Chapter 51

Chapter 51

The Tao gives birth to all of creation.
The virtue of Tao in nature nurtures them,
and their families give them their form.
Their environment then shapes them into completion.
That is why every creature honors the Tao and its virtue.

No one tells them to honor the Tao and its virtue,
it happens all by itself.
So the Tao gives them birth,
and its virtue cultivates them,
cares for them,
nurtures them,
gives them a place of refuge and peace,
helps them to grow and shelters them.

It gives them life without wanting to posses them,
and cares for them expecting nothing in return.
It is their master, but it does not seek to dominate them.
This is called the dark and mysterious virtue.

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The New Testament of the Bible says (probably Paul said) that God makes it rain for people whether they are good or bad.

In this chapter, I think Laozi might have forgotten his own lesson. The Heaven is not benign to people. Therefore, you cannot anthropomorphize the tao. It does not care for you, it does not nurture you. Although Laozi was a keen observer of nature, he was alien to the knowledge of Darwinian evolution. Evolution is primarily based on the concept of “contention” among the species and within each of the species. The species fight for dominance within a particular ecosystem of limited resources. The tao may have provided a ground for life, but everything in our world drives on contention. The tao is not as generous as Laozi thought.

The world could have been otherwise if the tao was something of a different nature. We can conceive a world or universe whose physical laws or natural laws do not entail the idea of having to fight to survive. We can imagine a world where there is no death, no pain, no agony. But the world or universe we are living in is not such a place.