Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Success is as dangerous as failure,
and we are often our own worst enemy.

What does it mean that success is as dangerous as failure?
He who is superior is also someone’s subordinate.
Receiving favor and losing it both cause alarm.
That is what is meant by success is as dangerous as failure.
What does it mean that we are often our own worst enemy?
The reason I have an enemy is because I have a “self”.
If I no longer had a “self”, I would no longer have an enemy.

Love the whole world as if it were your self;
then you will truly care for all things.

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“Success is as dangerous as failure,and we are often our own worst enemy.”

The above quote couldn’t be more true. How often do we observe in history the best talented generals rush themselves to ruinous choices or tactical mistakes because of their ego?

When Ronda Rousey suffered a crushing defeat to Holly Holm, she could not believe that she lost the fight. Not that I think that she did not really think that she could in her wildest imagination lose to somebody. She knew the possibility of losing for sure. But when a loss did really materialize, her ego was on the verge of total breakdown.  She literally wanted to kill herself for a moment. The only thought that dissuaded her from this self-destructive suicidal thought was that she should marry her boyfriend and have his children. She was on a consecutive win streak like no other competitor in her division. This division was meant to be her ruling ground until the day of her voluntary retirement. But all the adulation and hype surrounding her prevented her from contemplating deeply an aftermath of any possible loss. In other words, she failed to be a “Stoic” before that loss. Maybe you think that a fighter has to envision only a glorious outcome of a fight event (as does a self-indoctrinated Conor McGregor) because imagining an opposite scenario would make him feel insecure. Nevertheless, wins and losses are part of our lives (Greene mentions this in the ending strategy chapter the 33 strategies of war). Personally, I am not a fighter and am only a fan of MMA, so I do not know her emotional pain. It would be presumptuous to say that I could understand her feelings. She was an astonishing champion, and I personally believe that her legacy is still intact despite her losses (she lost another championship fight afterwards). But none of that soothed her damaged pride. Many of us would rather want to be a fallen Ronda Rousey than an ordinary person having accomplished nothing. Nevertheless, she had to suffer a devastating pain of accepting the losses.

Although she’s probably emotionally recovered now, her story serves as a reminder for us: our ego can be very fragile because of the whimsical character of our fate. In many cases, our successes are transient and should not think they will last as long as we expect. Holly Holm, who dethroned Ronda Rousey – and was deemed to be a future superstar that would last for a very long time – lost her first title defense fight against Miesha Tate, who had lost two fights against Ronda Rousey.

Repeated successes can blind our sight. If anything, your humility should be based on recognition of this transient nature of your successes and gains and not on condescension. As bantamweight fighter Michael McDonald notes, you own nothing in this universe. This is a very stoic attitude. You think you own your cars, your body, and everything. But you had nothing when you came into the universe. Everything was simply granted to you. You essentially earned nothing by yourself. Are you good-looking? You were simply given your looks from your parents. Did you accumulate wealth working days and nights? Your effort is estimable, but society ultimately gave you your riches. Upon time of your death, they will all be taken away.

If we should take a cautious attitude to our lucky gains, then what are we going to make of our repeated failures? I do not know the answer. In some respect, however, I regard Amy Purdy to be an exemplary case of overcoming one’s misfortune. My admiration for this beautiful woman (both in her charms and mental power) does not stem from my pity for her loss of two legs. Personally, I am not confident that I could recover or even hope to recover as well as she did if I suffered the same accident. She has shown enormous fortitude and courage that not even many ordinary males can show. If we can find one practical role model of Nietzsche’s dictum, “Live your life as a work of art,” I believe that she is the one. If you see her TED talk, she doesn’t by the way look like some firm, determined, grave woman. She is convivial, jolly and optimistic in a “healthy” way.

Greene notes in the preface of the 48 laws of power that a person aspiring to attain power should learn to bide his time because grass will eventually grow if you give it enough time. I can see his point, but I can see the most miserable people in the world that suffer innumerous tragedies without a single good luck happening to them. This is disturbing especially in that while fortune does not allow us luck forever, there are obvious cases of unending pain in several people’s lives.

It is already difficult enough to accept our personal miseries or admit that in many ways we are“inferior” to our friends and acquaintances (especially because of the spread of our private lives through social network services). However, as I indicated in one of the above chapters, it is in principle possible to direct our attention to some of the better things about ourselves and guide our unconscious to change for the better in the long run.

