Chapter 8

Thoughts and Applications on the Tao Te Jing through the lens of Master Zhu's Teachings.

The highest virtue is like water

The virtue of water is

To benefit all beings without strife

It settles in places man despises

Therefore it stands close to Tao

The virtue of dwelling is place

The virtue of thinking is depth

The virtue of giving is love

The virtue of speaking is truth

The virtue of ruling is order

The virtue of work is competence

The virtue of moving is timing

A Sage asserts himself like water

Therefore he is free from blame

The first time I saw the ocean I was in my 30’s. The lapping of the waves on the shore was what I loved the most. The endless rhythmic pattern, the water reaching out then retreating. I think back on this experience, and I associate that pattern with the absence and presence of the Wuji- Taiji – Yin/Yang pattern. The vast formlessness of the ocean, our lives the waves lapping on the shore. Little bits of form expanding and retreating back into vast formlessness. This pattern is not just our lives, it’s our understanding and our experiences wrapped within the soft waves of experience.

This chapter we’re seeing a concept that seems new, virtue. What is virtue? A quality or behavior that shows a high moral standard. How does this apply to water? The lapping waves on the shore shape and erode the land creating the beaches and ripples in the sand. It’s this tugging back towards the vastness that sifts the individual grains of sand, small rocks and other debris that change and reveals the form of the land and beaches. I think virtues are like these small bits (ideas) or gems that emerge and show themselves from the erosion from the waves of our internal worlds. Virtues are the gems of our internal worlds that create our moral standards.

Does virtue exist in the world? Or is it a way of understanding the relationship between our experience and our minds? Gold panners or miners that are searching for gems in the rivers or buried within the earth first find a location (place) that looks rewording. As they dig and sift when they find the gem or gold, as it emerges they brush the mud or dirt away revealing the fullness. Then they clean or wash it and hold it up into the light for a better view. We do this same thing with virtues. We find them and dig them up and examine them and look for them in our lives and world. I think the moral view is a Modern Western view of virtue.

What about this chapter and the Taoist view? Let’s look at this list:

The virtue of dwelling is place

This passage I think of the poetic nature of Chinese art, a thatch hut by the mountain river with summer insects rising into the sun. I also think of Feng Shui literally translates as Wind and Water, it’s a study of place and how energy flows through the space. It’s an understanding of balance. It’s the finely curated art collection and its presentation in a gallery or museum. The balance of ideas, concept, and emotion.

The virtue of thinking is depth

What happens when we peer into a muddy pool, everything becomes murky and opaque. I think the nature of trauma and belief have the same effect on our lives. They both change the trajectory of our human experiences. I also think they both muddy the waters of our thought where we end up with a skewed view of reality that lacks clarity. If we return to the idea of a gem being pulled from the earth, it’s the removing of the debris to see the essence clearly. In our internal worlds I think of this process as the removing of beliefs and traumas, really anything that skews our views, the rose colored lenses to use an analogy. It’s the clarity that comes from stillness that gives thinking it’s depth.

The virtue of giving is love

I see this as what we call unconditional love, a love based in selflessness. An interesting thought for me is the sacrifice of the self as the virtue of love. The leads me to the question is the self virtuous? From this perspective I would say no.

The virtue of speaking is truth

In the modern world the idea of truth isn’t always clear. The objective capital “T” truth that runs through western philosophy into religion and science has hampered our understanding. Here it is speaking your truth, your understanding, and your perceptions.

The virtue of ruling is order

How has the world changed in the last 4,000 to 5,000 years? Quite a bit! How long has the idea of a strong central government been around? A few hundred years I would guess. I think the idea came out of the English civil war in the mid 1600’s. The ideas of Thomas Hobbes in the “Leviathan” and John Locke in “Two Treatises of Government” have formed our ideas of modern government. Our modern understanding doesn’t have a “Ruler” as one who rules. I imagine China at this time as similar to the Western world in the age of the Monarchs. I see this as a loose society with mercantile economics and without a central controlling force.

This brings up an interesting question. What is the role of Government? What is the virtue of Government? In the modern USA it’s a tug of war between Freedom and Equality (which I think all modern political theory is based upon this Yin/Yang pair). I like this idea of the virtue of ruling being order, I like that we know which side of the road to drive on… The changes in society, the changing flow of ideas that shape our minds and the world from a Taoist perspective of change could be an entire book on it’s own. Right now we’re in a large titanic change between Neoliberal economic policies and a return to mercantilism of the 1800’s.

The virtue of work is competence

Here is another virtue that has gotten lost in the modern world. Our lives have been dissected and examined microscopically. The idea of work in the corporate environment has been distilled into an essence of production and framed by numbers. Our idea of work ties into the economy and our political discourse. What if we ask is our system “Working” I would say no, it lacks competence. This is a modern political perspective that seems relevant to me. Underlying this modern idea of work and production lies the idea of a system, we live in a systemized world. It’s a seeking of order within a sea of chaos. Every system faulters and fails.

The virtue of moving is timing

In a way every we encounter we have is a chance encounter. As we move through the world we can see timing in every instantaneous moment if we embrace chance instead of statistical curves. That’s one way to view this statement. In Taijiquan every movement is a balance of mind, energy (qi), and spirit (senses). It’s the timing of the Wuji - Taiji – Yin/Yang diagram we’re familiar with.

A Sage asserts himself like water

Therefore he is free from blame

Who are we? How do we define ourselves, I see a sage as formless like water. When he becomes formless it’s the virtue of himself that shines through, we call this our authentic self. He becomes like the gem pulled from the river or the earth. We create the form of who we think we are, disregarding the formlessness of who we were.

Every time I step outside I am a different being, with a different view, entering a world that has changed. When we understand this we enter into an understanding of balance and change. When we live a life of balance and selflessness we remain free from blame, we become walking virtues.