Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Do you want to rule the world and control it?
I don’t think it can ever be done.

The world is a sacred vessel
and it can not be controlled.
You will only make it worse if you try.
It may slip through your fingers and disappear.

Some are meant to lead,
and others are meant to follow;
Some must always strain,
and others have an easy time;
Some are naturally big and strong,
and others will always be small;
Some will be protected and nurtured,
and others will meet with destruction.

The Master accepts things as they are,
and out of compassion avoids extravagance,
excess and the extremes.

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This chapter has a deterministic account of the events of the world. There are naturally the strong and the weak in the world. It looks as though that Laozi is saying that everyone has his own place in the world. In fact, the stoic philosophy also argues that a shoemaker is a shoemaker. That is, one’s capabilities may not exceed those required for a position endowed to him by nature. This does not mean that a shoemaker’s job is worthless. In fact, even a shoemaker can be a stoic.

Do not strive for the impossible. Know your place from a realistic point of view. It can be argued that in the book 50th Law, Frederick Douglass is one example that fought against the impossible, rose to the occasion, and played a contributing role to the transformation of the social convention that stood against the black people. Greene notes that if Douglass possessed that power, so can we. This is an inspirational lesson, to be sure. However, Greene also cautions us to be realistic in setting our goals. Whether your goal was idealism or realism will be determined by its result. The question is, how will you accept it when things do not turn out in your way?

“Some will be protected and nurtured, and others will meet with destruction.”

From the viewpoint of a sage or ruler, he cannot help but dismiss the graveness of usual tragedies that occur to individual humans. In the 48 laws of power, Greene notes that it would be a tremendous waste of energy for a politician to play method acting with regard to every national disaster or calamity. The leader of a nation is too busy to involve himself emotionally with every single event. People will naturally die every day, or even every second, statistically.

Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Know the masculine,
but keep to the feminine:
and become a watershed to the world.
If you embrace the world,
the Tao will never leave you
and you become as a little child.

Know the white,
yet keep to the black:
be a model for the world.
If you are a model for the world,
the Tao inside you will strengthen
and you will return whole to your eternal beginning.

Know the honorable,
but do not shun the disgraced:
embracing the world as it is.
If you embrace the world with compassion,
then your virtue will return you to the uncarved block.

The block of wood is carved into utensils
by carving void into the wood.
The Master uses the utensils, yet prefers to keep to the block
because of its limitless possibilities.
Great works do not involve discarding substance.

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For me, this is a significantly important chapter because of its first verse: “Know the male, but stick to the female.” The mainstream American culture is dominated by macho images. Look at the way the American males are dressed. They wear baggy pants and draw lots of bizarre tattoos all over their body. They act like they are strong men. Then why is Laozi all about femininity?

First, we should note the verse more carefully. Laozi does not exclude masculinity entirely. He says we should “know the male.” This suggests that there are times when to act like a man.

In the 33 strategies of war, Greene notes that we must learn from goddess Athena and not Ares. Whereas the latter god is an impulsive warrior, Athena is a strategic thinker. When you are executing a plan, you involve yourself in the game and forget everything else. This is the Ares mode. I do not mean that the Ares mode is unnecessary. You should assume the Ares mode when you are engaging in the game. However, your actions must be executed based on long-term strategic thinking; this is what Athena would do.

Even inside the UFC octagons, we observe that impulsive fighters sometimes fall off their track of original game plans they practiced together with coaches and fight impulsively. This kind of fight is simply a brawl and not a carefully thought out war.

Based on the verse, one tao te ching commentator illustrates an interesting analogy. That is, it is the shy, soft female sex organ that eventually calms down the proud and stiff male sex organ. Therefore, be aware of the apparently timid ones in the game.  They might be hiding some vicious teeth inside the moist vagina.

Chapter 27

Chapter 27

A good traveler leaves no tracks,
and a skillful speaker is well rehearsed.
A good bookkeeper has an excellent memory,
and a well made door is easy to open and needs no locks.
A good knot needs no rope and it can not come undone.

