Tao Te Ching Ch 40

The Door of all Wonders: 

The Commentary on the Tao Te Ching

by Nirguna, Chor-kok Lam 

Chapter 40

Turning back is how the Truth moves;

Weakness is the means the Truth employs.

All creatures in the world are born from Something.

Something comes from Nothing.

Review

“Turning back is how the Truth moves;”

    To strive hard for the Truth is to make effort to return to our original nature, i.e. purity, like pure water without coloring or being polluted. Hence, Lao Tzu says the movement of the Truth is “turning back”. It means to turn back to the beginning, once we were born as the new born baby. This beginning is our root, like a plant with strong root that can grow well. The root of every being, animated or non-animated is the Truth only. This root of nature can make us tranquil, peaceful and calm. This root is eternal and constant. It never changes, thus Lao Tzu says in Chapter 16:

“All creatures rise together.

And I watch their return.

The teeming creatures, each returns to its root.

Returning to its root is called tranquility.

This is what is meant by returning to one’s nature.

Returning to one’s nature is called constancy.”

(Chapter 16)

“Weakness is the means the Truth employs.”

    People who strive hard for the Truth must be humble and gentle in nature. They should not be arrogant nor having any pride to think that they are superior among other people. Lao Tzu tells us to be mild and gentle outwardly, not to show off ourselves as strong and brilliant because this pomp and show can never last long. Lao Tzu tells us:

“The soft and weak will overcome the hard and strong.”

(Chapter 36)

    When people are going to be the strongest, their end will come soon. Lao Tzu repeatedly tells us not to be proud and arrogant in many Chapters:

“Holding a cup and overfilling it,

 better to have stopped in time.

Pounding a blade and sharpening it, 

the sharpness cannot be kept for long.

Gold and jade fill up the house, 

none can keep them well.

To be arrogant when having wealth and position, 

it will bring calamity upon oneself.”

(Chapter 9)

“Those who hold fast to the Truth desire not to be full (proud).

As they are not full (proud), they can be worn and made anew.”

(Chapter 15)

    “To be full” means to be proud which will become an obstacle to us to improve ourselves into a better person.

“Bearing to be wronged, one can preserve oneself.

Bearing to be treated unjustly, 

one can uphold the justice.

A low-lying place can be filled full.

Things withering can be renewed.

To get little can be benefited.

To get a lot will be perplexed.

Therefore the sage embraces the Oneness of the Truth as the rule of the world.

He does not show himself, and so is manifested.

He does not consider himself right,

 and so is illustrious.

He does not brag, and so has merits.

He is not arrogant, so is lasting and progressing.

As he does not contend,

 on one in the world can contend with him.

What the ancients said, “bowed down then preserved” is not an empty saying.

Truly preserving oneself, 

one can return to the Truth.”

(Chapter 22)

    Lao Tzu tells us not to be strong by showing off. Outwardly we should always keep gentle and mild as a weak person, but inwardly we should be strong and firm to uphold the Truth not by showing off but be alert in ourselves. Therefore, people who abide in the Truth are gentle and mild outwardly but strong and firm inwardly. Then we can always put our attention inward to hold fast to the Truth. Therefore, we should be weak in order to turn back to ourselves instead of going out to show our strength to gain fame or recognition, thus Lao Tzu says in many Chapters:

“Know the masculine, but keep to the feminine, 

be a creek to the world.

Being the creek to the world, 

the constant virtue does not depart.

Return to be an infant.”

(Chapter 28)

    An infant looks weak but full of living force. It closely resembles our beginning of life.

“Therefore, the sage: eliminates the extremes,

eliminates the competitiveness,

 eliminate the arrogance.”

(Chapter 29)

“The fish cannot leave the deep.

The sharp instrument of the state cannot be shown to anyone.”

(Chapter 36)

“Hence, the superior must have the inferior as its root;

The high must have the low as its base.

Thus the lords and princes refer to themselves as

“solitary”, “desolate”, and “not good”.

This is taking the inferior as the root, is it not?

Hence seeking renown will have no renown.*

Do not wish to be precious like jade, 

but to be tough like stone.”

(Chapter 39)

(*Another translation: “Hence the Highest Renown is without renown.”)

    Here in this Chapter, the first two verses are the summary of the principle of practicing the Truth in life which is repeatedly illustrated in various Chapters:

“Turning back is how the Truth moves;

Weakness is the means the Truth employs.”

    Then the other two verses are also the summary of the principle of creation from non-being to beings, from nothing to something, which is firstly disclosed in the Opening Chapter:

“All creatures in the world are born from Something.

Something comes from Nothing.”

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

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

(Chapter 1)

    The Truth is emptiness, without anything. From emptiness, it creates everything. To be in the stage of emptiness, we are returning back to the Truth. Where are the sins and merits, if there is only emptiness? This stage is the real stage full of fullness which cannot be expressed. Lao Tzu tells us the summary of the Truth in this Chapter, full of infinite meaning in these four verses only:

“Turning back is how the Truth moves;

Weakness is the means the Truth employs.

All creatures in the world are born from Something.

Something comes from Nothing.”