Tuesday Musings on Tao Te Ching: Chapter 5

Arrgh, I can't believe it's taken me nearly a whole week to get to this.

Sorry, this is one of the chapters I haven't translated. Probably because it's one I struggle with.

Yep, the Tao is indifferent to the suffering or successes of the 10,000 things. That's just nature. And if we are to believe Darwin (or at least Darwinian school of thought), then let the law of the jungle reign supreme.

And we can extend this idea to the notion of non-attachment that exists in certain Buddhist doctrines also... because that is in line with the message of this verse too.

[At this point, I couldn't help myself and started translating the text]

This is the part I struggle with about this verse, and it comes down to the the phrase 不仁 bùrén: without humaneness (Heaven/Earth and Sages basically don't have humaneness).

Even in Buddhism, there is the notion of compassion which is what inspires a bodhisattva to perform acts of kindness and work towards enlightening all souls before evacuating samsara (the eternal wheel of death/rebirth). If one is completely non-attached, then why bother with compassion? Because attachment to being compassionate will prevent one from attaining buddha. But I'm pretty sure that's simply not a thing... so we can be unattached to everything except compassion, surely...?

A part of me thinks that the reference to 不仁 bùrén in this verse is possibly striking a a distinction from Confucian philosophy here. 仁 rén is one of Confucius' most important of the Virtues for the 'Superior Person' to possess. I always translate it as "humaneness" to distinguish it from 爱 ài which I feel is closer to what we would call 'compassion' or 'loving care'. So I think this verse is part of the group of verses we would call the anti-Confucian verses.

The people who wrote the Tao Te Ching were fairly antagonistic to the Confucian school, so there are plenty of examples throughout of referencing these Confucian Virtues and saying that they're irrelevant or not helpful to be in accord with the Tao. They were trying to point out that the fetish with the virtues (such as rén can actually get in the way of being 'natural', perhaps because they saw Confucians trying to be humane, and just make a complete ass of themselves in the process?

But honestly, I've tried to sit in a dispassionate bùrén state... and I don't find it pleasant. It does not feel human to not be "humane". And for the most part, I think 'humaneness' is a natural, organic part of being human... and we are microcosms of the Tao anyway... so how do we have something so innate and be part of the Tao if the Tao is also not humane?!?

The rest of the verse makes complete sense, re: the bellows metaphor, and yes par for the course thus far, just a re-iteration of what's already been said (after all, how much can you talk about the Tao when it's actually impossible to talk about the Tao?!?).

But those first couple of lines shit me. Can't reconcile it. Doesn't feel appropriate for me.

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dominion01 (60) · 6 years ago

Thanks! Following you.

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mikeonfire (60) · 6 years ago

Good stuff! Thanks for continuing this!

kennyskitchen (72) · 6 years ago

Thanks for stopping by :-) It's been quite interesting diving into this document, though I've gotta say so far it has all kind of felt like the same line of thought for 4/5 of the chapters.

steem-ua (64) · 6 years ago

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andrewmarkmusic (67) · 6 years ago

A wee bit of esoteric fascism in this one! Or, a case for an evil God. Underlings over on YouTube has a worthwhile series on that one.
I don't have enough information to say one way or the other but this place has always seemed somewhat fcuked to me.
Coincidentally, I posted this track Ruthlessexistence this week:

metametheus (66) · 6 years ago