High Virtue is non-virtuous;
Therefore it has Virtue.
Low Virtue never frees itself from virtuousness;
Therefore it has no Virtue.
High Virtue makes no fuss and has no private ends to
serve:
Low Virtue not only fusses but has private ends to
serve.
High humanity fusses but has no private ends to serve:
High morality not only fusses but has private ends to
serve.
High ceremony fusses but finds no response;
Then it tries to enforce itself with rolled-up
sleeves.
Failing Tao, man resorts to Virtue.
Failing Virtue, man resorts to humanity.
Failing humanity, man resorts to morality.
Failing morality, man resorts to ceremony.
Now, ceremony is the merest husk of faith and loyalty;
It is the beginning of all confusion and disorder.
As to foreknowledge, it is only the flower of Tao,
And the beginning of folly.
Therefore, the full-grown man sets his heart upon the
substance rather than the husk;
Upon the fruit rather than the flower.
Truly, he prefers what is within to what is without.
The opening lines of this chapter demonstrate well the mind-boggling
paradox that makes the Tao Te Ching so famous. To wrap our heads round what is being said,
the first thing we need to understand is the distinction between capital ‘V’
Virtue and small ‘v’ virtuousness. Small
‘v’ virtuousness is what we develop with our intellects. We look at nature, we take a preference for
some aspects of it more than others, and then we try to emulate what we like in
our behaviour. It is the mind-set that
knows what is good and what is bad, and then tries to shape nature to include
more of the former and less of the latter.
Capital ‘V’ Virtuousness doesn’t do this. The man or woman of Virtue is safe and secure
in themselves. They are at peace. They therefore no longer think to divide
reality into the good and the bad because they are genuinely at peace with all
of it. The flow of nature is not
opposed. Things are left to happen,
without judgement, and the sage is able to live alongside his fellow men and
women without the need to coerce or control their behaviour according to any
agenda…’therefore it has Virtue.’
High Virtue makes no fuss and has no private ends to
serve:
Low Virtue not only fusses but has private ends to
serve.
This is the perceptive insight into all those that are so very keen to
live the virtuousness life: they wish to get something in return. Whether it is just the day-to-day admiration
and respect of those around them, or the ‘end of days’ entry into Heaven, the
do-gooder is engaged in a transaction.
They are wishing to coerce the Tao into serving private ends.
The do-gooder is not at peace.
They do not have the inner confidence to simply let things be and so
must fearfully orchestrate their lives according to their own illusory
agenda. And of course, because it so
intellectually based, it is certain that some other do-gooder somewhere has
come to the exact opposite conclusion.
The moralist is always on a collision course, if not with other people than
with Nature itself.
High humanity fusses but has no private ends to serve:
High morality not only fusses but has private ends to
serve.
A very interesting distinction is made here between ‘humanity’ and ‘morality’. Both ‘fuss’ over the situation, but the
humane person seems to be able to keep themselves out of the picture. They are seeing the requirements of the
individual situation, and the needs of the individuals involved. The humane person is not concerned about the
status quo, about what normally happens.
They are not invested and attached to the usual moral outcomes.
High ceremony fusses but finds no response;
Then it tries to enforce itself with rolled-up
sleeves.
Then the argument turns mystical.
Ritual is deployed in order to petition the hidden powers; this way we will
gain the outcome with which we know and love and feel safe – the outcome that
will not rock our boat and upset our order.
But we do not realise that our desires are unreasonable, and will
therefore ‘find no response’. If the
universe will not maintain the order easily and naturally, then we must do it
the hard way. We roll up our sleeves and
enforce order through fear and intimidation.
As every tyrant knows, this strategy works very well… up to a
point. Fear of pain and death is woven
into the fabric of the universe, a gravity-like constant imprinted in the hearts
of living beings. But as the history
books show, order is always restored by the virtuous ones. The wise beings secure in the immortality of
their inner self, who are not afraid to stand up to injustice because they are
not afraid of death.
Failing Tao, man resorts to Virtue.
Failing Virtue, man resorts to humanity.
Failing humanity, man resorts to morality.
Failing morality, man resorts to ceremony.
Now, ceremony is the merest husk of faith and loyalty;
It is the beginning of all confusion and disorder.
The sequence of events is spelled out here in a nice summary. As we start to develop ideas about the way
things should be, so we begin the spiralling descent into injustice. This is the paradox of morality. Our most heinous crimes are committed through
the attempt to preserve the ‘good’. The hard hearted are naively convinced of
their own righteousness, and cannot and dare not change course. Blatant evil is perpetrated with a desperate
clinging to a fading vision of good.
Let others go their own way. The
wise person stays close to the source of things. Small adjustments here and there, allow time
to grow and time to prune. Nothing will
get too far off centre.
As to foreknowledge, it is only the flower of Tao,
And the beginning of folly.
The term foreknowledge here is perhaps more mystical than it sounds and
refers to what we might call clairvoyance or soothsaying. Then, as now, clairvoyance is a rare but
undoubtedly valid experience and is granted to us a kind of gift from the Tao. A beautiful adornment of life that reminds us
that the world is more magical than we suppose.
Foreknowledge can sometimes provide us with the right answer, and inspire
a course of action that we couldn’t have made without superior guidance. Become dependent on it though, and we risk
falling into the same trap as those at the ceremony. There is nothing more injurious than the
belief that we are the special ones who can reliably know the Tao ahead of
time.
Nothing is fixed; events are probabilities only. There is always room for the miraculous intervention. Even our sacred visions are twice translated
interpretations.
Therefore, the full-grown man sets his heart upon the
substance rather than the husk;
Upon the fruit rather than the flower.
Truly, he prefers what is within to what is without.
If we describe our lives as blessed, and refer only to our material circumstances,
then we likely don’t understand what blessing is. There is an inner peace required before we
can enjoy a stable appreciation for our material goods. Ironically, if that inner peace is in place
then the bar of expectation gets set very low.
Our rusty old car will serve very well as a beautiful symbol of our
inner condition – it will be poignant in its beauty, as anything can be. Nothing is irredeemably ugly; all is ready
and waiting to be redeemed by the loving eye of the wise.
This chapter has been about those who desperately seem peace outwardly, in the form of political harmony. To be free from harassment is the only tranquillity some people can understand. But the Tao Te Ching tells us that the political peace we crave is only a symbol of true peace. Yet find what is within, and you will find it without as well.
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