Tao Te Ching, Ch 1

 

The Door of all Wonders: 

The Commentary on the Tao Te Ching

by Nirguna Chor-kok Lam

Book I “Tao Ching” ( The Classic of the Truth)

(Chapter 1 to 37)

Chapter 1

The truth that can be spoken is not the Eternal Truth.

The name that can be named is not the Eternal Name.

The Non-being is called the beginning of the Heaven and the Earth.*

The Being is called the Mother of the whole creation.*

Be always in the stage of Non-being, 

so that we can observe its mystery.

Be always in the stage of Being, 

so that we can observe its manifestations.

These two stages come from the Truth but differ in name.

They are both called the Mystery.

Mystery of Mysteries,

the Door of all Wonders.

*Another translation:  

"The nameless is the origin of the Heavens and the Earth.

The named is the mother of all creatures."

Review

    

The Tao Te Ching traditionally is composed of two parts. The first part is the Tao Ching which focuses on the elaboration of Tao from Chapter 1 to Chapter 37. Each Chapter normally is short and clear with few words but conveying far reaching ideas about the infinite, the Truth. The first Chapter of the Tao Ching starts telling the mystery of our whole creation, the origin of the whole universe. It starts with the verses:

 

“The truth that can be spoken is not the Eternal Truth.

The name that can be named is not the Eternal Name.”

 

Lao Tzu tells us that the Truth, i.e., Tao which cannot be spoken, cannot be expressed and explained well but we need to realize and experience this unspoken Truth inside our heart and mind. As the Truth is infinite, how can people tell the infinite in limited words and expressions? Lao Tzu honestly tells us that he can only try his best to tell the Truth as what the Truth is, therefore, in Chapter 25, concerning Tao, Lao Tzu speaks again:

“There is a thing plainly formed, born before the Heaven and the Earth.

So silent, without form, it stands alone and does not change.

It goes round and does not cease.

It can be the mother of the Heaven and the Earth.

I do not know its name.

I call it the “Truth”.

Unable to describe, I style it “Great”.”

(Chapter 25)

 

Coming back to Chapter 1, Lao Tzu continues with the verses:

 

“The Non-being is called the beginning of the Heaven and the Earth.

The Being is called the mother of the whole creation.”

 

Concerning about the origin of the universe, the Sankhya philosophy [1] of Hinduism used a lot of expressions to explain the ideas and knowledge, while in the Tao Te Ching, only few words are given, but both the Sankhya philosophy and the Tao Te Ching tell the same, without the second. The difference between Hinduism and Buddhism can be coarsely said that they stress on the opposite side of a piece of paper, the Hinduism on the front side and the Buddhism on the back side. The front side tells the solid, the substantial that is “Sat” in Sanskrit meaning the existence of beings, while turning another side of the same paper which tells us the emptiness, nothingness as the origin of the whole universe.

 

In the Sankhya philosophy, the Lord of the whole creation is called Brahman (or Parabrahman) which is the pure consciousness or the highest intelligence without any forms. From Brahman starts the Basic Maya. Maya, in Sanskrit, means ignorance. All the creation of names and forms are ignorance only, because all the names and forms of creation are temporary, incomplete and limited which will be destroyed in the ordained time. Only Brahman is the eternal, unchangeable and never be destroyed. Brahman stands for the “Non-being” while the Basic Maya stands for the “Beings”, the same as the terms used in the Tao Te Ching. With another more straightforward translation of the Tao Te Ching, “Being” is “Something” while “Non-being” is “Nothing”. Lao Tzu tells us that Something, i.e., Being, comes from Nothing, i.e., Non-being which is the same as the relation of Brahman and Basic Maya in Hinduism.

 

Lao Tzu says that Non-being is the beginning and origin of the Heaven and the Earth, i.e. the whole creation, and the Being is the mother of the whole creation. In another expression, the “nothingness”, the Non-being used by Lao Tzu is the Higher Brahman (ie. the formless) stated in the Upanishads [2], the ancient Hindus scriptures, while its manifestations of different names, shapes and forms is called “Lower Brahman” in the Upanishads which is the “Being”, or “Something”, the mother of the whole creation. In the Te Ching, Chapter 40, Lao Tzu says the same idea more clearly:

 

“All creatures in the world are born from Something,

and Something from Nothing.”

