What is in the end to be shrunken,
Begins by being first stretched out.
What is in the end to be weakened,
Begins by being first made strong.
What is in the end to be thrown down,
Begins by being first set on high.
What is in the end to be despoiled,
Begins by being first richly endowed.
Herein is the subtle wisdom of life:
The soft and weak overcomes the hard and strong.
Just as the fish must not leave the deeps,
So the ruler must not display his weapons.
So often we imagine our own behaviours, our own projects, our own works
to be somehow above the forces of nature.
We imagine that we live in a world of concepts and theorems that are
universal and can survive the cycles of growth and decay that apply to organic
life. But this is the chief error that
the Tao Te Ching sets out to expose.
If something has grown stronger than all else around it. If one aspect has attained predominance over
its competitors, then that is an unstable situation that cannot endure. Nature is nothing other than the ceaseless
process of correcting balance. If too
much air has descended in one place, and the air pressure is high, then the air
will be sucked towards where the air pressure is low. The wind will blow. Why this is no-one knows. It is simply a law of physics that we cannot
explain and can only accept. Excess will
flow to the place of deficit and balance will be maintained.
What is in the end to be weakened,
Begins by being first made strong.
If a man gains too much power over his fellows then laws of physics –
mysterious forces – will ensure that the balance is maintained. If we want nature to weaken something, then
we can hasten the process by first, of our own volition, making it strong. If we did not first make it strong then balance
will prevail. The wind will not start to
blow. But once something has become
strong then the situation is set up for the process of weakening to commence.
This is such a hard lesson for most people because we attached to
certain outcomes. We wish to be always
strong, and therefore cannot tolerate or even consider the necessary times of
weakness that must precede our strength.
Conversely, we imagine that our position of strength can be forever
maintained, and our desperate attempts to buck the course of nature only
contribute to our eventual downfall.
The wise person of course not only understands all this but accepts
it. They are as at peace with the highs
of life as with the lows. This is
because their peace is in the Tao itself.
Herein is the subtle wisdom of life:
The soft and weak overcomes the hard and strong.
That the hard and strong overcomes the weak is not a lesson we need to
be told. But how many of us understand
how the soft and the weak have the Tao working for them? And as our weakness grows so too are the
hidden forces that will one day burst out to correct the balance.
Just as the fish must not leave the deeps,
So the ruler must not display his weapons.
When the fish rises from the deeps and finds the light, then that very
motion will lead it into the fisherman’s net, or the jaws of the heron. For the ruler to display his weapons is the
very action that will lead him to use them.
The ruler reveals himself to the light, and thus presents himself as a
target to be fought.
This is how upside-down our thinking can be! For the ruler imagines that
his fearsome display will deter people from fighting him. He does not understand that the only deterrent
to aggression is to appear mild, and defenceless. Then the forces of nature, acting through
men, will not need to weaken his strength.
Such forces will, instead, strengthen his weakness by granting him the
true strength that comes from being able to cooperate productively with all the
nations around him. To display your
strength will ensure that you will be weakened by the need to wage war.
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