However, overwhelming physical pain due to terminal illnesses, losses of one’s family members, and a lot other factors – these are the things that totally break one’s will to live. Your pain subdues and consumes you. You cannot win this game. You are done. Period. A person suffering ongoing excruciating pains has no room to make conscious efforts to feel good about himself. I do not know what can possibly save him. From an empirical point of view, it is clear that there are no perpetual “successes” in our lives; however, there does exist a series of “failures” that are doomed to continue like curses from God. When Job in the old testament suffered enormous pains in the hands of Satan, he heroically proclaimed that he wouldn’t blame God and said bad things might occur to him just as well as good things did. Nevertheless, if it is certain that, despite all our efforts for a considerably long period of time, certain ones among us will suffer indefinitely with never-ending pains that completely devour them, then the only way out – as much as I regret to say this – may be to tolerate suicide as the last resort. But, most of the suicides that we read on newspaper were mistakes, I believe.

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Five colors blind the eye.
Five notes deafen the ear.
Five flavors make the palate go stale.
Too much activity deranges the mind.
Too much wealth causes crime.

The Master acts on what she feels and not what she sees.
She shuns the latter, and prefers to seek the former.

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“The Master acts on what she feels and not what she sees.”

It is difficult to understand[]this quote. I will try to approach it from two points of view.

In the 50th law, Greene notes that our perspectives should be based on realism than our idealistic notions. Your idle fantasies about your future will not help you in this competitive world, he argues. If the Master or sage really acts on his “feelings” instead of daring to see the reality, wouldn’t this be tantamount to perilous ignorance?

If, however, Lao Tzu meant to say that he values mental/spiritual matters over material possessions that we can visibly see, then this may make sense.

Nevertheless, based on the above English translation of the chapter, I am not sure what it is like to “act” on what he feels. Because, according to the translation, this most likely indicates that he acts based upon what he feels – i.e., the actions that he takes are based on how he feels and not what he objectively sees.

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Thirty spokes are joined together in a wheel,
but it is the center hole
that allows the wheel to function.

We mold clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that makes the vessel useful.

We fashion wood for a house,
but it is the emptiness inside
that makes it livable.

We work with the substantial,
but the emptiness is what we use.

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In the 33 strategies of war, Greene notes that it is unwise to overstay your presence. If you leave a debate with somebody at a sensible timing before culmination of the conversation, it leaves room (which is the “emptiness”) for further anticipation and he will come to desire your presence in future.

In addition, rather than attempting to fill in every vacancy of a person’s thoughts or correct every fallacy of his ideas, it may be a better idea to indirectly question him on his false notions – rather than forcefully arguing your points – and allow him to take care of his problems on his own. In this regard, it can be argued that the tao te ching puts great emphasis on “autonomy.”It may look risky to put a state of affairs to a chance, but a reasoned way of letting “it” be will usually work better than trying to rectify every supposedly wrong situation. Every counselor must heed this advice. That you should trust the self-correcting power of the person you are dealing with. Your purpose is to guide the person, not dictate his thoughts. Who do you think you are? You are no different mortal person than he is.

Personally, I can hardly recall anybody that tried to help me in that way. Every single one of them was assertive, and I did not appreciate their advice very much. Ultimately, regardless of their true intents, their efforts only aggravated my relationships with them.  I only grew resentments towards them. Although I cannot deny that there were several moments afterwards in my life that I felt there were several truths in what they said, I do not think the way they spoke helped me very much. Mostly, their main interest was in proving themselves right rather than trying to be a caring person. If they had to choose between proving themselves right and feeling superior, and being ready to be proved to be wrong for my benefit, they would choose the former.

When I was a teen way younger than now, they wouldn’t spend a penny more for me in a social gathering place. Their behaviors contradicted the apparent intent of all their bullshit.

I find this attitude highly repellent. Some of them justified their rude “advice” to me by saying that they would never have said those things in the first place if they did not care enough about me. They said saying bullshit is better than showing complete indifference. I disagree. In fact, it would have been far better for them to leave me be and take care of things myself. Their unsolicited advice and interference only annoyed me, and I still have bad memories of them. I find them despicable. I want them out of my life.

A truly caring person will show respect for you instead of talking with domineering attitudes. He will accept your individuality and try to compromise between himself and you. Even if it is obvious that you are seriously flawed in some respects, the person will not throw those things directly in your face. He will patiently wait and try to only sow the seeds of improvement in your personality and leave the rest of the job to your autonomy.

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Nurture the darkness of your soul
until you become whole.
Can you do this and not fail?
Can you focus your life-breath until you become
supple as a newborn child?
While you cleanse your inner vision
will you be found without fault?
Can you love people and lead them
without forcing your will on them?
When Heaven gives and takes away
can you be content with the outcome?
When you understand all things
can you step back from your own understanding?

