Understanding the Tao te Ching Chapter 21: Accepting the Unknowable

21.

All the innumerable forms of de [teh] correspond to the norm of Dao, but the nature of the Dao's activity is infinitely abstract and illusive. Illusive and obscure, indeed, but at its heart are forms and types. Vague and illusive, indeed, but at its heart is all being. Unfathomable and obscure, indeed, but at its heart is all spirit, and spirit is reality. At its heart is truth.

From of old its expression is unceasing, it has been present at all beginnings. How do I know that its nature is thus? By this same Dao.

Interpretation:

This chapter seems to make two statements.  One that the Tao can't be known and two that it is all present.

To understand these statements, perhaps it is useful to compare it to the Buddha's statement on interdependent origination.  The Buddha stated that no thing existed in and of itself.  You for example are composed of the food you eat, the water and thoughts that have been given to you by others.  Your physical form is chosen in part by the gravity of planet Earth.  You, says Buddha, are not so much a single thing as a junction point of an infinite number of other things.  When viewed this way, the origin of any object or person becomes impossible complex and confusing.  The sheer number of forces involved exceeds the human capacity for thought by a thousand fold.  And yet, these things, you and I, planets and stars do move in and out of existence in a endless cycles of boundless creativity.  What is this endless, seamless stream of existence called?  The author calls it Tao. 

Understanding the Tao te Ching Chapter 20: Accepting Life

We will use Legge's translation for this chapter:

20.

When we renounce learning we have no troubles. The (ready) 'yes,' and (flattering) 'yea;'-- Small is the difference they display.  But mark their issues, good and ill;  --What space the gulf between shall fill?

What all men fear is indeed to be feared; but how wide and without end is the range of questions (asking to be discussed)!

The multitude of men look satisfied and pleased; as if enjoying a full banquet, as if mounted on a tower in spring. I alone seem listless and still, my desires having as yet given no indication of their presence. I am like an infant which has not yet smiled. I look dejected and forlorn, as if I had no home to go to. The multitude of men all have enough and to spare. I alone seem to have lost everything. My mind is that of a stupid man; I am in a state of chaos.

Ordinary men look bright and intelligent, while I alone seem to be benighted. They look full of discrimination, while I alone am dull and confused. I seem to be carried about as on the sea, drifting as if I had nowhere to rest. All men have their spheres of action, while I alone seem dull and incapable, like a rude borderer. (Thus) I alone am different from other men, but I value the nursing-mother (the Dao).

Interpretation:

This is perhaps the most difficult to understand passage in the Tao te Ching.  The writing is so inconsistent with the writing in other parts of the book that many people have used this passage as the basis for arguing that more than one author wrote the Tao te Ching.  

Goddard clearly did not appreciate it's value.  Beginning with the third stanza, he stopped translating, writing this instead.  "

"(The balance of this sonnet is devoted to showing the difference between the careless state of the common people and his own vision of the Tao. It is one of the most pathetic expressions of human loneliness, from lack of appreciation, ever written. It is omitted here that it might serve for the closing sonnet and valedictory.)"

But is this chapter a "pathetic expression of human loneliness?'"   Regardless of whether or not this chapter was written by the same author, comparing it to earlier messages in the book, we may gain some insight into the author's intent.

Earlier the author has stated that the solution to peace and happiness is not to try to solve the problem of life but to accept life as it is.  In that context, perhaps the "learning" the author wants to avoid is the desire to "sort out" or "overcome" life.  Then the "yes" that is ready becomes the will to overcome and the "yea" that is flattering becomes kind hearted acceptance.  

There is an indication that this is the author's intent in the second stanza where he agrees that the things men fear are real and are dangerous but points out that there is no end to these troubles.

So, if you gave up trying to overcome life and simply said "yea" to it, how would you look to other people.  This is the bulk of the third and fourth stanza.

The chapter ends with a note that the author does not suffer as his imagined observers think he does because he is at one with the "nursing mother" or yin power of Tao.  Some authors have translated this line as receiving milk from the mother Tao.  Or put another way, the author does not participate in the toils of other men and so appears stupid to them but because he is in touch with the Tao, he still receives what he needs.

Understanding the Tao te Ching Chapter 19: Vanity

19.

Abandon the show of saintliness and relinquish excessive prudence, then people will benefit a hundredfold. Abandon ostentatious benevolence and conspicuous righteousness, then people will return to the primal virtues of filial piety and parental affection. Abandon cleverness and relinquish gains, then thieves and robbers will disappear.

Here are three fundamentals on which to depend, wherein culture is insufficient. Therefore let all men hold to that which is reliable, namely, recognize simplicity, cherish purity, reduce one's possessions, diminish one's desires.

Interpretation:

The main theme of this chapter has been explored before, namely that, since high and low, good and bad, create each other, the way to peace lie in avoiding both.  

The line "then people will benefit a hundredfold," makes it appear that this chapter is directed at a ruler or leader again.  The second stanza though lends itself easily to advice for daily living.  It observes that culture, cannot provide these answers, pointing out again that true peace it found within.

The three "fundamentals" referred to are generally considered to be, "abandon saintliness and excessive prudence,"   "abandon benevolence and conspicuous righteousness," and "abandon cleverness and gain."

It is interesting to note that the author qualifies his statements,  Why do you feel the says "excessive prudence" and "conspicuous righteousness" rather than just "prudence" and "righteousness?"