When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.
If the first chapter was about the indescribable, eternal ‘Tao’ (whatever that might be!), this chapter talks about human concepts, or ideas. Specifically, the fact that we usually understand things in terms of its opposite! Interesting, isn’t it? But is it saying that beauty and goodness are just made up by people? That sounds rather 20th-century to me, which makes me suspicious.
Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.
Ah! That makes more sense. It isn’t saying that these ideas are imaginary, but that they are dependent on each other. Go back and read the first bit again and see if you read it differently.
Ok, you say, big deal. So what?
Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Um… what? That must be the biggest logical jump I’ve ever seen! I can’t begin to explain it, but maybe it will make sense as we get deeper into the book.
How can anyone act without doing anything? How is it possible to teach without speaking? Keep asking yourself these questions as you are in the midst of your daily activities. Does it have any effect on you?
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn’t possess,
acts but doesn’t expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.
People often say that I am the kind of person who ‘goes with the flow’, but I know how wrong that is. I get frustrated when things don’t work out the way I expect them to. I am anxious that I’ve left something undone. I micromanage one thing, afraid that it’s not good enough, and meanwhile leave other things completely undone. Worst of all, my temper is rather short when Olivia, and even Melissa, aren’t acting the way I think they should be. I am embarrassed to admit these things. Am I completely incurable??
What if I could learn to be less anxious and more graceful? What if I could recognise ‘the flow’, in every situation, like the grain in a piece of wood, and work with it instead of against it? How would it change the way I write music? How would it change the way I bring up Olivia? Or is it all just nonsense? And what is this mysterious ‘flow’, anyway? (wink, wink!)
A few years ago I was at a Christian conference about spiritual growth, and something was said which will always stick with me: When sin entered the world, people lost their self-control, and started trying to control others. Wow. All of us expend so much energy trying to manipulate and control the people and events around us— and end up frustrated, sad, and angry. What if we exercised self-control instead, and didn’t force ourselves on anything (or anyone) else? Our actions might be almost… invisible. People might not even realise we were doing much at all. But wait, now I’m doing your homework!
