hot, it must be cold.  Thus an image that has a form is not the great image.

 

The Dao may be hidden and nameless, but it alone is good at bestowing and completing.

 

All these manifestations of excellence are achieved by the Dao.  When it exists as an image, it is the great image, but the great image is formless.  When it exists as note, it is the great note, but the great note is an inaudible sound.  Things are completed by it, but they do not see its form.  Thus it is hidden and nameless.  When it bestows, this is not limited merely to supplying what something specifically happens to need .  Once it makes its bestowal, this is sufficient to make the virtue of that something last until its end.  Thus the text says:  "It ... is good at bestowing."  The way it completes things is not like the way the carpenter makes something.  With it, not a single thing fails to fulfill its form perfectly.  Thus the text says: "It ... is good at ... completing." 

 

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)  Cf. section 21, second and third passages.

 

(2)  Section 58, last passage.  Cf. section 14, second passage; section 20, ninth passage; and Wang's commentary for both.

 

(3)  Dao, after all, means "way" or "path".

 

(4)  Section 7, second passage, Cf. section 28, first passage; and section 66.

 

(5)  Kuai transliterates an unusual graph that consists of the "earth" significant (tu) on the left and a phonetic nei (inner, inside) on the right.  Other possible pronunciations include kui, rui, and nie.  It is probably an alternate way of writing kuai (broken, in pieces; piece), thus the meaning "rough" seems appropriate here.  See Hatano, Roshi Dotokukyo kenkyu, 282-83, and Lou, Wang Bi ji jiaoshi, 114 n. 4.

 

(6)  Cf. section 15, third passage.

 

(7)  Cf. Wang's commentary to section 38, paragraph 2.

 

(8)  Section 28, second passage.

 

(9)  Cf. Wang's commentary to section 4.  Vast virtue, like the Dao itself, is utterly empty.  With no content to it, it seems wanting.

 

(10)  Although Lou Yulie says that this line makes no sense and appears corrupt, it seems perfectly intelligible in the context of the passage: the possessor of well-established virtue seems stealthily to acquiesce with the natural bent of the people, as if he were pairing (pi) his virtue (making it conform) to their inclinations.  After reviewing attempts to amend Wang's statement, Hatano Taro concludes that the wording is correct as it stands, that tou should be understood as touqie (steal, stealthy) and pi as pichou (match, matching), but that the meaning is still unclear and can only be paraphrased as: "One who establishes his own virtue refrains from conscious action and does not apply it.  Thus he does not go out and campaign against others to establish virtue."  Hatano then quotes from Wang's commentary to section 27, first passage: "He follows the path of the Natural, neither formulating nor implementing."  It seems a short step from these observations to my interpretation of the line, but Hatano did not take it.   See Hatano,Roshi Dotokukyo kenkyu, 284-85; and Lou, Wang Bi ji jiaoshi, 114 n. 7.  Most recent translators of this line in the Laozi seem to follow commentators who gloss jian (well established) as jian (strong) and tou (stealthy) as duo (indolent, dissipated, weak).

 

(11)  Cf. Wang's commentary to section 58, seventh passage.  Like the Dao that does not make things conform to standard models, the sage is "square" (upright), but he does not try to cut others into square shapes (upright and honest human beings).

 

(12)  Commentators usually prefer to read quanbie (completely separate [from it]) as fenbie (distinctions).  Although the reading that results -- "The great vessel forms all under Heaven without holding to distinctions" -- seems plausible, both in terms of the immediate context and the larger context of Wang's commentary as a whole, it does not appear to connect with what follows: "it necessarily is slow (or late) to form".  The translation I propose here, which leaves the base text intact, seems to make perfect sense.  The great, numinous vessel of the Dao forms all under Heaven without reference to or guidance from anything outside itself and so "has to find its own way", a slower process than if it could simply work from some model.  Wang's statement has perplexed many a textual scholar, however, and various ingenious solutions have been proposed, but all these depend on significantly rewriting Wang's statement and sometimes the base text of the Laozi itself, so none seems likely.  See Hatono, Roshi Dotokukyo kenkyu, 286-87, and Lou, Wang Bi ji jiaoshi, 114 n. 10.

 

(13)  Section 14, first passage.

 

(14)  Cf. the Ming tuan (Clarifying the Judgments) 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 [gua, the One]" (Lynn, The Classic of Changes, 25; see Lou, Wang Bi ji jiaoshi, 27 n. 2 and 591).  See also section I of Wang's Outline Introduction.

 

(15)  Cf. Wang's commentary to section 35, first passage.  Wang's commentary here also bears comparison with his remarks in section I of the Outline Introduction.

[Eva Libre]

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

 

When a superior man hears of the Tao,

he immediately begins to embody it.

