Tao Te Ching, Ch 34

The Door of all Wonders: 

The Commentary on the Tao Te Ching

by Nirguna, Chor-kok Lam

Chapter 34

The Great Truth is like a flood, flowing to the left as well as the right.

All creatures depend on it for life, yet it claims no authority to control them.

It accomplishes its task yet lays no claim for merit.

It nourishes all creatures 

yet lays no claim for being their master to control them.

Forever free of desire, it can be called small.

Yet as it lays no claim for being their master when all creatures turn to it,

it can be called great.

As it never attempts itself to be great, it succeeds in being great.

 

Review

 

In this Chapter, the Truth is depicted as the greatest and the smallest. As to be greatest, this Chapter starts with the verses:

 

“The Great Truth is like a flood, flowing to the left as well as the right.”

 

The Truth is great like a flood flowing water everywhere to the left and to the right. All creatures depend on water for survival. Without water, all creatures will die. Although the Truth as water is so great and important, it will never pose to control every creature outwardly. It means it will never claim its authority to all creatures. As water nourishes all creatures without words, the Truth prevails in all creatures silently also. Without careful contemplation, we will never be aware of the Truth which is nourishing us like in the form of water, air and space, thus Lao Tzu says:

 

“The Great Truth is like a flood, flowing to the left as well as the right.

All creatures depend on it for life, yet it claims no authority to control them.

It accomplishes its task yet lays no claim for merit.

It nourishes all creatures yet lays no claim for being their master to control them.

It can be called small.”

 

The Truth is small in the sense that it hides itself. No one can see the Truth by seeing, hearing, talking, smelling and touching. The Truth is so subtle and minute. It is even subtler than water, air and space. The Truth is also without desires. It has no desire to show off its authority though it is the Lord of all beings. The Truth has no desire to become great, thus Lao Tzu says:

“Forever free of desire, it can be called small.”

 

The Truth is independent. With desire, it becomes to depend on the one which is desirable. However, all creatures depend on the Truth while the Truth does not depend on them. In the Quran, Allah tells us that He is free of any desire. He is self-sufficient. All creatures depend on His nourishment while He does not depend on anyone. It is beneficial for all creatures to obey Him rather than for benefiting Himself. Allah does not increase or decrease anything of Him whether people worship Him or not, thus we are told in the Quran:

 

“O men! It is you who stand in need of God 

– God is self-sufficient and praiseworthy.” (Quran 35:15)

 

“In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Say, “He is God, the One, God, the Self-sufficient One.

He does not give birth, nor was He born, and there is nothing like Him.”

(Quran 112 Al-Ikhlas, Oneness)

 

To be great and to be small are the same for the Truth. They are one only because the Truth is one, without the second. The Truth is the Master of all, but it will never claim its authority over all creatures. It seems so small without any pomp and show that no one realizes its lordship. It is also the greatness of the Truth that it needs nothing even to claim its authority, thus Lao Tzu says:

 

“Yet as it lays no claim for being their master when all creatures turn to it,

it can be called great.”

 

In the Chandogya Upanishad, one of the earliest Upanishads, the Lordship of every creature is the Supreme Self inwardly and outwardly pervading all. It is also the greatest and the smallest close to what the Tao Te Ching says:

 

“This is my Self within the heart, smaller than a grain of rice, than a barley corn, than a mustard seed, than a grain of millet or than the kernel of a grain of millet.

This is my Self within the heart, greater than the earth, greater than the atmosphere, greater than the sky, greater than these worlds.”

(Chandogya Upanishad, III. 14. 3)

 

Here in this Chapter, Lao Tzu tells us the reason why the Truth succeeds in being great:

 

“As it never attempts itself to be great, it succeeds in being great.”

 

The whole teaching of the Tao Te Ching is to tell us to follow the Truth to be humble as the Truth itself. This is also one of the qualities of all saints in this world in different cultures and times. They are all humble to the Truth, never claim to be great. In the Quran, Allah tells us that He has sent messengers and scriptures to all nations by using their own languages to tell people the Truth. Prophet Muhammad tells us that there have been more than 120000 messengers of Allah conveying the Truth to their people. Therefore, we can find the virtues of all the saintly people are the same and the messages they convey are also the same. What we can find the Truth in the Tao Te Ching, is the same as what we can find the Truth in the Quran, the Bhagawa Gita and the Upanishads as I find in my studies. They all say the Truth is One and all-pervading. The virtues they are going to tell us are also the same. To be humble to the Truth, we will become great.