MEDITATIONS: TAO TE CHING CHAPTER Three

be wary of exalting the wise and sophisticated
for it becomes not unlike
pouring two liquids into a container meant for one

consider the relative wisdom of displaying treasures
that remain untouched in temporary keeping

authentic learning released through insight
nurtures the heart spirit
and does not disturb the balance

a sound leader helps the populace to be open minded and self aware

with open heart spirits
strong bodyminds
even temperaments and thought clarity

these people make their own choices
and can naturally resist those meddling fools who try to steal their ability
to respond

no force
no strain

natural action without deeds is the equilibrium of mankind

—LAO TZU, TAO TE CHING; AN AUTHENTIC TAOIST TRANSLATION. TRANSLATED BY JOHN BRIGHT-FEY

In Chapter Three, we are greeted with a warning and a juxtaposition. This first stanza could be read, “Do not conflate wisdom with sophistication!” It rings with echoes of humble Socrates and his questioning of the sophists. It suggests that wisdom, or perhaps the path to wisdom, is itself something simple or else it is something arrived at through living or thinking simply. Lao Tzu preferred the dao to the jian it seems—he favors Occam’s Razor—in two senses, for here, sophistication refers to two things: in the conventional sense, it is complexity and nuance; however, sophistication is also the trappings of status, power, wealth, and prestige. This leads use to the next stanza.

What is relative wisdom? Relative to what, exactly. One answer, it is wisdom relative to us versus to the universe, the objective, the Tao, the transcendent. Perhaps to a human being it seems wise to flaunt or find pride in aggrandizing symbols and accomplishments, as if a man has any right to them. He does not. As Epictetus might say, they belong to the gods. Wealth and power, even skill and knowledge are not thing a man possesses. He borrows them, is lent them from the world, and in time he must return them all, and not when he wants to but when universe calls them back, so fleeting are our worldly treasures. Even friends, family, our own lives are temporary—and always partly unearned, untouched. After all, one’s person is an amalgamation of many things, including one’s fortune of time and place. If one were born in some distant past or future, could he say he deserves more or less than what he receives just because things would be different some time else? What treasures does the world owe him which he has not created?

Relative to the Tao, the human will to revel in half-earned, finite, temporary things is foolishness. The man who does so may be sophisticated, but he is not wise. Exalt him not if it is wisdom which is sought; and if it be so, admire only him who is content with what he has created—that which he possesses, his character, knowledge of himself, his duties, powers, and limitations—all these things he accepts, and by accepting them, he nurtures and grows the best of himself. He is balanced on the narrow road, a bridge above the chaos, and by this he is known. Those who follow him find their spirits uplifted. They become stronger in body and mind, more of who they could be, who they should be, their potential selves. They bring their wills in line with the objective universe as-it-is rather than how they wish it to be, and by doing so they transform from camels into lions. They become that which they admired. They become leaders themselves, strong enough to be free from the meddling of externals that would make them into accomplices and moral slaves.

But power of will and self content are not sufficient. There is another transformation, that of the lion into the child—the archetype of Friedrich Nietzsche’s übermensch—he who creates, generates new value in the world , and does so with all the exuberance and joy of one at play. He engages with the world voluntarily, no matter his fate, with a love of life. No force, no strain. He defeats the Spirit of Gravity, that Demon of Revenge, with dancing and celebration—to him they are not deeds nor feats nor accomplishments nor obligations. They are merely his joyous purpose, natural to him and to the world.

Lao-tzu. “Chapter Three”. Tao Te Ching; An Authentic Taoist Translation, translated by John Bright-Fey, Sweetwater Press, 2014. p.11