Thus the Master is willing to help everyone,
and doesn’t know the meaning of rejection.
She is there to help all of creation,
and doesn’t abandon even the smallest creature.
This is called embracing the light.

What is a good person but a bad person’s teacher?
What is a bad person but raw material for his teacher?
If you fail to honor your teacher or fail to enjoy your student,
you will become deluded no matter how smart you are.
It is the secret of prime importance.

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Somebody that does something very well is recognized instantly for his talent.  When other people see what he does, they know that he is on a different level in what he does because everything that he does regarding what he is very good at is so spontaneous. What he does does not seem to be much labored.

When I first learned swimming, I was a bit disappointed with my lack of cardio.  I saw some school kids that were good swimmers and had no trouble flapping their arms and legs for a long time.  For me, it was exhausting.  When I dipped my head in the pool water, I felt a bit panicky.  I felt slightly terrified because it was uncomfortable and it was not a normal situation that I would be in.  The most difficult part for me was to learn how to breathe in and out.  As I turned my head sideways to inhale air, for example, water would come into my nostrils and mouth.  I unintentionally swallowed the water and my throat hurt. 

However, as time went by, my swimming improved.  I won’t discuss in too much detail the process of my progress, but here is one fact that I realized.  The more uncomfortable you are with something, the more energy you have to consume to deal with it.  If you are good at something, you do not even consider it to be a demanding work.  The high school kids that I thought were very good cardio-wise because they were young were just ordinary girls and no athletes.  They simply learned to be at ease with swimming through training (actually, girls are faster learners of swimming than adult men).  When my techniques improved, I no longer gasped for more breath and did not pant heavily after finishing a lane.  I was very comfortable, at least in a pool (I’ve never tried open water swimming, but if I do try it, I know it will be a totally different environment, so I’m not really up for it.).

I remember reading an article written on MRI experiments on people speaking a foreign language.  The experiment subjects are asked to speak some expressions in a particular foreign language, and the experimenter takes MRI scans of their brains.  One guy that is very fluent in that language shows very little activity in the brain.  On the other hand, another guy that has just started to learn that language shows lots of activity in his brain areas.  This means that the less competent guy’s brain is still trying to figure out what to do and at the stage of developing as regards speaking the foreign language.

This lack of effort is also observed among janitors.  An experienced janitor does his job very swiftly and with less effort than an inexperienced janitor.  Blue-collar jobs or hard labors also require huge levels of efforts and skills.

“What is a good person but a bad person’s teacher? What is a bad person but raw material for his teacher?”

Conservative hardliners must be well aware of the meaning of the above quote. Say that South Korea achieves unification with the North or at least establishes lasting peace or amicable relationships between the two Koreas. What happens then? The staunch conservatives lose influence among the moderate conservatives. They need a target or enemy to fight against so that they can continue voicing their thoughts and instill the fear of the North in the minds of the moderate conservatives. They actually thrive on terror. If we achieve unification, we no longer need these anti-North politicians. I believe that North Korea is a real substantial threat to our security, but what happens if these threats disappear completely? The politicians of the conservative party may lose most of their fan base; they lose power, to put it briefly.

Many Japanese animation films for children are based on the themes of good versus evil. The robots and good-looking characters take revenge on the evil, ugly people that harm the society. The thing is, if these evil roles disappear completely, the righteous robots and characters will lose their place. Ironically, they may be the first ones to lament the disappearance of evil. This is no laughing matter because Sherlock Holmes also agonized over his boredom after the death of Professor Moriarty. He lost an evil man that he could regard as a target to teach a lesson. That is why Holmes mourned Moriarty’s death.

Likewise, Yahweh had to create Satan to make the stories unfold in the Bible. There had to be evil doers on earth so that He could later punish them through floods or Armageddon.

Likewise, the people of the warring states of ancient China had to find themselves in deep trouble in order for Laozi to write down the tao te ching to teach them. Nevertheless, because Laozi did not want to be seen as a sage making use of the political chaos and elevating his status as a thoughtful spiritual guru of the times, he opted to retreat into countryside. He did write the tao te ching, but did not tell much about himself. To this day, we still do not know whether Laozi was a single person or merely a name for referring to a group of recluse intellectuals.

