chapter 2

When all under Heaven know beauty as beauty,
already there is ugliness;
When everyone knows goodness,
this accounts for badness

Being and nonbeing give birth to each other,
Difficult and easy complete each other,
Long and short form each other,
High and low fulfill each other,
Tone and voice harmonize with each other,
Front and back follow each other -
it is ever thus.

For these reasons,
The sage
dwells in affairs of nonaction,
carries out a doctrine without words.
He lets the myriad creatures rise up
but does not instigate them;
He acts
but does not presume;
He completes his work
but does not dwell on it.

Now,
Simply because he does not dwell on them,
his accomplishments never leave him.

-Victor H. Mair translation

This is one of my favorite passages in the entire Lao Tze, but at first it was the one that challenged me the most.
What is put forward here is a view that there can be no beauty without ugliness, there can be no "good" without "evil", and so on. This can be easy to apprehend in some of the other examples - o.k., no high without low - i can see that - but the mind craves after the myth that there can some day be a type of happiness or goodness that will not be undercut by its opposite.

It is a sad fact that many humans in our culture strive after this myth - it may be through the use of drugs, relationships, food, or any other means. Without fail, though, they are dissapointed. Some religious figures go so far to say that this means that all "sensual" pleasures are "bad". Sadly, this usually leads them to seek a myth through religious pleasures of the mind or emotions - which are, in most cases, equally temporary.

The problem here is that to even form a concept of something "without opposite" is impossible. We can see this in the first word "without". When one uses a word like this, it means you are comparing something. So, we are saying "without opposite" and we immediately get a comparison of how that is different from "with opposites". Hmmm... how can we wrap our minds around something like this? A state of existence that is so without opposites that it even includes opposites?

Most of the chapters in the Dao De Ching eventually point back to the first chapter where it says that the "Dao which can be spoken of is not the Dao". This refers also to the speech which happens in ones mind - thoughts. If you can think it, you are making a comparison and now you've missed it.

Playing with games like this is to use the same method as the old Zen masters' use of the Koan. A Koan is a paradoxical riddle that cannot be sufficiently answered by logic. In some Buddhist traditions, the type of mental state that is produced by these practices is referred to as a "whirling drill of doubt" which is used to penetrate through the obstructions of the conditioned mind. The mind becomes kind of like a dog chasing its tail going round and round the question which cannot be answered through comparisons - until this whirling creates so much speed and friction that a breakthrough occurs. When mental obstructions are broken through - even for an instant - one finds herself in a world that is truly "without opposites", or without mentation based on comparison. This method is also known as "using poison to treat poison" - in other words, utilizing the mind to transcend the dysfunctions of the mind.

This brings us to an important idea. The idea of relative truth versus absolute truth. The reason that this idea is important is that it is all very well and good for us to say that beauty and ugliness are the same thing and there's really no good or bad in the world - but this does not actually apply to our real lives that we can see in front of us.

In some of the old Buddhist traditions, it was forbidden for a higher level practitioner to explain this above notion of the emptiness of independant existence to one who was not ready for it. This is because when one is not ready to realize how everything is connected, it is possible that they will lose all moral conscience all together. It is also a common occurance that individuals who truly begin to integrate this knowledge will go through a type of depression and spiritual death as the concepts that they previously built their world upon collapse.

The idea of relative versus absolute truth is of the utmost importance because the two - like everything else - are mutually dependant. The absolute depends on the relative, and vice versa.

So, what does this mean? It means that while we can be aware of the fact that beauty and ugliness don't really exist, and neither do good or bad for that matter - they certainly appear to. Even though there is nothing intrinsically "bad" about hitting yourself in the head with the hammer, it still hurts. So, it has become very important for spiritual seekers of all eras to explore ways of conducting their lives which are supportive of creating relative happiness.

The only difference here is that for a spiritual person who has understood this absolute truth we have explored above, they don't depend upon external gratification for their happiness. Lao Tze puts this forth in a paradoxical and (I think) humorous way.

"The Sage dwells in affairs of nonaction"

The Sage, our example of an integrated and awakened being, is not said to be sitting on a mountain somewhere "doing nothing" - but rather dwelling in affiars. What type of affiars though? This is the distinction. The sage dwells in affairs of non-action.

To me, this paradoxical statement means that while the Sage is acting within the world, she is not becoming lost in the world. In practical terms this means that one simply recognizes that nothing in this world can create lasting happiness. Everthing is conditioned by its opposite. Knowing this, a person can relax.

Realizing that the world cannot offer you anything that is truly independant, truly just itself, by itself, without opposite actually allows a being to let go of a great deal of striving. Letting go in this way lets one settle into this present moment and when one does, one realizes that there is a type of happiness that cannot be undone. It is because this is a happiness that is not dependant upon conditions. We might also do well to call this state "peace", or any word that implies to you a state that is available in any moment.

"he lets the myriad creatures rise up, but does not instigate them"

This word that is translated here as "instigate" can also mean "hinder", "interrupt", or "refuse". This implies that the Sage does not reject the world, nor does she actually try to do anything with the world, but merely allows it to be the way it is.

"he acts, but does not presume"

The sage may create, but she does not try to take any posession of her creation. Living in this way, there is nothing that can ever be taken from her, or removed from her. Living in this way, the Sage aligns herself as creation itself. Many beings only engage in activities for the result of those activites. The sage engages in activites solely to act.

These sentiments are summed up in the last line

"Simply because he does not dwell on them, his accomplishments never leave him."

Non-dwelling means non-conceptualizing, or not creating a fixed sense of identity. If you try to build yourself a house out of all your achievements, you will be left exposed to the elements when those achievements pass away. If, though, you can make your abode in this very moment of Reality, this is the ultimate achievement. This sense of dwelling in the perfection of existence - regardless of external conditions - can never be taken away. It is the one achievement that offers true and permanent peace.