Know the masculine,
Keep to the feminine,
And be the Brook of the World.
To be the Brook of the World is
To move constantly in the path of Virtue
Without swerving from it,
And to return again to infancy.
Know the white,
Keep to the black,
And be the Pattern of the World.
To be the Pattern of the World is
To move constantly in the path of Virtue
Without erring a single step,
And to return again to the Infinite.
Know the glorious,
Keep to the lowly,
And be the Fountain of the World.
To be the Fountain of the World is
To live the abundant life of Virtue,
And to return again to Primal Simplicity.
When Primal Simplicity diversifies,
It becomes useful vessels,
Which, in the hands of the sage, become officers.
Hence, ‘a great tailor does little cutting.’
The masculine and feminine here represent the twin poles of
activity and passivity. As is usual in
the Tao Te Ching the advice works on two levels.
In our everyday actions and friendships we must know when to
lead and when to follow. We must avoid
always trying to control others, whether as a boost to our ego, or out of fear
of our fellows’ unpredictability. Likewise,
we mustn’t get caught in a passive mentality through lack of self-confidence,
or the belief that it is a virtue to be without will.
The deeper meaning of being the ‘brook of the world’,
however, is about being always passive to the imperatives of the Tao, and being
a faithful conduit through which the Tao can actively operate in the real
world. This is simultaneously a state of
activity and passivity and therefore transcends them both.
Unless we have developed the inner silence required to hear
the call of the Tao, it is very hard to understand what the true meaning of the
‘feminine’ is. This is why it so often
gets interpreted as being quietism, and by that we mean uncomplainingly getting
bossed around by the active.
Actually, once we learn to be passive to the unseen Tao, we
are able to be not only active in the world, but effective and commanding. And because we are no longer acting according
to an individual agenda, our actions are able to be clear-sighted and
benevolent.
The moment we lose the voice of the Tao, we cease to be
passive in relation to it, and it is then that we ‘err that simple step’ and
are likely to start behaving according to our individual desires. And these desires shall cast us into an
active or passive role as regards other people on earth.
And to return again to infancy.
In infancy we have not yet learnt all the various desires
that become the focus of our individual will.
It is often said in the text that the infant is therefore one with the
Tao. The difference between the infant
and the sage is that the latter is consciously
aware of the Tao’s commands. He
recognises the voice, and waits passively to hear it, and loves and trusts it. To live this way is to live as a fully grown
adult.
Know the white,
Keep to the black,
And be the Pattern of the World.
The pattern for the world to follow! The sage cannot be ignorant of the ways of
the world. He must understand what
motivates the people; he must be skilful in the various tasks and duties that
are necessary to live. Wisdom that has
been gained through separating yourself from the herd can’t be taken back and
shared. They won’t be able to apply what you are saying to the mundane
realities of their life.
True spiritual wisdom is accessible to all people, at all
times and in all situations. We can be skilful,
effective and prosperous and be at
complete peace within ourselves.
We must be rounded individuals, we must first learn the ways
of the world and then complete the picture with an understanding of the
timeless realm that exists within ourselves.
Too often people have the idea that the spiritual life
requires life in solitude at the top of a mountain. It is true that doing this is a useful
technique , which helps to create the silence while the Tao is not yet
distinctly felt; but solitude is not a good in itself, and only becomes a good
when the person has the strength and the ability to end it and return to
everyday life.
Know the glorious,
Keep to the lowly,
And be the Fountain of the World.
Glory comes to us all at times, and we shouldn’t avoid it through
a sense of false modesty. To reach the
peak is a natural and inevitable moment in the cycle of things. It only becomes a problem when we attach
ourselves to that peak state, try to achieve it before its time, and then cling
to it when it is time for it to leave.
The overall attitude of acceptance
of the passage of both glory and lowliness is what is called ‘keeping to the
lowly’.
As with the other verses in this chapter, ‘keeping to the
lowly’ does not mean living in a small shanty and begging for your food. The lowliness is a transcendent state whereby
we are docile to the changing situations in our lives. It is enjoying to be rich when we are rich,
and accepting being poor when we are poor.
As we discussed with passivity, the spiritual life is too often
misunderstood as requiring us to be debased in the world.
To be the Fountain of the World is
To live the abundant life of Virtue,
And to return again to Primal Simplicity.
As in Chapter 6, the term ‘fountain’ is usually translated
as ‘valley’. The abundant life of virtue
is abundant because it is always satisfied and at peace, whether in glory or in
shame. It is resting in the fundamental
essence of ‘what is’ in the present moment.
And the present moment is the one thing that is always with us, and is
changeless despite all the changing scenery that appears within it. It
is the ‘primal simplicity’ within which everything is contained.
When Primal Simplicity diversifies,
It becomes useful vessels,
Which, in the hands of the sage, become officers.
Hence, ‘a great tailor does little cutting.’
Normal everyday life is a chaos of situations, people and
things that have all been brought into our orbit because of our insatiable need
for pleasure and security. Once that
security and joy has been found on the inside, our external life becomes hugely
simplified as a result.
People and possessions still play their role, but they are
associated with the most fundamental requirements of our external existence. They appear, or as this verse describes it, ‘diversify’
naturally in the flow in events. These people
and possessions are therefore appropriate and just what we need at the time we
need them.
We all occasionally experience occurrences that are so apt
and needed that we can’t help describing them as ‘gifts from God’. The more we understand the way the universe
works, and the more we learn to trust in the intrinsic meaning of all that comes
our way, the more we experience this joyous feeling that the cosmos is ‘on our
side’.
A complete change of heart comes over us. Whereas once we imagined that all good
fortune is the result of hard, dedicated effort, now we feel uncomfortable with
anything that comes through a muscular act of will. We start to feel for ourselves that things should
come to us easier than this, and that the ‘greatest tailor needs to do little
cutting.’
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