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Heaviness is the basis of lightness.
Stillness is the standard of activity.

Thus the Master travels all day
without ever leaving her wagon.
Even though she has much to see,
she is at peace in her indifference.

Why should the lord of a thousand chariots
be amused at the foolishness of the world?
If you abandon yourself to foolishness,
you lose touch with your beginnings.
If you let yourself become distracted,
you will lose the basis of your power.

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Note this verse: “Even though she has much to see, she is at peace in her indifference.”

This characteristic of a Taoist sage is strikingly similar to stoicists. Stoicists did not respect wanderlusts. Their rationale was that you don’t have to travel to learn something. You just do not know how to be still. I am not against traveling though. Why not travel enough to experience diverse cultures and sceneries? They are the great joys of life.

I have a feeling that this description was written to admonish a ruler or king. The king has not time to spare for thinking about petty things. “The lord of a thousand chariots” wouldn’t have time to care about trivial things in the world.

Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Before the universe was born
there was something in the chaos of the heavens.
It stands alone and empty,
solitary and unchanging.
It is ever present and secure.
It may be regarded as the Mother of the universe.
Because I do not know its name,
I call it the Tao.
If forced to give it a name,
I would call it ‘Great’.

Because it is Great means it is everywhere.
Being everywhere means it is eternal.
Being eternal means everything returns to it.

Tao is great.
Heaven is great.
Earth is great.
Humanity is great.
Within the universe, these are the four great things.

Humanity follows the earth.
Earth follows Heaven.
Heaven follows the Tao.
The Tao follows only itself.

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I find this passage to be a little surprising because Laozi mentions the origin of the universe. I think it would have been a common notion then that the universe was eternal and had no beginning. Note the last lines, especially. What does he say? Humanity follows the earth (i.e, the earth gave birth to the humans), Earth follows Heaven (i.e., Earth is part of the universe), Heaven follows the Tao (i.e., the Tao is the governing law of the universe), but the Tao follows only itself (the governing law itself is the first cause and has no other preceding cause than itself.). My question is, how on earth did he know this? Or how was he able to speculate like this?

Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Those who stand on tiptoes
do not stand firmly.
Those who rush ahead
don’t get very far.
Those who try to outshine others
dim their own light.
Those who call themselves righteous
can’t know how wrong they are.
Those who boast of their accomplishments
diminish the things they have done.

Compared to the Tao, these actions are unworthy.
If we are to follow the Tao,
we must not do these things.

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When several Nobel laureates visited POSTECH (one of the top science research institutions in South Korea) and held a seminar, undergraduates asked what they should do to win a Nobel Prize. The eminent professors’ answers were rather old school textbook. Do not care about the Nobel Prize. Do your research for its own sake.

However, it is common knowledge that, even in the purest fields of natural science whose self-proclaimed mission is to dedicate the very best of human intellectual power to the lofty ideal of finding out elemental truths of nature, the majority of the top-tier scientists work so relentlessly primarily out of secular ambition. Even if money was not their primary focus, they would still aspire for fame and legacy. How else to explain some of the frauds/manipulations or works stolen from peer scientists? They want their names to be known. They want to be worshipped through their discoveries and accomplishments. Even if some of them did not like the nuisances of fame and shunned fame, they would certainly make no concession at all regarding making it clear – if they achieved major accomplishments in the fields of science – that they did them.

In other words, their primary desire is to outshine their colleagues. They pursue distinctions. What is a championship for? A gold belt means you are the one and only in your division. That is why Frankie Edgar felt like he lost his arm when he lost the belt to Benson Henderson.

If you do not apparently want to be known and talked about among the others but expect them to know about you, is this not also a tacit form of condescension? A proud/arrogant person can be either talkative or silent. The only difference is whether they like to talk a lot about themselves. Silence and politeness alone do not indicate that you are a humble man.

From a side perspective, would it be possible to say that the urge to refrain from outshining the others is an expression of the wish to do the opposite (in a Freudian sense concerning defense mechanism)?

Therefore, I will daringly tell Lao Tzu: Shut the hell up!