Giving birth and nourishing,
making without possessing,
expecting nothing in return.
To grow, yet not to control:
This is the mysterious virtue.

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In fact, when you make it explicit that you want something in return for a favor that you may do to your child, friend, colleague or anybody else, people’s sense of gratitude will blow away. The more you talk about your contributions/accomplishments, the cheaper person you become.

Even if they look ungrateful to you, you cannot be harmed if you already thought you wanted nothing in return. Your joy was in the deed of doing what you could do for them and not in the anticipation of earning something from them afterwards.

Therefore, a respectable parent would want nothing more from his child than to see him grow in full independence. This is the exemplary parent that the child can look up to.

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

It is easier to carry an empty cup
than one that is filled to the brim.

The sharper the knife
the easier it is to dull.
The more wealth you possess
the harder it is to protect.
Pride brings its own trouble.

When you have accomplished your goal
simply walk away.
This is the path way to Heaven.

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In the ancient political environments, there was something unstoppable about having power. Once you acquired power, you had to maintain it because letting your power slip away to the hands of others including your rivals meant death. In a case like this, one would not be able to “walk away” simply because he “accomplished” his goal. They could not walk away because their survival depended on maintaining power. Suppose however that they would not have had to deal with this concern in the first place if they had not set foot in the bloody arena of politics. In this case, it should be noted that in the old past it was the most innocent neutral ones that were sacrificed in the hands of bloody Machiavellian psychopaths. The hardest thing to do is stop wisely after having decided to entangle yourself with some mess that won’t let you go away easily.

Therefore, although I do not doubt the efficacy of being “light-loaded,” some may reasonably doubt for how long your tranquility can last. Think about the ancient nomads. They had no enduring settlements and wandered about aimlessly. Naturally, they could not have achieved any great civilization.

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The supreme good is like water,
which benefits all of creation
without trying to compete with it.
It gathers in unpopular places.
Thus it is like the Tao.

The location makes the dwelling good.
Depth of understanding makes the mind good.
A kind heart makes the giving good.
Integrity makes the government good.
Accomplishment makes your labors good.
Proper timing makes a decision good.

Only when there is no competition
will we all live in peace.

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“Assume formlessness,” said Greene in his last chapter of the 48 Laws of Power. In fact, none of the existing formulas can work if you do not understand the subtleties of your situation and the timing that you should execute those plans. When the cold principles of power are applied to the letter without contemplation, you will be put in a disastrous situation. You cannot be that naïve.

In one of the above chapters, I took the example of technical analysis in the share investment market. If I remember correctly, there are algorithms developed by PhDs in computer science and mathematics that constantly learn the evolving stock market behaviors and precede, in anticipation of future behaviors, any other individual market participant. There may be patterns, but they are not perpetual. You must evolve with fluidity of water.

“Only when there is no competitionwill we all live in peace.”

Slingerland, who authored a book on the concept of wu-wei, asks in his book why science was not possible in China. If we remove competition entirely by following the above quote, there will be indeed no advancement in technologies.I cannot say that there was no “competition” at all in ancient China. China was even once in what we call the “Warring States period.”

It is clear that you cannot force people to stop competing against each other. It is ingrained in human nature. Look at the case of North Korea. This country is unlike any other contemporary society and is a brutal regime that kills down the very instincts of every member of the society. In this horrible, bizarre[]country, competition is banned by suppressing people’s autonomous market behaviors. This is no peace. This is equivalent to an ongoing experiment of total annihilation of basic humanity.

If peace ever arrives by doing no competition, this must be a case in which both competing states come to realize and agree upon that more competition will only bring about a ruinous result to both parties.

Arguably, a moderate degree of competition is beneficial. For example, instead of driving away competition from schools as in the case of a former US administration concerning public school education - which would lower students’ academic performance – we must allow students to aspire to achieve higher performance through competition – but not excessive competition.

“It gathers in unpopular places.”

The tao may not hesitate to stay in unpopular places and garner attention from the disadvantaged. Is this necessarily good? As much as far-fetched this sounds, I doubt whether a prostitute readily giving away the availability of her flesh to those willing to pay her money can in any good sense be called a good person.

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The Tao of Heaven is eternal,
and the earth is long enduring.
Why are they long enduring?
They do not live for themselves;
thus they are present for all beings.

The Master puts herself last;
And finds herself in the place of authority.
She detaches herself from all things;
Therefore she is united with all things.
She gives no thought to self.
She is perfectly fulfilled.

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This chapter reminds me of Jesus’ saying that the first will be the last and the last the first.

However, a person that does not take proper care of himself– whether it be in a workplace or on a battlefield – would not last long. In fact, it is easy to exploit a person holding a naïve view that by being generous to the others he will be in the end appreciated for his efforts.

