Chapter 7 (original) (raw)
Translation
Nature everlasting.
Heaven and earth can long endure,
Because they do not give themselves life,
Hence they can long continue to exist.
The wise person places his life last yet life comes first,
Is outside his life, yet lives life.
Non conforming so as to void personal evil!
Hence he is able to succeed personally.
heaven (nature; God) long the earth for a long time. (i.e., enduring as the universe; everlasting and unchanging) 天长地久。_(tiān cháng dì jiŭ)_
heaven and earth (world; universe) so (therefore; as a result) ability (energy; can) long just (for the time being) for a long time (者), 天地所以能长且久者，_(tiān dì suŏ yĭ néng cháng qiĕ jiŭ zhĕ)_
use ( take
according to; because of so as to and) his (her; its; their; that; such) no (not) self (oneself) give birth to (bear; grow; existence; life), 以其不自生，_(yĭ qí bù zì shēng)_
incident (happening; reason; cause; hence) ability (energy; can) long (of long duration) perdure (to continue to exist). 故能长生。_(gù néng cháng shēng)_
is (yes this; that) use ( take
according to; because of so as to and) sage (holy; sacred) human (man; people) back (behind; rear; after) his/her/its body (life; oneself) <conj.> and (yet, but) body (life; oneself) earlier (before; first), 是以圣人后其身而身先，_(shì yĭ shèng rén hòu qí shēn ér shēn xiān)_
outer (outward; other) his (her; its; that; such) body (life; oneself) <conj.> and (yet, but) body (life; oneself) exist (live; survive; keep). 外其身而身存。_(wài qí shēn ér shēn cún)_
wrong (not conform to; run counter to; not) use ( take
according to; because of so as to and) his (her; its; that; such) nothing (without) personal (secret; illicit) evil (heretical; irregular)! 非以其无私邪！_(fēi yĭ qí wú sī xié)_
incident (happening; reason; cause; hence) ability (energy; can) accomplish (succeed; become; turn into; result) his (her; its; that; such) personal (secret; illicit). 故能成其私。_(gù néng chéng qí sī)_
Fourth Pass: Chapter of the Month (pandemic era) 1/2/2021
Zoom on YouTube Recordings:
https://youtu.be/0PzN-wEAqkY is a link to unedited Zoom video of this month’s Sunday meeting. The shorter first part of the meeting begins with a chapter reading followed by attendees’ commentary, if any. A little later on begins the longer open discussion part of the meeting when those who wish to discuss how the chapter relates to their personal experience.
Corrections?
None this time
Reflections
Nature everlasting. Heaven and earth can long endure, Because they do not give themselves life, Hence they can long continue to exist.
The notion that I am alive is in itself a fabrication, an illusion of sorts born of language’s dipolar nature (see Yin Yang, Nature’s Hoodwink). By naming reality, we made it even more difficult to notice nature’s unity. Chapter 56 puts it bluntly,
Speaking is the clue here. Speech arises out of naming and cataloging nature, e.g., high vs. low; hot vs. cold; high vs. low; life vs. death. Conversely, nature and heaven and earth don’t break up their reality by naming. Our dipolar way of cataloging nature seriously blinds us to its unity, to its profound sameness. Of course, this affords us a clever ability to manipulate our environment, which has given humanity an incredible survival advantage over other animals. Nevertheless, there are no freebies in nature. Every advantage comes with a disadvantage of sorts. We suffer from the disadvantage all the time, yet seldom realize what is happening. The utility of the Tao Te Ching lies in how it gives us an inside look at nature, and our own fundamental ignorance.
The wise person places his life last yet life comes first, Is outside his life, yet lives life.
This reminds me of insurance. We insure that which we feel most valuable. Yet, in deeming something especially valuable, we automatically create an underlying sense of immanent of loss, decay, failure, or death. Chapter 75 offers,
The last line clearly parallels this chapter’s, The wise person places his life last yet life comes first, Is outside his life, yet lives life. More broadly, this tells me that whatever I value most in life will be the source of my deepest pain and sorrow in life.
Valuing something and appreciating something may feel similar on the surface, but are very different as they play out. Appreciation is a feeling that takes place in the moment of experience, whereas valuing something plays out over time… a lifetime even. At the deepest level, appreciation is the full acceptance of a reality… of how it is. Conversely, when I value something, I end up holding on to it. Such valuing is what Buddha refers to in the Second Truth; The illusion of self originates and manifests itself in a cleaving to things. Put simply, valuing something can have almost the opposite emotion effect as appreciation.
