Understanding the Tao te Ching Chapter 25: The Greatness of All Things

25.

There is Being that is all-inclusive and that existed before Heaven and Earth. Calm, indeed, and incorporeal! It is alone and changeless!

Everywhere it functions unhindered. It thereby becomes the world's mother. I do not know its nature; if I try to characterize it, I will call it Dao.

If forced to give it a name, I will call it the Great. The Great is evasive, the evasive is the distant, the distant is ever coming near.

Tao is Great. So is Heaven great, and so is Earth and so also is the representative of Heaven and Earth.

Man is derived from nature, nature is derived from Heaven, Heaven is derived from Dao. Dao is self-derived.

Interpretation:

What existed the moment before the big bang?  It did not know time, it did not know space or movement.  Does that mean there was nothing there?  The Christians call the force from the time before time God.  The first stanzas of the Bible are very similar to the the first stanza here.

"1 In the Beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep."

The second stanza asserts that the Tao, being unlimited acts without limitation and is the source of all things.

In the third stanza, the author makes a strange statement.  They say, "The Great (tao) is evasive and distant, the distant is ever coming near."  Why do you think the author would describe the Tao as "distant" and "ever coming near" when they in the same chapter make the observation that all things are part of the Tao?

The final two stanzas assert a message that at first seems to disagree with the earlier statements about the ego.    Here the author says that all things are great and possessed of greatness by their nature.  They are all of the Dao and the Dao is great, therefor all of us are great also.  

Knowing that the author believe that serving the ego (asserting greatness) is contrary to the way, how are we to take this new message of greatness?  Can we have greatness without ego?  What does this greatness mean is a world where all things are also suffused with this greatness?  Does this message parallel Jesus' sermon on the mount?  Does it differ? 

Understanding the Tao te Ching Chapter 11: 無用

For this chapter we will use Susuki's translation:

11.

Thirty spokes unite in one nave and on that which is non-existent [on the hole in the nave] depends the wheel's utility. Clay is moulded into a vessel and on that which is non-existent [on its hollowness] depends the vessel's utility. By cutting out doors and windows we build a house and on that which is non-existent [on the empty space within] depends the house's utility.

Therefore, existence renders actual but non-existence renders useful.

Interpretation:

If ever the Tao te Ching was so simple that its meaning was overlooked, this chapter is it!   The very direct message here is that what exist and what does not exist combine to make usefulness.  A wrench needs a strong bar in order to be useful.  Equally, it needs the opening for the nut.  The engine of the car gives it drive, but without the void where the passengers sit, it is of no use as a transport.  

This message also conveys very subtly but usefully into the arena of the human mind.  How crowded with things, thoughts and ideas our minds are!  Can you see the value of empty spaces there.  A useful story is told of Emperor Hirohito.  As the ruler of war time Japan during World War II, Hirohito's day was busy from morning till night with meeting after meeting.  It is said that Hirohito and his entourage arrived one day to find they were at the wrong meeting.  There was only an empty room full of chairs.  Hirohito stepped into the room, paused, then turned to his companions and said, "We must have more meetings like this."

Can you find the place of useful emptiness in your mind?  What do you cultivate if you spend time there?