It is highly unlikely that a person that does not appreciate your efforts right now will one day appreciate you in the future.

If we should find exceptional cases of one thanking the other’s sacrificial devotion, they may be mostly found in parent/child relationships. It usually happens that the grown old child fully realizes only belatedly his departed parents’ exclusive devotion and care that made him what he is today.

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The spirit of emptiness is immortal.
It is called the Great Mother
because it gives birth to Heaven and Earth.

It is like a vapor,
barely seen but always present.
Use it effortlessly.

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I am not sure how we can use emptiness. Is Lao Tzu indicating a perpetual motion machine?

Nietzsche notes that if we can murder God and thereby dethrone Him, this should be a source of happiness and not despair. Absence of absolute standards does not mean nihilism, but instead creation of a background upon which we can become supermen and make artworks of our lives. Derrida similarly notes that differance initiates infinite possibilities of word play and writing.

As such, instead of seeing an element of terror in vacancy and nothingness, we turn to its positive side and create some meaning out of it. This may be another way of practicing amor fati.

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Heaven and Earth are impartial;
they treat all of creation as straw dogs.
The Master doesn’t take sides;
she treats everyone like a straw dog.

The space between Heaven and Earth is like a bellows;
it is empty, yet has not lost its power.
The more it is used, the more it produces;
the more you talk of it, the less you comprehend.

It is better not to speak of things you do not understand.

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“Heaven and Earth are impartial; they treat all of creation as straw dogs”

As Greene notes in the 50th Law, the universe couldn’t care less about your fate. The world is indeed a brutal place. Even when you are luckily exempted from the brutal violence of natural disasters that strike others, there is still a problem: the creeping boredom. David Foster Wallace once said that one that can take care of boredom can achieve almost anything. Boredom seems to be a sign that you are living in prosperity. Greene writes that the ancient Roman aristocrats were bored, so they amused themselves with morally depraved entertainments. Even when things are going well with us, it is as if our unconscious would create new problems like boredom to make us suffer. The starving or suffering people that are of interest to Laozi, if they suddenly prospered with riches, might have become Letzter Mensch posited by Nietzsche.

It is better not to speak of things you do not understand.

When Wittgenstein proclaimed that there is nothing we can talk about ethics a priori, Karl Popper spoke against the idea and stressed the role of a philosopher. Perhaps Wittgenstein is one of the few thinkers that agree with Laozi on this point. That we can hardly talk about the metaphysical.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The Tao is like an empty container:
it can never be emptied and can never be filled.
Infinitely deep, it is the source of all things.
It dulls the sharp, unties the knotted,
shades the lighted, and unites all of creation with dust.

It is hidden but always present.
I don’t know who gave birth to it.
It is older than the concept of God.

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I think about a paper that can be black or white. A blank white paper suggests to me a background for an infinite amount of information; or a totality that includes the infinite amount of information. In other words, “nothingness” comprises infinite possibilities. As we start to fill in the white paper by writing the objective descriptions of our events, the blank paper converges onto becoming black because the finite space of the paper cannot hold every piece of information. When the white paper does become virtually black and eventually becomes black as an infinite amount of information fills the paper, one particular piece of information will be unrecognizable from a different piece of information on the same paper sheet. The finally blackened paper is in a sense no different from the previous white paper because it does not comprise discernible information. When the nothingness starts to allow some meaningful information bits, it was already on its course to becoming nothingness again tinted with a different color. Is it possible that this may be the way that nothingness begets being and being, in the end, ends in nothingness? Did I not say in one of the above chapters that a child that is reborn after a dragon’s fight in Nietzsche’s literature is a different child than before? Things may return to nothingness when beings are coming to an end after the prior “nothingness,” but the new “nothingness” would be a little different from the former. Is it possible for physicists to assume that this is how the universe proceeds?

Or think about sex drives. Once our sexual desire is satisfied, from time to time we feel a bad aftertaste. However, our sex drive is never fully satiable, and even when we feel that our lust was fully satisfied, we know that it will soon return after some time. Sex drive can never be fully satisfied. This is the way of the tao.

As the Korean proverb goes, it is like pouring water into a jar having a hole somewhere near its base.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

If you overly esteem talented individuals,
people will become overly competitive.
If you overvalue possessions,
people will begin to steal.

Do not display your treasures
or people will become envious.

The Master leads by
emptying people’s minds,
filling their bellies,
weakening their ambitions,
and making them become strong.
Preferring simplicity and freedom from desires,
avoiding the pitfalls of knowledge and wrong action.

For those who practice not-doing,
everything will fall into place.

