In this particular day I shall discuss a verse from the "Tao Te Ching" or "The Classic of the Way and
its Virtue", namely verse 1, which is made by Lao Tzu. In A
Source Book In Chinese Philosophy , Wing Tsit Chan presents the verse:
“1. The Tao (the Way) that can be told of is not the eternal Tao;
The name that can be named
is not the eternal name.
The Nameless is the origin
of Heaven and Earth;
The Named is the mother of
all things.
Therefore let there always
be non-being so we may see their subtlety,
And let there always be
being so we may see their outcome.
The two are the same,
But after they are
produced, they have different names.
They both may be called
deep and profound (hsuan).
Deeper and more profound,
The door of all
subtleties!” 1
Firstly, let us discuss the subject of the verse. The main topic that the verse discusses about
is the Tao or the Way, which is the primary element in the teachings of Lao
Tzu. But before we go over the verse,
let us first clarify what is the Tao as depicted by Lao Tzu. The Tao
which Lao Tzu speaks of in his teachings is very different from the Confucian
concept of it. If in the Confucian
concept, the Tao is a moral
principle, to Lao Tzu it is the “One”, which cannot be named, cannot be
described, is spontaneous and is natural.
In other words, the Tao is the
natural course in things, the natural course of one’s action or any event.
Now that the concept of Tao
for Lao Tzu has been clarified, let us now go over the first four sentences in
the verse.
“The Tao (the Way) that can be told of is not the eternal Tao;
The name that can be named
is not the eternal name.
The Nameless is the origin
of Heaven and Earth;
The Named is the mother of
all things.”
In the first two lines of the verse, it can be seen as a concept of
the Tao which Lao Tzu gives, which is
the concept of “being” of the Tao. Being is understood as an existence, an
actuality. This existence or actuality, however,
cannot be described or named, as Lao Tzu states it. Going back to the concept of the Tao as the
“natural” course of actions, events, or things, it cannot be denied that the
“natural” quality in these cannot be put into words. When one sees a dog running after its tail,
one says it is “natural” for a dog to do that.
When one’s eyes tear up for having caught dirt inside of it, it is said
to be a “natural” response of the eye.
It is observed that all of these examples are actualities. It happens before our very eyes. We can testify its “being” there, yet when we
think about it, we cannot actually put into words that notion of “natural” in
the action of the dog or the eye. We
just simply cannot describe this phenomenon.
This is what Lao Tzu points as the concept of “being” of the Tao.
It is there, but it is unnamable.
Naming this “unnamable” would only cancel the sense of it being
“natural”. It cancels the “natural” idea
of it because it is not in its original sense anymore, which is being “unnamable”. It cancels the “natural” idea of it because
it is not being taken as it is. It is
not taken as it is because of the action of naming it. The Tao that can be told is not of the
eternal Tao; the name that can be named is not the eternal name, because when
one puts a “name”, a spoken description to an “unnamable”, he denies it of its
“natural” quality, which is free from imposition and influence thus does not
make it “eternal”.
The next two lines, which is “The Nameless is the origin of Heaven and
Earth; the Named is the mother of all things.” can be seen as another concept
of the Tao that Lao Tzu gives. This is the concept of “non-being”, or “wu”
as it is called. In this case, this
concept is applied on the important terms in these lines, which are “Nameless”
and “Named”. Putting this is a logical
sense in terms of the origin of the names in things around us, all of these
came so-called “names” came from “non-being”.
This means that it came from an unnamable origin. The names of Heaven and Earth came for
unnamable origins. Before heaven was named as “heaven” or earth was named
“earth”, one cannot actually point out a namable thing before the names of
these two. This is “wu”, or
“non-being”. This is the reason why the
Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth.
“Named”, on the other hand, is the “mother of all things” because it
holds the namable qualities, those qualities that one can put into words, of
all the objects, ideas, and living creatures present in this world. It is the “mother”, for it is the one who
gives “birth” to these namable qualities.
An example would be the umbrella term for things. It can be observed
that from this word branches a lot of subgroups related to it. An example of this is the umbrella term
Science. It has many subgroups which it
has given “birth” to, such as Natural Science, Physical Science, and many other
related terms. The “named” concept which
is “Science” became the “mother of all things” in the sense that it bought
forth many related things under its namable characteristics.
Now we continue to the last lines in the verse:
“Therefore let there always
be non-being so we may see their subtlety,
And let there always be
being so we may see their outcome.
The two are the same,
But after they are produced,
they have different names.
They both may be called
deep and profound (hsuan).
Deeper and more profound,
The door of all
subtleties!”
These last lines give the conclusion about the two concepts of being
and non-being, in the terms of the “Nameless” and the “Named”. These are important in understanding the Tao in relation to Lao Tzu’s conception
of it. The first line discusses the
notion of the Tao as being “Nameless” thus “non-being”. It is “Nameless” and “non-being” for the Tao is not a thing, it is a natural
law. It is a natural course in
things. It cannot be named, for “naming”
it would invalidate its essence of being “natural”. It is “non-being”, for it is not a
thing. The “Named”, on the other hand,
is the one which makes the individual see the “outcome” of nature. It makes the individual perceive and make
sense of the course of nature. It is
“being”, for it is a thing. It is a
“being” for it can be attributed to some namable characteristic.
What makes the concepts of being and non-being similar is that both of
them give a reality about life. The phrase “But after they are produced, they
have different names.” Only implies that it is in accordance to the action of
the individual in relation to his understanding about the Tao and the events, individuals, and things it governs that can
give different results that can either harm or help him in developing
tranquility within him. It is in this
sense that these concepts are deep and profound.
As a person and a student, this concept of Lao Tzu has a lot of
wisdom. The easier grasp of truth of something is upon his first sight of
it. One does not analyze things
immediately in order to know what is true. His first encounter of a thing is his taste
of it. When one sees a beggar along the
street, he sees him or her as a beggar and not as other else. Inside the classroom, everything that the
teacher and the student discussed with one another is natural and real. One does not need to walk his thought further
to see the truth of the immediate situation. Many
situations of misunderstanding and even factions in society are caused by
non-recognition of what is there. One’s
tendency is to look for something different from what is there. Thus, this results to dissatisfaction and
chaos. Understanding of things is simple. One
sees a thing, knows it, experiences it and lives it. This
attitude is avoidance of complication by simple acceptance of what is.
The concept of Tao made by
Lao Tzu is different from the morally-inclined idea of the Tao provided by
Confucius. This is depicted in his conception of “being”
and “non-being” in the terms of “Nameless” and “Named”, in relation to Tao and the things which it governs,
respectively. Lao Tzu wishes to give
the notion that Nature must be seen as what it is, and must be therefore
approached by the individual as what it is.
This means that the individual must go along with the situations or
events that he is currently experiencing in his life and he must not avoid
these situations. He must fully involve
himself in these no matter how worse or good the situation maybe. It is in this way that he will be able to
live accordingly with what is simple and natural. It is in this way that he will find his life
more tranquil and prosperous.
Source:
1.
Wing Tsit Chan, “The Natural Way of Lao Tzu”, (United States: Princeton
University Press, 1963), In In A
Source Book In Chinese Philosophy, 139.
No comments:
Post a Comment