老子 為每個人
學生，學者
和尋求者
彼得·吉爾博伊（Peter Gilboy）博士
Tao
the Way
5號線天門啟闔能為雌乎
第6行明白四達能毋以以乎乎
7號線生之畜之生而弗有
8號線長而弗宰也是胃玄德
第10課
老子
問我們
6個問題
Lao Tzu opens this lesson with another head-scratcher. He tells us,
The highest 德 power
is not powerful.
Lao Tzu is not trying to be contradictory here. He is encouraging us to stop and really pay attention, because what he is about to say about the 上 德 highest power is at odds with our conventional notion of 德 power.
The 上 德 highest Power is the 德 Power of the Way. This is not a personal power. Nor is it "power" in the usual sense of the word, in which an external cause results in a certain effect. Our day is filled with such cause-effect relationships, as a wind topples trees, gasoline powers an engine, or even when we press a letter on our keyboard and a corresponding letter appears on our screen
But the 德 Power of the Way is not external to ourselves and things. It is an inner power which operates as each person and as thing. Here there is no sequence--first "this" then "that." Cause and effect are One. This is what Lao Tzu told us in Lesson 1, where, after making the conceptual distinction between the Way as 始 originator of all, and the Way as 萬 物 our manifested world, he then says:
These “two” are
actually the Same.
They come forth to us
with different names,
but they are the same Way.
Put differently, there are not tow here. The Power of the Way operates as each person and thing. This is the core message of each of Lao Tzu's lessons-- that the Way is the hidden producer of "all that is," and at the same instant it is "all that is." They are nondual, or "not-two." That's what Lao Tzu means when he tells us, in Lesson 21,
The vast power
of the Way
appears to us in its
many forms,
and each is in accord
with the Way alone.
This "not-twoness" is one reason Lao Tzu so frequently compares the Way to a 谷 "valley." The space above the valley is empty, or not-a-thing. And yet it is this same not-a-thing which provides contour to the land. We must ask then, is the valley-shape formed by the land below? Or is the valley-shape formed by the emptiness above? Or are they one?
Click on each line number
for Chinese-English interlinear
& commentary
The highest Power
is not powerful.
That's because it
is powerful.
Inferior power
never surrenders
its power.
That's because it
has no power at all.
The highest Power
does nothing at all,
in that it wants
nothing for itself.
The highest Kindness too
does nothing at all,
it that it
wants nothing for itself.
When our highest
sense of 'right' acts,
it is because we want
something for ourselves.
When our highest norms
tell us how to conform,
and some don't play along,
then sleeves are rolled up to
enforces these standards.
This is what happens
when we
surrender the Way.
When we surrender
the Way, we are left with
our own personal power.
When we surrender
even our personal power,
it is then we must
try to be kind.
When we surrender
our efforts to be kind,
we make up our own
sense of right.
When we surrender our own
sense of right,
we must trust in the
social norms of our time.
Now, as to
our social norms,
they are rooted in our everyday
assumptions and beliefs;
and so begins
our confusions.
Our social norms tell us
beforehand how we must act;
this is the mere flower
of the Way
and so begins
our foolishness.
And so, a great person
dwells on what is real,
and not on
what is unreal.
A great person
dwells on the fruit of the Way
and not its mere flower.
In doing so, he or she
lets go of "that"
and takes up "this."
. . . . . .
Note: The standard editions of Lao Tzu’s writings begin with what we conventionally know as Lesson 1. But when the Ma Wang Tui manuscripts were unearthed from the tomb at Ma Wang Tui, lessons 38 through to 81 had been placed first. Some scholars believe that this is the correct ordering of the manuscript--Lessons 38 to 81, and then 1 to 37. Others consider the ordering of the Ma Wang Tui manuscripts as likely the result of a mix up on the part of the person placing the scrolls in the tomb.
To my mind, the correct ordering of the lessons is certainly of historical interest. But it does not help us understand Lao Tzu's teachings, and therefore it need not concern us here.