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This passage appears to acknowledge that common people have natural propensity to do evil for pursuit of wealth.  A sage, therefore, would not stir chaos among the people by flaunting wealth – nor would he accumulate his wealth in the first place to such an extent that it would cause an outrage.  Thus, the sage’s conduct should be based on a realistic notion that people are naturally enthralled by riches, and would act carefully so as not to “amplify” the elements of their greed.  However, wouldn’t it be proper to say that this  is  not dissimilar to animal trainers in a zoo – who may be able to temporarily tame the beasts but should always keep a careful eye on them lest the trainers should get hurt if they momentarily redeem their bestial instincts and unleash savage attack on their masters?

Also, a sage may  occasionally  have to hire talented people and accumulate possessions for times of war.  It is by fortifying himself in advance that he will manage to maintain order in a future crisis.  The sage’s endeavor to “weakening their ambitions” may not always be welcomed by every functioning member of the society, and some of the more ambitious will always plot to overturn him.  Therefore, wouldn’t it be proper to say that the sage’s “constructive” frugality may not on every occasion be conducive to sustaining order in society?

Therefore, I conclude that we should take a nuanced approach to Lao Tzu’s proposal. Execution of this strategy may achieve peace but only for a while, and there will always be a crisis at some point.  This is where I find Lao Tzu becomes self-refutable; in the end, the Tao that we envision is not an everlasting Tao.

The last verse of the above chapter delivers perhaps the most perplexing principle asserted by Lao Tzu.  How can one achieve everything by not doing anything at all? I looked up several references with regard to the concept of wuwei (do nothing) but haven’t been able to find any completely satisfying answer.  Some even compare wuwei to Mihaly  Csikszentmihaly’s concept of “flow”– which means that you and your target subject become one if you intensely absorb yourself in it.  If this state is achieved, you would feel as if you were doing nothing because everything is so spontaneous and natural. (The major difference between wuwei  and  “flow” would be that one may come closer to realization of Tao by doing nothing whereas a person practicing “flow” would achieve his flow through an insane amount of practice.) However, this way of comparing Tao to “flow” also personally reminds me of liberal Christians’ attempts to interpret the Scriptures in a way that harmonizes its obviously false and inconsistent  texts with up-to-date discoveries or improved understandings of the world.  The problem with this approach is that you are essentially reinventing what has been stated in the original writings. Therefore, I find no justifiable ground for interpreting wuwei in a way other than intended by Lao Tzu himself. Nevertheless, we should note that this may be the only way to benefit from studying the tao te ching.  Regarding the case of the Bible, I do not believe it should allow any room for a figurative understanding or interpretational method that circumvents the original intent of its text if the Bible should indeed claim exclusive rights to absolute truths. The tao te ching, on the other hand, was written by a human being – i.e., he does not appeal to authority based on divinity. Therefore, we are free to put it under our scrutiny, and it is our responsibility to reinvent his ideas for the betterment of ourselves.

However, I personally follow Ogangnam’s interpretation of the tao te ching regarding this problem. The art of wu-wei is effective only when we can distinguish between what we can improve through deliberate efforts and what we cannot improve even through such deliberate efforts.  As for the latter case, we should practice the art of non-doing even when it means accepting losses. By doing more in this case, you will only hurt yourself more and the result will be traumatic as written in the 33 Strategies of War written by Greene.

Taking a complete non-action attitude to every facet of our life would be perilous. An idle king that does nothing and makes an excuse out of the tao te ching would probably be assassinated.

In fact, the butcher appearing in Zhuangzi literature was able to disintegrate an ox so skillfully because he had gone through strenuous apprenticeship.  He would not have built his skills by not doing anything.

Therefore, the practitioner of wu-wei would be a sage knowing – based on his built superior experience and knowledge – when to accurately not take an action and instead let “it” take care of itself.

What do I mean by letting “it” take care of itself?

First, the “it” may be the unconscious. After Junior dos Santos was seriously beaten up by Cain Velasquez and lost in the octagon, he said he hardly remembers anything about that fight because he went on an autopilot mode. Or when Frankie Edgar was able to come out strong again against Gray Maynard after getting knocked down multiple times in the rematch, he hardly knew what was going on. He also went on an autopilot mode. Such an autopilot mode is only possible when the brain acts spontaneously based on years of built experience. The autopilot mode of ours concerns our unconscious.

Second, the “it” may refer to a society ruled by a sage. Instead of interfering in every aspect of their lives, the sage would allow them autonomy, thereby letting “it”take care of itself.

However, let it be made clear that if God does exist, he is making a grave mistake of not taking any action to right the wrong in this world.