When an average man hears of the Tao,

he half believes it, half doubts it.

When a foolish man hears of the Tao,

he laughs out loud.

If he didn't laugh,

it wouldn't be the Tao.

 

Thus it is said:

The path into the light seems dark,

the path forward seems to go back,

the direct path seems long,

true power seems weak,

true purity seems tarnished,

true steadfastness seems changeable,

true clarity seems obscure,

the greatest art seems unsophisticated,

the greatest love seems indifferent,

the greatest wisdom seems childish.

 

The Tao is nowhere to be found.

Yet it nourishes and completes all things.

 

 

From Byron Katie - A Thousand Names For Joy

- Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are

 

The direct path seems long.

 

The direct path might seem long, because mind tells you of a distance and mesmerizes you with its proof.  When you believe that thought, you feel the exhaustion that accompanies it, the heaviness, the stress.  But the direct path isn't long.  In fact, there's no distance to it at all.  Where are you going, other than where you are right now ?  How can you go anywhere else ?  The direct path means realizing that the beginning and end of every journey is where you always are.

 

You can't make a decision.  You can only experience a story about how you made it.  Decisions makes themselves; they're happenings; they come when the time is right.  I like to ask, "Are you breathing yourself ?"  No ?  Well, maybe you're not thinking yourself or making decisions, either.  Maybe reality doesn't move until it moves, like a breath, like the wind.  And when you tell the story of how you're doing it, you keep yourself from the awareness that you are nature, flowing perfectly.  Who would you be without the story that you need to make a decision ?  If it's your integrity to make a decision, make it.  And guess what ?  In five minutes, you might change your mind and call it "you" again.

 

I love how mind changes.  I watch it and am steadfast in that delight.  I love the sweet movement and flavor of mind changing.  I move as it moves, without an atom of resistance.  It shifts like the wind.  I say yes, because there is no reason to say no, and I say no very easily, too.  No is as effortless as yes.  I say whatever I know is true for me.  It sometimes confuses people; they misunderstand, and they do what they need to do with it.  And I am very clear that a no is as loving as a yes, because I am always saying yes to my integrity.  A no is a yes, too, when it comes from integrity.

 

Mind changes constantly, it seems, and never changes at all.  I'm rooted in what can't change.  Wherever you come from, I'll come from that same position in order to meet you.  That's why some of the things I say appear to be contradictory.  At different times I'm coming from different directions, and they're all true.  Every direction is equal.  It can sound inconsistent or like a puppy chasing its tail: it seems to go nowhere.  It can sound like someone speaking in riddles.  It can be confusing, and from one vantage point it can't be followed.  Someone who's doing The Work with me may not hear the contradiction at all, because we are so intimately joined in the moment, whereas to a person in the audience it may sound like gibberish.  But if you listen without thinking about what I mean, if you just immerse yourself in the experience of it, going inside and answering the questions for yourself rather than waiting for the other person to answer, you won't hear it as gibberish.  It will make perfect sense.

 

When I'm working with someone, I don't think about the outcome.  I'm not concerned with whether you're taking it in, or how deep your insight is, or what you do with it or how far you go with it, or whether you're in total resistance or have a major awakening.  What I care about is what you care about.  If your answers are shallow and limited, that's all right with me, because I see that it's all the depth that's required in your world right now.  If you seem to make no headway whatsoever, I understand that the illusion you're holding on to is precious for you, and if you want to keep it, that's what I want.  Or if, on the contrary, the bottom falls out as you're answering the questions, and everything you thought you knew drops away, and you fall into the abyss of reality, I love that you've given that to yourself; I love the polarity you've entered, the don't-know mind, where everything is surprising, fresh, and brilliant, and you're like a child discovering life for the first time.  But that isn't my preference unless it's yours.  Why would I want to take your world from you, even if I could ?  Nothing comes ahead of its time.

 

We're all children, even the wisest of us.  We're all five-year-olds just learning how to do this thing called life.  When someone calls me wise, I laugh at the thought of living so small.  Infinite mind always leaps ahead of itself, leaving the world in the dust.  It always exceeds its own genius.  It's a child, and it's ageless.  It lives in the unknown, it thrives on the unknown.  That's its nourishment and its delight.  That's the place where its creative power is free.

