Tao Te Ching Ch 12

The Door of all Wonders: 

The Commentary on the Tao Te Ching

by Nirguna C.K. Lam 

Chapter 12

The five colours make one’s eyes blind;

The five sounds make one’s ears deaf;

The five tastes injure one’s mouth;

Riding and hunting make one wild in the heart.

Goods hard to obtain make one behave wrongly.

Hence the sages are for the belly, not for the eyes.

They discard sensual pleasures but live simply.

Review

    Materialistic life full of desires for bodily pleasure is an obstacle to fulfillment of spiritual life. People can only see the material world by craving for the sensual enjoyment without seeing the spiritual world behind. They think that the material world is the reality and nothing more. They cannot see the Truth which is non-material like a big bellow, i.e. the emptiness, said in the previous Chapter:

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

Empty, and yet never exhausted.”

(Chapter 5)

    Our spiritual life is to attain the union with the Truth, so we need to be always aware of the Truth which cannot be seen, heard, smelt or touched. The Truth is not a material. It is the One. We should always be aware of the Oneness inside us that is what the Tao Te Ching in Chapter 10 tells us:

“To hold the soul for embracing Oneness,

can you be steadfast without straying?”

(Chapter 10)

    Our soul needs to be always keeping the Oneness inside us and should not get lost in wandering and hankering for the outside world. Therefore,  in this Chapter, we are told to restrain our sensual organs because too many bodily sensual enjoyments will spoil our eyes, ears, tongue and even the heart.

“The five colours make one’s eyes blind.”

    “The five colours” in Chinese mean green, red, yellow, white and black which generally refer to too many colourful visual objects before us.

“The five sounds make one’s ears deaf.”

    “The five sounds” means different melodies of sounds which are used for composing music. Too many sounds, whether good or bad, will distract or even disturb our mind through the ears being damaged or getting spoilt.

“The five tastes injure one’s mouth.”

    “The five tastes” means sweet, sour, bitter, spicy and salt which generally refer to the food with too many tastes mixed together in order to get more enjoyment in eating.

“Riding and hunting make one wild in the heart.”

    Entertainment like riding and hunting will spoil our heart because too much bodily and emotional happiness will turn us mad and wild in our heart. We cannot control our heart if it is restless like a wild horse, which is opposite to the spiritual discipline for controlling our sense organs.

“Goods hard to obtain make one behave wrongly.”

    When the material world is so pleasurable, we will indulge in it more and more; then we can only cherish what we obtain materially. We would like to possess beautiful and luxurious items to satisfy our desires for enjoying in this material world. To possess belongings more than our real needs in the worst sense that people would try any means to obtain them, so their behavior can be deviated to rob, to steal or to earn money by all means even illegally to harm our body and mind in order to maintain a good material life.

    Our eyes, ears and mouth can let us enjoy the world by looking at beautiful objects, listening to nice music and eating delicious food. However, Lao Tzu warns us not to indulge in this outside world too much because gradually our eyes, ears and tongue will get damaged which cannot see the subtlety in our inner world. Outside world is not so important comparing with our inner world which is purely spiritual. This inner world is the heart which is the upmost important. When we put our attention always outwardly in the material objects and enjoyments, our heart will follow outwardly and our mind will also follow outwardly. We lose ourselves inside us.

    We do not know what is the most valuable inside us. We think we will become nothing good if we do not have any colourful, beautiful and exciting worldly enjoyments. This is the delusion of the outside world most people do not know. They do not know the Truth which is the most precious inside and outside of us. Worldly enjoyments and attainments cannot make us know the Truth.  The Truth is emptiness, only when we return to simplicity of life, we can return to our pure nature which is nothing but the Truth only, purely spiritual, non-material.

    Hence, Lao Tzu tells us to have a simple life to feed ourselves strong and healthy. It is very enough. Do not hanker for the sensual pleasures over the limits of our real needs. Our belly needs to be fed to keep alive but our eyes, i.e. all the sense organs should not be spoilt by over-feeding, as said by Lao Tzu in the end:

“Hence the sages are for the belly, not for the eyes.

They discard sensual pleasures but live simply.”

    Why do the sages live simple? This is the only way to realize the Truth, the pure nature inside us. This is the most precious inside us which we should not lose and should attain instead. Too complicated time consuming worldly life cannot let us be silent inside our heart and find out the Truth in it. Therefore, Lao Tzu tells us two important ways for attaining spiritual merits, the virtues.

    One is to live with simplicity. The other is to contemplate inside us to keep the silence and peace, do not hanker for the outside world more than necessary. Do not forget the inward attainment of the Truth.