The people take death lightly because they seek life’s flavor aligns well with the conclusion of Buddha’s Second Truth; The desire to live for the enjoyment of self entangles us in the net of sorrows. Pleasures are the bait and the result is pain.
Naturally, these ideal Taoist and Buddhist approaches to living life are not innate. Simply put, this is theory as opposed to practice. As animals, we naturally seek life’s flavor and pleasure will always bait us. Nevertheless, just being aware of these pitfalls, of seeking life’s flavor and desiring to live for the enjoyment of self, helps me manage how I approach life more effectively, more wisely. I’m not going to win at this, but I am ostensibly able to improve my chances of avoiding obvious pitfalls. The trick is simply realizing and accepting the pitfalls.
Non conforming so as to void personal evil! Hence he is able to succeed personally.
At first glance, Non conforming seems to be at odds with chapter 3’s Doing without doing, following without exception rules. Following and conforming to others is a strong social instinct in humans. However, the following without exception rules is clearly not advising us to be like sheep and blindly follow the alpha animal, as Non conforming so as to void personal evil shows.
Good examples of blind sheep-like following and the evil that can often ensue are found throughout history, with the Trump presidency and his followers being recent examples. Hitler sway over the German people also comes to mind. Such social conforming is an innate social characteristic of humanity, and would have been a survival advantage in our ancestral past. Civilization’s hierarchical foundation turns this healthy following instinct into something that often plays out in very problematic ways (e.g., war, terrorism, racism, slavery, witch-hunts, inquisitions, etc.) (See The Tradeoff for more on this problem.)
Chapter 63 also gives guidance on chapter 3. Both chapter’s lines begin with wéi wú wéi (为无为), do without do , but 63 goes on to say Be involved without being involved. (i.e., Do without doing, Be involved without being involved, Taste without tasting.) This parallels Buddha’s Fourth Truth, where he says, There is salvation for him whose self disappears before truth, whose will is bent on what he ought to do, whose sole desire is the performance of his duty. This “whose self disappears before truth”, and “whose sole desire is the performance of his duty” reduces the self-centered emotion and agenda from one’s actions. That is doing without doing. When this is the case, all that is left is following without exception. Here, one is following their duty, their dharma. I also see this as following the way things actually are, not as how I want them to be. The last part of chapter 65 sheds light,
Reaching great conformity, following without exception, and non conforming all combine to portray a picture of being in accord with reality, with the way things are, with nature, instead of adhering to a particular cultural narrative. This is truly nearly rising beyond oneself. As chapter 52 offers,
Return to observe the origin is another way of saying exchange your allegiance to the current cultural paradigm for a deeper universal connection to nature—the origin. On the other hand, this is not saying go be a hermit in some cave removed from society. Indeed, chapter 63 reveals the profound yet subtle difference, Do without doing, Be involved without being involved, Taste without tasting. Be there without being there. Approaching life this way, there is no need to retreat to a cave.
Video Archive https://youtu.be/0PzN-wEAqkY
Third Pass: Chapter of the Month 03/04/2017
Corrections?
None this time
Reflections:
Nature everlasting. Heaven and earth can long endure, Because they do not give themselves life, Hence they can long continue to exist.
To the extent I do not give myself life, I am able to see my personal likes and dislikes as a bio-hoodwink, and not as true or real as it feels. In the end, don’t all issues of life essentially come down to one’s personal preferences — likes & loves vs. dislikes & hates? We are just unable to take ultimate responsibility for ‘the buck stops here’ truth of life. Being the intelligent species we are, we devise rationalizations that allow us to blame someone or something for life not always serving up what we like. Chapter 18 puts it bluntly, When intelligence increases, there exists great falseness.
The wise person places his life last yet life comes first, parallels Christ’s, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it”, Matthew 16:25. The more we hold on, the more fearful of actual or imagined loss we feel. Then again, perhaps I’ve put the cart before the horse. From a symptom’s point of view, the reason we hold on arises from a visceral apprehension of the void, emptiness, nothingness… or more fearsome yet, entropy. When we feel unsafe, we naturally seek the safety that holding onto something offers, even if there is no real or immanent threat.
Is outside his life, yet lives life. Any true and immanent threat warrants a response from animal and human alike. That is simply living life! That’s not the case for imagined threats. When I am certain that I know, any imagined threats easily feel utterly true and real. This places me inside my life. This ‘disease’ just causes me unnecessary sorrow. As good old chapter 71 hints, Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease.