(Chapter 40)

 

Therefore, Tao, i.e. the Truth said by Lao Tzu is the Brahman in Hinduism, the Non-being is called the Higher Brahman, while the Being is called the Lower Brahman. It is the Universal Truth of different religions and cultures with different names and expressions only. In Islam, Allah is the only One, the Single, the Lord of all creation, the same as referring to Brahman and Tao. In Chinese culture, Allah is Tao (the Truth) described by Lao Tzu, and the Divine Intelligence (the Heavenly Will) depicted by Mo Tzu [3]. Brahman is the Primordial One, without the second in the Upanishads which is the same in Islam that Allah is the only One, without the second, the third or the fourth. The ancient sacred knowledge in Hinduism, the Tao Te Ching and the revelation of the Quran points to the same Truth only.

 

Then Lao Tzu tells us about the relation between “Being” and “Non-being”, how we can understand and experience the Truth by knowing both “Being” and “Non-being”:

 

“Be always in the stage of Non-being, so that we can observe its mystery.

Be always in the stage of Being, so that we can observe its manifestations.”

 

How clear and precise Lao Tzu tells us this Great Truth by only a few words, while all the scriptures in Hinduism and Buddhism elaborating it with hundreds of thousands of words! When we are meditating in the stage of Non-being, we see nothing and we become the emptiness also. This is the most mysterious stage that we can experience beyond all words and ideas. Therefore, Lao Tzu says, “we can observe its mystery.” That is beyond all words and expressions. Then, when we are meditating in the stage of “Being”, we can see all the different forms and names that are the myriad creatures. We can see different manifestations of the Eternal Non-being. Then we can observe the Greatness of this Eternal Truth with countless forms and shapes.

 

Lao Tzu in the opening of the Opening Chapter says,

 

“The truth that can be spoken is not the Eternal Truth.

The name that can be named is not the Eternal Name.”

 

Religions and philosophies in different cultures in different times can only tell the infinite in limited ways which are not the Eternal Truth and the Eternal Name since all are only the limited manifestations of the infinite, but both the infinite and its limited manifestations are called “the mystery, the mysteries of mysteries”. They are the “Door of all Wonders”. The Tao Te Ching tells us this “Door of all Wonders” with the Opening Chapter onwards:

 

“These two stages come from the Truth but differ in name.

They are both called the Mystery.

Mystery of Mysteries,

the Door of all Wonders.”

 

          There is a poem composed by Guru Nanak (1469-1539) in the Siri Guru Granth Sahib which can give a good response to the Tao Te Ching here:

 

“What should I say, or speak or describe?

Only You Yourself know, O Lord of the Total Wonder.

Nanak takes the Support of the Door of the One God.

There, at the True Door, the Gurmukhs sustain themselves.”

(By Guru Nanak in SGGS, p.355) [4]

Note:

 

[1] Sankhya philosophy is one of the six schools of philosophical teaching in India from ancient times onwards.

 

[2] The Upanishads are the last component of the Veda, the oldest and most sacred literature in ancient India. There are totally 108 books of Upanishads, most of them were formed in the later period of 15^th and 16^th century, while there are 13 books of the earliest formation more than 2500 years ago. The word, Upanishad, in Sanskrit, means the mystery of secret knowledge.

 

[3] Mo Tzu was the philosopher, socialist, politician, scientist and military strategist in ancient China. He was the founder of Mohist school (Mohism, a school of thought in the spring and autumn and warring states periods, 770 BC-221 BC). His life was not much known by the historians.

 

[4] The era of the ten Gurus of Sikhism spans from the birth of the first Guru, Nanak Dev in 1469, through the 10^th Guru, the life of Guru Gobind Singh(1666-1708). At the time of Guru Gobind Singh’s death in 1708, he passed the title of Guru to the Sikh scripture, Siri Guru Granth Sahib. The Granth was written in Gurumukhi script, and it contains the actual words and verses as uttered by the Sikh Gurus. It is considered the Supreme Spiritual Authority and Head of the Sikh religion, rather than any living person. Gurumukhi is the official script of the Punjabi language invented by the second Sikh Guru, Guru Angad (1504-1552).

 The word, “Gurmukhs”, means the people who attain liberation, the highest in spirituality, by the teaching of the Guru of the Truth, not by their own ego.