Tao Te Ching, Ch 5

 The Door of all Wonders: 

The Commentary on the Tao Te Ching

by Nirguna CK Lam

Chapter Five

The Heaven and the Earth are ruthless.

They regard all creatures as straw dogs.

The sages are ruthless.

They regard people as straw dogs.

The space between the Heaven and the Earth, is not like a bellow?

Empty, and yet never exhausted.

The more it moves, the more air will come out.

Too many words hasten failure.

Better hold fast to the emptiness.

Review

    Everyone has the basic desire for love. In Hinduism, the desire for fulfillment of love is one of the aims in life. It is the most basic aim, to have love, i.e, “kama” in Sanskrit. This basic human desire for love, “kama” is described as “Mamata”, in Sanskrit, which means love with differentiation of relations, for example, fathers, mothers with their children, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, teachers and students, relatives, neighbours, kinship and race and so on. All these different relations induce different concerns and loving kindness. We love our closest relations the most, treat them the best and concern them the most, while we can only show slight concern to people whose relation is not close to us. We should not do the opposite way showing greatest care and concern to the people we do not know while simply cold-blooded to the family members. It is  righteous to be the kindest to your close relation and the degree of kindness is descending when dealing with other relations far off from us. It is called “Dharma” in Sanskrit, which means the rule of the right conduct. It is the same as the teaching of Confucianism, which has become the main school of thought in Chinese history.

    The love with attachment and differentiation is called “mamata” in Hindus philosophy. However, the highest aim of human is to attain Moksha, i.e., liberation of life. The love that a liberated soul has is the love without attachment and differentiation but with sameness and equanimity, i.e., “Samata” in Sanskrit. “Sama” means sameness or equanimity. The person who has attained the highest spirituality will have the love equal to all mankind, just like the sun shines for all, the rain falls for all without discriminating whom they are. The nature is dispassionate when bestowing goodness to people, and at the same time, it is also dispassionate when doing harm to destroy the earth as a cycle of rejuvenation. In this way, Lao Tzu says:

 

“The Heaven and the Earth are ruthless.

They regard all creatures as straw dogs.”

 

The Heaven and the Earth are the nature which benefits creatures or destroys them without special favour or hatred. It is the nature of the Heaven and the Earth to act, which cannot be interfered with any special motives. Saints are also the same. They act according to their pure nature to people around them. They will not harm, but they also will not show any special favour or hatred to anyone. They are fair to all people as they deserved to have without any attachment to them, thus Lao Tzu says:

 

“The sages are ruthless.

They regard people as straw dogs.”

 

    The love of the sages is “Samata”, not “Mamata”. In Islam, Allah is the most compassionate, with the name “Ar-Rahman” which means “Generally Merciful” and with the name “Ar-Rahim” which means “Especially Merciful”. For the name, Ar-Rahman, Generally Merciful, it means Allah bestows mercy to all beings no matter what they do, or who they are. They need not do anything, though Allah has given them mercy already, like good people and bad people both can have sunshine, air, water and food provided by Allah. Allah does not discriminate this mercy to all of us. This mercy is “Samata”.

    Allah’’s love is liberated, never bound but He will show special love and care to those who do especially well in life as a reward to the righteous people. This love is “Especially Merciful”. The love of Allah is completely different from any kind of human love. Allah’s love is never attached to anyone by different sex, class, caste, race or any background. The reward for good deeds and the punishment for bad deeds are the same and equal to everyone. This love is called “ruthless” by Lao Tzu which actually means non-attachment, no differentiation and no discrimination for all people.

    All creatures are like “straw dogs” as depicted. “Straw dogs” are dogs knitted by straw for sacrifice in some rituals in ancient China. After the rite is done, the straw dogs will be burned into ashes as the final procedure. All creatures are like straw dogs as our life is a kind of sacrifice for our Lord. This concept of life being a sacrifice for the Almighty is largely explained in the Upanishad-s. As our life is a sacrifice, we as the creatures become like straw dogs being burned after rituals, the same as our physical bodies are perishable, which will die one day when our life is finished. In this way, our material body is a straw dog for sacrifice. It cannot be immortal. The immortality lies in the soul, not the physical body. That is why ancient scriptures tell us the immortality of life is beyond this mortal world. Our spirit is eternal aiming for the Truth to attain Moksha in Hinduism, Nirvana in Buddhism, or the life of the Hereafter in Islam. Our body will perish. The whole world will perish. All will return to Allah who controls all creatures.

    Allah is called “Brahman” in the Upanisad-s which means the Supreme Lordship in all beings, as nothingness or non-being, the origin of all creatures. The nothingness is like the space, being empty. What the Upanisad-s say about “Brahman” is like the space the same as depicted by Lao Tzu. Therefore, Lao Tzu says:

“The space between the Heaven and the Earth, is not like a bellow?”

    A bellow is like an empty box for generating wind for burning fire. The straw dogs will be burned with fire. Our physical body acts with energy burning inside us all the time. The whole world is the same as our individual body like a bellow having space for the wind to blow and start functioning. The blowing of wind relies on the emptiness itself, i.e. the Truth (Tao) which starts working. That work will never end because Tao is eternal, never be exhausted. That is why Lao Tzu says:

“Empty, and yet never exhausted.

The more it moves, the more air will come out.”

    The air is the eternal energy given by the Lord (Tao). How can it be never exhausted? It is because it always keeps silent. Being silence is the eternal energy never exhausted. That is why we all need contemplation, being silent in ourselves as a must for spiritual life. We cannot keep on talking, shouting or singing all the time. Being silent, we can recharge our energy like a battery. Our mind can be purified and settle down when at rest. A person always speak many words is far away from the Truth since the Truth makes people silent and peaceful. Then Lao Tzu tells us:

“Too many words hasten failure.

Better hold fast to the emptiness.”

    While we are doing or speaking, we should still keep our silence and peace. That is the realm of realizing the Truth in us, as we “hold fast to the emptiness.” Here Lao Tzu tells us how to be always with the Truth, how to realize the Truth in us to attain our spiritual life to have immortality:

“Better hold fast to the emptiness.”