To counteract this, I hold in my mind ‘a Taoist story’, so to speak, that helps puts me in sync with nature’s ebb and flow, pain and pleasure, gain and loss. This story doesn’t offer salvation from the ebbing side of life, the pain, and loss. However, it does offer me salvation from being overrun by my imagination or by any story that touts impossible and unnatural promises of salvation from the side of life I don’t like.
More specifically, knowing the connection between that which troubles me most and the all-pervasive hierarchical dynamics of civilization brings me significant closure, as they say. In effect, that helps me place my life last. I suppose it is the therapy of just knowing why, what, and how things are the way they are… Why it is what it is. That helps me be outside my life, yet live life.
I now always suspect ‘the civilization process’ to be responsible for whatever troubles me at any given moment! That initial suspicion stimulates me to seek the connections (cause and effect details) that supports or refute my suspicion. I appreciate that there is an ongoing conflict between humanity’s innate egalitarian nature vis-à-vis the all-pervasive hierarchical dynamics of civilization. All I need do is fill in enough details to resolve each personally troubling situation. Finding those details, those connections, helps confirm for me emotionally the reality of ‘it is what it is’.
All that is necessary I feel, is to appreciate the overall outline of how we ended up here, The Tradeoff humanity made, yet keep to the present and apply that ‘appreciation’ to the troublesome issue at hand, at any given moment. Keeping one eye on the ‘big picture’ and one eye on the solid ground of the moment-to-moment, helps avoid being buried alive in the moment-to-moment.
Non conforming so as to void personal evil! Hence he is able to succeed personally.
It is all too easy to like this and hate that. Recognizing this feeling as a personal love vs. hate bias helps neutralize it. Not conforming to this bias is a way to [a]void personal evil. Succeed personally happens when I own failure as an integral part of success. As success feels like failure (and vice versa), and personal feels universal (and vice versa) my mind’s eye knows chapter 56’s, This is called profound sameness. The only thing standing in the way are my personal biases — good riddance!
Second Pass: Work in Progress 1/02/2013
Issues:
A dash here and a period there are the only changes today.
Line 7, Non–conforming as well as without personal evil! is a little problematic to translate in this word-for-word approach. Non-conforming (fēi, 非) and as well as (y ǐ, 以) are the first two characters of this line. Now, I’ll go on to make a mountain out of a molehill of this. These characters are:
Y ǐ (以) is one of the most common characters in the Tao Te Ching. It means: use; take; according to; because of; in order to; so as to; at (a certain time); on (a fixed date); <conj.> and; as well as. For line 7, I chose as well as, but two others tempt me: (1) Non–conforming so as to be without personal evil! (2) Non–conforming and without personal evil!
Y ǐ has various grammatical sides to it, depending on context. I put y ǐ this way throughout the book: use ( take
according to; because of so as to and). You can then roll these various meanings around in your mind as you contemplate the point being made.
fēi (非) by itself, means: wrong; evildoing; not conform to; run counter to; censure; blame; not; no; have got to; simply must.
Pondering its use in dual character words helps give a deeper and broader sense of the word:
非常 fēicháng = extraordinary. 常 = ordinary; constant; often
非但 fēidàn = not only. 但 = but; only
非法 fēifǎ = unlawful. 法 = law; method
非刑 fēixíng = brutal torture. 刑 = punishment; torture
非凡 fēifán = extraordinary; uncommon. 凡= common; ordinary.
非议 fēiyì = reproach; censure. 议 = opinion; discuss.
So, why did I translate fēi as non-conforming? I will run down my reasoning in the following Commentary.
Commentary:
Consider line 7 again: Non–conforming as well as without personal evil! I first ask myself, what are the forces that cause personal evil? I also note that I don’t regard anything in nature as evil, and I know of nothing existing outside of nature. Now, what feels like evil to me are wanton acts of destruction and riding roughshod over people, animals, or the environment. Next, under what circumstances does this occur?
Scanning my knowledge of human history, a find that the most egregious examples occur when multitudes of people all jump onto the same bandwagon and gang up on other people, animals or the environment. It is the outcome of ‘group think’, and herd behavior—the mob: Lynching, gang rape, war, persecution, and the ‘righteous’ stomping on the ‘heathen’. Such extremes, as horrific as they are, originate in the ‘steal a penny’ mundane. Chapter 20 contrasts this mundane origin with non-conforming to anticipation.
