Verse 56 - Living by Silent Knowing

[Eva Libre]

56th Verse

  

Those who know do not talk.

Those who talk do not know.

 

Block all the passages !

Close your mouth,

cordon off your senses,

blunt your sharpness,

untie your knots,

soften your glare,

settle your dust.

This is primal union or the secret embrace.

 

One who knows this secret

is not moved by attachment or aversion,

swayed by profit or loss,

nor touched by honor or disgrace.

He is far beyond the cares of men

yet comes to hold the dearest place in their hearts.

 

This, therefore, is the highest state of man.

 

 

Contemplation/Meditation Verse

 

Those who know do not talk.

         Those who talk do not know.

The less I care about the approval of others

          the more approval I receive.

          

 

Do The Tao Now

Spend an hour, a day, a week, or a month practicing not giving unsolicited advice.  Stop yourself for an instant and call upon your silent knowing.  Ask a question, rather than giving advice or citing an example from your life, and then just listen to yourself and the other person.  As Lao-tzu would like you to know, that's "the highest state of man".

 

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

by Dr Wayne W Dyer

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Block all the passages !

 

Get honest with yourself about wanting to win the favor of others.  You don't have to prove anything to anyone, and you'll never succeed by droning on and on.  Remember that "those who talk do not know", or as one translation of this verse simply states.  "Shut your mouth."  Silence is your evidence of inner knowing.  Talking to convince others actually says more about your need to be right than their need to hear what you have to say !  So rather than trying to persuade others, keep quiet . . . just enjoy that deeply satisfying inner awareness.

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Use the acronym BUSS to remember

the four directives of this verse.

 

~ Blunt your sharpness.  Do this by listening to yourself before you let your judgments attack someone else.  A better course of action is to just listen, and then silently offer loving compassion to both yourself and the other person.

 

~ Untie your knots.  Detach from what keeps you tied to worldly patterns.  Untie the knots that bind you to a life that's dedicated to showing profit and demonstrating victory, and replace them with silently contemplating the Tao in "the secret embrace".

 

~ Soften your glare.  Notice when your need to be right is glaringly obvious, and let the soft underside of your being replace your rigid stance.  Your impulse to glower at external events is alerting you that you're out of touch with your inner silent knowing.

 

~ Settle your dust.  Don't kick it up in the first place !  Realize your inclination to stir up dust when you feel a diatribe about to erupt on how others ought to be behaving.  Stop in the middle of pounding the table or angrily screaming and just observe yourself.  Since your emotions are like waves on the ocean, learn to watch them return to the vast, calm, all-knowing Source.

[Eva Libre]

From Vimala McClure - The Tao of Motherhood

 

56

APPROVAL

 

A wise parent knows her

intuition is the only authority

worth listening to.  She

understands its function and

filters advice through it.

 

Rigid styles characterize

the insecure parent who needs to

protect her own inner child with

fear.  She is full of "don'ts”.

 

A wise parent refrains from

too much talk. Her inner calm

brings peace to troubled hearts

and resolution to conflicts.

She doesn't need anyone's

approval but her own.

[Eva Libre]

From Tao Te Ching - The Definitive Edition by Jonathan Star

 

One who speaks does not know

One who knows does not speak

 

Shut the mouth

Close the gates

Blunt the sharpness

Loosen the knots

Temper the glare

Become one with the dust of the world

This is called

          "The Secret Embrace"

 

One who knows the secret

          is not moved by attachment or aversion,

          swayed by profit or loss,

          nor touched by honor or disgrace

He is far beyond the cares of men

          yet comes to hold the dearest place in their hearts

 

[Eva Libre]

From Richard Grossman - The Tao of Emerson

 

From James Legge - The Texts of Taoism, 1891

 

He who knows the Tao does not care to speak about it;

He who is ever ready to speak about it does not know it.

 

He who knows it will keep his mouth shut

          and close the portals of his nostrils.