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Nature uses few words:
when the gale blows, it will not last long;
when it rains hard, it lasts but a little while;
What causes these to happen? Heaven and Earth.

Why do we humans go on endlessly about little
when nature does much in a little time?
If you open yourself to the Tao,
you and Tao become one.
If you open yourself to Virtue,
then you can become virtuous.
If you open yourself to loss,
then you will become lost.

If you open yourself to the Tao,
the Tao will eagerly welcome you.
If you open yourself to virtue,
virtue will become a part of you.
If you open yourself to loss,
the lost are glad to see you.

“When you do not trust people,
people will become untrustworthy.”

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In this chapter, Laozi uses simple and plain words to express his idea that we can benefit by opening ourselves to the tao. The tao is available everywhere, so you only need to open your mind to it. I wonder what psychopathic manipulators would have to say regarding this, because naïve practitioners of the tao that are willing to trust people and anticipate them to become trustworthy may be “slaughtered” like innocent lambs in the face of a vicious wolf. Fred Durst emphasizes in his song “Killer in You,” that “you gonna have to go and find the killer in you” when you confront this guy that “Satan gave a license to kill.”

Remember what happened to Germany when she opened her borders to the miserable Syrian refugees. Germany was badly “raped” – as Donald Trump would say – by a bunch of degenerates included amongst them that the good people of Germany had nothing to do with. I have no doubt that many of the refugees had genuine appreciation for their help. But look what happened. Total chaos and splits among the Germans themselves. There is a solid reason for the rise of Trump in the U.S. You should not help people that are not ready to thank you in return. In fact, I argue that it is your moral obligation to let them die by themselves if they will turn against you even after you show them a favor. Do not fall into the temptation of believing that you are practicing the good by harming yourself. In fact, you are doing both yourself and your enemies some good by protecting yourself from their vice and offering them a chance to realize that they suffer for their wickedness.

When you show generosity and trust, they should be provided sparingly and selectively. People are by nature wicked and untrustworthy – perhaps including myself and you. Mencius was totally wrong; people are not born to be good. Even if some of us may be good-natured, they can quickly turn into lions in front of people offering unbridled generosity.

Chapter 22

Chapter 22

If you want to become whole,
first let yourself become broken.
If you want to become straight,
first let yourself become twisted.
If you want to become full,
first let yourself become empty.
If you want to become new,
first let yourself become old.
Those whose desires are few get them,
those whose desires are great go astray.

For this reason the Master embraces the Tao,
as an example for the world to follow.
Because she isn’t self centered,
people can see the light in her.
Because she does not boast of herself,
she becomes a shining example.
Because she does not glorify herself,
she becomes a person of merit.
Because she wants nothing from the world,
the world can not overcome her.

When the ancient Masters said,
“If you want to become whole,
then first let yourself be broken,”
they weren’t using empty words.
All who do this will be made complete.

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Laozi might be saying here that one must welcome humiliation. None of us would in fact want to be humiliated. I remember one psychologist saying that it can be more disgraceful to reveal open the naked truths concerning one’s psychological self than to show his naked body in public.

I can see Laozi’s point in this chapter, but it is not easy to follow that.

The first historical figure that comes to mind upon reading this chapter is Jesus. The secular world then indeed failed to overcome him. They may have crucified this pure soul on the cross/stake, but they could not break his spirit. Because he had been previously humiliated many a time. Later Christians depicted him as a weakling in portraits, but he likely possessed the most indomitable spirit of the times. He was a humble yet uncompromising rebel.

Regarding the first verse, “if you want to become whole, first let yourself become broken,” I think of a serene, calm person in the face of adversity. If you ever notice a man like this, it is not because he has been this way since he was born. Rather, this guy was born through repeated personal sufferings that you are unaware of.

Rainer Rilke (whom I don’t know very well) said:

“Do not believe that he who seeks to comfort you lives untroubled among the simple and quite words that sometimes do you good. His life has much difficulty and sadness and remains far behind yours. Were it otherwise he would never have been able to find those words.”

The presence of mind is not obtained easily.