I have a solid rational for trusting the Non–conforming ‘hippie’ over a pass-under-the-radar, conforming person. I can see at a glance that the Non–conforming ‘hippie’ is getting ‘life’ off his chest. Straight-laced people pass themselves off as normal. Certainly, the vast majority will turn out to be just as normal as the ‘hippie’. That notwithstanding, I’ve notice that many of the horrific acts of personal evil are committed by “the nice quite conforming boy” that no one dreamed would do such an evil thing. The cultural pressure to conform to the norm can generate great emotional conflict. This explodes at times and results in destructive personal evil.
I just came across some archeological evidence for this hypothesis of mine in a Science News’ Book Review: How Ancient Europeans Saw the World (1). It shows the shift from ancestral small group identity, which leaves room for non-conforming-ness to the socially conforming paradigm that a larger and less intimate civilization necessitates. The most applicable quote:
“Until about 500 B.C., styles of such objects reflected their connection to the natural environment, and designs and decorations on them expressed individuality. But as Europeans became more aware of the rest of the world and their place in it, object designs reflected concern with the social environment and a sense that individuals belonged to a community.”
We need to allow ourselves enough Non–conforming-ness to maintain personal integrity (‘sanity’). Otherwise, the pot will boil over. If you scan your experience, you will find many minor examples of this dynamic—the little white lies and petty personal evils. Allow yourself enough natural non-conforming-ness to place [your] life last. Then the happier conclusion of line 8, Hence he is able to succeed personally, can be yours. (This sure sounds easy and it would be, if we actually had free will).
The wise person places his life last, and yet life comes first, Is outside his life, yet lives life.
These two lines remind me of the sayings, “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall”, and “The bigger they are, the harder they fall”. It also speaks to what it takes to help veer clear of the blind spot! The more you place your life first, the stronger the bio-hoodwink cum blind spot dominates it. This is what I call ‘natural justice’.
Suggested Revision:
Everlasting. Heaven and earth can long endure, Because they do not give themselves life. Hence they can long continue to exist**.** The wise person places his life last**, and** yet life comes first, Is outside his life, yet lives life. Non–conforming so as to void(2) personal evil! Hence he is able to succeed personally.
(1) Here is another review
How Ancient Europeans Saw the World
Or, https://www.amazon.com/How-Ancient-Europeans-Saw-World-ebook/dp/B008AU3XTC/
(2) Mulling this over for a few days, I now feel so as to void is a better way to put this. Void closely parallels wú (无: nothing; nil; not have; there is not; without; not; regardless of) and flows off my English language tongue decently enough. Fēi (非) comes across mostly clearly to me as meaning not conform to; run counter to.
D.C. Lau translates this line, 非以其无私邪！(fēi yĭ qí wú sī xié), as Is it not because he is without thought of self… which is a smoother way to say it. However, for me, it leaves out a subtler side to this. Non-conforming-ness, seen as a symptom, pulls my mind deeper than the simple and somewhat unrealistic notion of ‘without thought of self’. All things, but especially living things, experience a sense of self. In humans, this experience triggers thoughts; those thoughts are merely symptoms of the underlying forces—the sense of self, and the need to maintain self integrity.
One’s non-conforming-ness arises out of the need to maintain self-integrity. It can take on very idiosyncratic way of expression, but these are only in response to the necessity one experiences. In short, no free will! Each of us are driven to do what we must, 为无为 wéiwúwéi not withstanding. And in fact, wéiwúwéi in my life is a result of arriving at a point where nothing else works. Thus, wéiwúwéi also comes out of pure necessity.
First Pass: Chapter of the Week 12/06/2008
Here again we see the emotionally confounding truth of how we only really ‘get’ what we ‘give up’. Christ put it this way: ‘Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it’. We (and all life) feels an innate need to hold on, to contend, yet we can only know contentment when we let go. A harmonious life rests in the delicate balance between competition and cooperation with ourselves, others, and nature.
Scripture is mostly biased towards the cooperation side of the equation. I think, however, not because cooperation is the greater virtue. Rather, civilization’s core purpose has always been to tip the scales in our favor vis-à-vis our competition with nature. Thus, balance for humanity requires tipping the scales in favor of cooperation in order to merely return us to the middle — the happy middle. All that stands in our way is our species’ exceptional cleverness.