He will blunt his sharp points

          and unravel the complications of things;

He will temper his brightness, and bring himself

          into agreement with the obscurity of others.

This is called the mysterious agreement.

 

Such a one cannot be treated familiarly

          or distantly;

He is beyond all consideration of profit

          or injury;

Of nobility or meanness -

He is the noblest man under heaven.

 

 

From the Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - "Spirit", "Experience" and "Spiritual Laws" 

 

He that thinks most will say the least.

 

The less a man thinks or knows about his virtues,

          the better we like him.

 

To finish the moment, he finds the journey's end

          in every step of the road;

To him, the greatest number of good hours is wisdom.

 

For it is only the finite that has wrought

          and suffered;

The infinite lies stretched in smiling repose.

[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

 

56 (19)

 

          One who knows does not speak;

          One who speaks does not know.

 

He

          Stopples the openings of his heart,

          Closes his doors,

          Diffuses the light,

          Mingles with the dust,

          Files away his sharp points,

          Unravels his tangles.

 

This is called "mysterious identity".

 

Therefore,

          Neither can one attain intimacy with him,

          Nor can one remain distant from him;

          Neither can one profit from him,

          Nor can one be harmed by him;

          Neither can one achieve honor through him,

          Nor can one be debased by him.

 

Therefore,

         He is esteemed by all under heaven.

[Eva Libre]

Lynn's - Daode jing of Laozi

 

He who knows does not speak.

 

Such a one acts in accordance with the Natural.

 

He who speaks does not know.

 

Such a one forces things to happen.

 

Block up your apertures; close your door; (1) blunt your sharpness.

 

Harbor simplicity [zhi] within you. (2)

 

Cut away the tangled;

 

Eliminate the cause of contention.

 

Merge with the brilliant;

 

If one has no particular eminence of his own, people will have no predilection to contend.

 

Become one with the very dust. (3)

 

If one has no particular baseness of his own, people will have no predilection to feel shame.

 

We call this "one with mystery".  Thus one can neither get close to such a one nor get distant from him.

 

If one could get close to him, one could get distant from him.

 

One can neither benefit nor harm him.

 

If one could benefit him, one could harm him. 

 

One can neither ennoble him nor debase him. 

 

If one could ennoble him, one could debase him.

 

Thus such a one is esteemed by all under Heaven.

 

No one, accordingly, can impose on him in any way.

 

 

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 52, third passage.

 

(2)  Cf. section 81, first passage.

 

(3)  For this and the previous three passages, cf. section 4.

[Eva Libre]

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

 

Those who know don't talk.

Those who talk don't know.

 

Close your mouth,

block off your senses,

blunt your sharpness,

untie your knots,

soften your glare,

settle your dust.

This is the primal identity.

 

Be like the Tao.

It can't be approached or withdrawn from,

benefited or harmed,

honored or brought into disgrace.

It gives itself up continually.

That is why it endures.

 

 

From Byron Katie - A Thousand Names For Joy

- Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are

 

Be like the Tao.

It can't be approached or withdrawn from,

benefited or harmed,

honored or brought into disgrace.

 

My husband told me about Socrates.  Socrates said, "If I'm wise, the only reason is that I know I don't know".  I love that !  I love that Socrates helped people question their beliefs, and that when the time came for him to drink the hemlock, he did it cheerfully.  He wasn't scaring himself or making himself sad, like his dear, unconscious disciples, by projecting a non-existent past onto a non-existent future.  He wasn't identifying with a body.  When mind leaves the body, we throw it in the ground and walk away.  He understood that whatever happens, reality is good.  That would bring cheer to anyone's heart.  I don't know a thing about his philosophy, but Socrates seems to me like someone who was loving what is.

 

When your heart is cheerful and at peace, it doesn't matter what you do or don't do, whether you live or die.  You can talk or stay silent, and it's all the same.  Some people think that silence is more spiritual than speech, that meditation or prayer brings you closer to God than watching television or taking out the garbage.  That's the story of separation.  Silence is a beautiful thing, but it's no more beautiful than the sound of people talking.  I love it when thoughts pass through my mind, and I love it when there are no thoughts.  Thoughts can't ever be a problem for me, because I have questioned them and seen that no thought is true.