 

A retarded man comes up to me as I sign books after a reading at a bookstore.  He has a huge waist and a small, almost conical head, his tongue is hanging out of his mouth like a dog's, his hands and his arms flail around, his eyes wander.  I can't help falling in love with him, his authenticity, the beautiful way of it.  It's clear that he wants me to come close to him.  I'm being invited into his world.  "Hello", he says.  "My name is Bob."  He speaks very slowly, slurs his words, drools.  I accept the invitation and move close to him, we put our foreheads together.  His eyes meet mine, then dart here and there; I look straight into them and wait for them to return.  And out of nowhere his arms reach around me and pull my cheek to his lips, and he kisses me with a small grunting sound.  There are no words for this generosity.  The moment goes on and on.  He seems to know what I know: that he is the light of my life, my world, my everything.  I look into his eyes, then say, "Thank you for the kiss".  And I notice how adequate my thank you is.  The experience of love is vast and all-consuming; how could a simple thank you be enough ?  Yet it is.  Even when you're totally consumed by love, "Thank you" is all that's necessary.

 

How am I going to leave the love of my life ?  I hear myself say, "Good-bye, Bob.  I love you".  And I notice life entering me as I walk away -- the people, the walls, the doorway.  Life continues to flow into me just as that dear man flowed in.  Every step is where I am, even though it appears that I'm moving.  How wonderful not to need the world, not to go out toward it, but always to allow it to meet and enter me.  I find that there's room in me for everything, everyone, every situation, every flavor of being.  I love the openness that I am.

[Eva Libre]

Dr Dyer's Essay on Verse 41 -

 

This verse of the Tao Te Ching influenced my choice of the title for this book.  By changing your thoughts so that they harmonize with the Tao, you see that what you've called "reality" is in fact an outward form, an appearance only.  In the beginning, you new way of regarding oneness is clouded by old ego-inspired habits.  What you've been accustomed to still resonates within you as real, and your Tao-inspired world may not be consistently recognizable.  But you will begin to look beyond what only seems to be your truth and move into a direct experience of the Tao, uncluttered by your previously limited views.

 

Reread the first section of this 41st verse of the Tao Te Ching, noticing your response.  Ask yourself whether you're a great, middling, or inferior scholar when it comes to understanding and applying the wisdom of the Tao.  For example, I can unabashedly proclaim myself a great scholar after so many years spent studying and writing it.  And the more I've studied, the more diligently I've practiced.  I've become highly attuned to the infinite variety of daily opportunities to employ the principles of the Tao.  As you examine your own thoughts, you may discover an aspect of yourself that wants to learn how to utilize these ancient teachings.  Thus, you can move from being a person who knew very little about the Tao, and might even have ridiculed it, to being a great scholar.

 

The application of the Tao each day determines the greatness of a scholar, rather than whether he or she intellectually understands these paradoxical-sounding concepts.  Lao-tzu points out that without the ridiculing laughter of inferior scholars, the Tao couldn't even exist.  Talk about paradoxical concepts !

 

In A Warrior Blends with Life: A Modern Tao, Michael LaTorra comments on this 41st verse: 

 

The Way is only attractive to those who are already wise enough to know how foolish they are.  Sarcastic laughter from other fools who believe themselves wise does not deter the truly wise from following the Way.  Following the Way, they do not become complicated, extraordinary, and prominent.  Rather they become simple, ordinary, and subtle.

 

As you elect to live the Tao each day, what you experience within and around you will be different from what it appears to be.  You will go way beyond surfaces into the blissful world of the Tao, and it's vital that you choose to stay in this truth regardless of how it all seems.  Others will make fun of you, but remember the paradox that without that ridiculing laughter, it wouldn't be the Tao.

 

You'll experience times of darkness, but your new vision will eventually illuminate your inner world.  And when it seems as though you're moving backward, remember that "the Tao is hidden and nameless".  If it was knocking at your door, or readily accessible like a pill to swallow, it wouldn't be the Tao.  So when like looks difficult, stop and realize that you're only one thought removed from being at peace.  You'll know what Lao-tzu meant when he said that the easy way seems hard, and true power seems like weakness.  You don't have to struggle or dominate others in order to feel strong.

 

A person in the Tao sees the world quite differently, knowing that inner peace is power.  Less effort is actually easier -- works gets done when you lighten up internally and let yourself be moved along by the ceaseless Tao, rather than by setting goals or meeting standards set by others.  Allow the Tao, and see the purity and clarity that originates from this vantage point.  The outward appearance of anyone or anything may appear tarnished, but a Tao view will remind you that essential goodness is always there.  It's hidden and nameless, though, so don't be obsessed with finding and labeling it.

 

In this way you become a great scholar who diligently works to live in harmony with the Tao even though it remains obscure.  Apply this same insight to the times you feel unloved: When you see what appears to be indifference, know in your heart that love is present.  The Tao isn't concerned with proving its fidelity.  It appears to be uninterested, but it's nevertheless always there, everywhere.  As your thinking changes from a position dictated by your ego to one that transcends it, you'll see an illuminated world that is truly inviting.  Ego convinced you to see a cold and indifferent planet, while the ego-transcending Tao shines pure love to all that you're connected to.  Allow it to work its magic in your life.