 

If you learn to meditate, the mind becomes quiet, you can become very calm, and then it can happen that when you're back in your ordinary life and you get a parking ticket, wham ! you're upset.  It's easy to be spiritual when things are going your way.  When thoughts are simply observed and not investigated, they retain the power to cause stress.  You either believe your thoughts or you don't; there's no other choice.  They're like someone whispering to you; you aren't really listening, so you don't react.  But if you hear that person loud and clear, you can't disregard what he's saying and you may react to it.  With inquiry, we don't just notice our thoughts, we see that they don't match reality, we realize exactly what their effects are, we get a glimpse of what we would be if we didn't believe them, and we experience their opposites as being at least equally valid.  An open mind is the beginning of freedom.

 

You can't let go of a stressful thought, because you didn't create it in the first place.  A thought just appears.  You're not doing it.  You can't let go of what you have no control over.  Once you've questioned the thought, you don't let go of it, it lets go of you.  It no longer means what you thought it meant.  The world changes, because the mind that projected it has changed.  Your whole life changes, and you don't even care, because you realize that you already have everything you need.

 

This goes beyond simple awareness.  You meet your thoughts with understanding, which means that you can love them unconditionally.  And until you deeply see that not even thoughts exist, you may spend your whole life controlled by them or struggling against them.  Just noticing your thoughts works while you're meditating, but it may not work so well when you get the parking ticket or when your partner leaves you.  Do you just notice your feelings without a residue ?  I don't think so.  We're not there until we are.  When we go inside and truly meet those thoughts with understanding, the thoughts change.  They're seen through.  And then, if they ever arise again, we just experience clarity - a clarity that includes everyone.

[Eva Libre]

Dr Dyer's Essay on Verse 56 –

 

This is probably the best-known verse of the Tao Te Ching.  In fact, the opening two lines ("Those who know do not talk.  Those who talk do not know") are so popular that they've almost become a cliche.  Nevertheless, the passage's essential message is little understood and rarely practiced.

 

Lao-tzu is calling you to live in the highest state of silent knowing, that place deep within you that can't be communicated to any other.  Consequently, you might want to change your thinking about whom you consider to be wise or learned.  Persuasive speakers with a good command of the language, who are forceful in their pronouncements and confident in their point of view, are generally considered to have superior knowledge . . . but Lao-tzu suggests that precisely the opposite is true.  Those who talk, he says, aren't living from the place of silent knowing, so they do not know.

 

As you modify the way you look at this presumption, you'll see several differences in the way your world appears.  First, you'll note that those who are compelled to pontificate and persuade are almost always tied to an attachment of some kind - perhaps it's to a point of view, to being right, to winning, or to profiting in some way.  And the more talking they do, the more they appear to be swayed by such attachments.

 

The second thing you'll notice takes place within you.  You begin to see your inclination and desire to persuade and convince others.  Then you begin to listen more attentively, finding yourself in "the secret embrace" of the "primal union" that Lao-tzu describes.  You need to be knowledgeable or dominant is replaced by the deep realization that it's all irrelevant, and you lose interest in seeking approval.  Living in silent knowing becomes the process that casts your existence in a different light - you have less of an edge and feel settled, softer, and more centered.

 

As you change how you think about what it means to be intelligent and wise, you'll come into contact with the irony that sums up this wonderfully paradoxical section of the Tao Te Ching.  Lao-tzu says that the sage who lives by the Tao is "far beyond the cares of men", yet holds "the dearest place" in his heart.  I'd sum it up this way: Those who care the least about approval seem to receive it the most.  Since such individuals aren't concerned with how they're perceived, either honorably or in disgrace, they don't seek praise or run from it.  While their calm wisdom may make them appear to be aloof, they actually end up gaining the respect of everyone.