Tao Te Ching, Ch 55

The Door of all Wonders: 

The Commentary on the Tao Te Ching

by Nirguna, Chor-kok Lam

 Chapter 55

One who possesses virtue in abundance is comparable to a newborn babe:

Poisonous insects will not bite it.

Ferocious beasts will not claw it.

Predatory birds will not swoop down on it.

Its bones are weak, and its sinews are supple, yet its fists hold firmly.

It does not know the union of male and female, yet its penis is erect.

This is because its virility is at its height.

It can cry all day, yet the voice does not become hoarse.

This is because its harmony is at its height.

To know harmony means to know the constant.

To know the constant is called enlightenment.

Excessive enjoyment is called to be ill-omened.

For the mind to boast on the breath is called aggressive.

A creature becomes strong and will soon grow old.

It is known as going against the Truth.

That which goes against the Truth will come to an early end.

 

 

Review

 

A person who is abiding in the Truth is like a newborn baby. How is a newborn baby? A newborn baby is in the beginning of its life. From the very beginning, the life force of the newborn baby is in its purity having no contact with the outside world. The newborn baby knows nothing, whether good or evil. It has no intention to do goodness or to do harm to anyone. It has no intention to please or displease anyone. It just holds its purity as the pure living force full of freshness and gentleness. Who can be a person abiding in the Truth? Lao Tzu says this person is like a newborn baby full of the virtue of the Truth in abundance:

 

“One who possesses virtue in abundance is comparable to a newborn babe:”

 

What is the virtue of the Truth? Lao Tzu tells us much in other Chapters. Here Lao Tzu tells us how the person who possesses virtue in abundance is comparable to a newborn baby:

 

“Poisonous insects will not bite it.

Ferocious beasts will not claw it.

Predatory birds will not swoop down on it.”

 

When the vital power of the Truth is prevalent in a person, that person is the embodiment of the Truth which is full of protection. Even poisonous insects like scorpions and spiders, ferocious beasts like tigers, lions and wolves, and predatory birds like eagles, vultures and condors, are all moved by the Truth turn into non-violence to that person, as the power of the Truth is harmlessness and full of benevolence. The Truth can only nourish and accomplish all beings. How can a mother kill her newborn baby? When the Truth is pervasive, even poisonous insects, ferocious beasts and predatory birds turn into their motherhood to have kindness to their newborn baby. It is how we can find cases that a newborn baby being left in the forest was nourished by the she-wolf and became a wolf with human body. The mother-wolf does not want to eat the human baby but nurtures the baby instead. What enforces the she-wolf to do so? It is the power of the Truth that the wild animals prefer to nourish rather than to kill and destroy.

 

Then Lao Tzu tells us how the vital force empowered in a newborn baby that we all can observe. There is no need to imagine in a mythical story because we all can see newborn babies in our actual life:

 

“Its bones are weak, and its sinews are supple, yet its fists hold firmly.”

 

The newborn baby is mild and gentle with vital force; hence its bones are weak and its sinews are supple for growing, not hard and dying. The baby’s fists hold firmly showing the vital energy is growing. This power is the purity of energy. It starts to grow and bloom.

 

“It does not know the union of male and female, yet its penis is erect.

This is because its virility is at its height.”

 

The newborn baby is full of living energy without greed and lust. Its sex organ is full of vital force, but it knows nothing about sexual gratification. It does not have any desire to pursue sexual pleasure. It is the purity of life only. A spiritually advanced person is the same who is full of vital force in gentleness but does not have any sexual desire because he or she sees everything in purity, therefore, to be a monk or nun is a natural process of a person in spiritual advancement. There is no need to restrict or to enforce by any doctrine. Naturally the person does not like the low-level sexual pleasure but prefer the high-level spiritual tranquility. Psychologists can tell us that the sexual desire is the primitive desire near animal instinct in our human being. When we return to our purity in the beginning of life, we do not have any need for sexual gratification. We become a newborn baby that we have something better and higher to experience.

 

“It can cry all day, yet the voice does not become hoarse.

This is because its harmony is at its height.”

 

The crying of a newborn baby is clear, not hoarse, unlike an old dying person. The voice of a person can tell us about his spiritual level. A person with spiritual attainment will have a clear voice with gentle speech. His voice is not hoarse like an unhealthy man. He or she can speak gently with clear sweet voice, no shouting and cursing all the time when speaking. From the voice, we can see a person is near life or death. A newborn baby is at the beginning of life full of purity. An old man is near death with destruction.

 

In the Gospel of Thomas, narrating the words of Prophet Jesus by his disciple, Thomas, which is the oldest script being discovered in Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945, Jesus tells us the same Truth:

 

“Jesus said, “The man old in days will not hesitate to ask an infant seven days old about the place of life, and he will live. For many who are first will become last, and they will become one and the same.”” (Verse 4)

 

“The disciples said to Jesus, “Tell us how our end will be.”

Jesus said, “Have you already discovered the beginning, so that now you look for the end? For where the beginning is, there will the end be. Blessed is he who will stand at the beginning, he will know the end and will not taste death.” (Verse 18)

 

Here “they will become one” in verse 4, the “one” means the Truth. What Jesus says is the same as Lao Tzu says, “One who possesses virtue in abundance is comparable to a newborn babe”. Then Lao Tzu tells us how we can attain our purity as in the beginning of life:

 

“To know harmony means to know the constant.

To know the constant is called enlightenment.”

 

The power of the Truth is harmony, which is always constant, not changing. Our world is ever changing from good to bad, from up to down, from fortune to misfortune. All the sensual objects are always changing, highly unstable and perishable. They cannot last long and forever. Only the Truth is unchanging, imperishable and immortal. The Truth is the harmony inside of us, not outside of us. The outside world does not have any stability; however, we can control ourselves inside of us with stability. This stability is the constant as said by Lao Tzu. If we can control ourselves keeping ourselves always in harmony, we are enlightened. We have the light to see the Truth and to live according to the Truth that is how Lao Tzu means “enlightenment”. Then Lao Tzu tells us more how we cannot attain the enlightenment. What is wrong with most people?

 

“Excessive enjoyment is called to be ill-omened.

For the mind to boast on the breath is called aggressive.

A creature becomes strong and will soon grow old.

It is known as going against the Truth.”

 

Most people are going against the Truth. They turn away from the stage of newborn baby heading for death. How are they approaching to death? Lao Tzu tells us the “excessive enjoyment” will bring us misfortune. Our body, mind and soul will go downward if we are craving for the enjoyment of eating, drinking, sleeping and entertaining all the time like an animal. A person living without enlightenment is very close to the animal stage. Such person can only feel satisfied and happy if he or she can have sensual enjoyment in full. However, the spiritual power will be neglected, and ill-omens will come. Our body will have a lot of diseases. Our mind will have imbalance. People will get aging very soon if they do not have spiritual growth inside of them. They look old, ugly and unkind which shows the ill-omens.

 

With excessive enjoyment, people will easily turn into aggression to pose strong outwardly to make the mind agitated to boast forcefully on the breath, which is harmful for the body and soul to be arrogant instead of being gentle. They roar and act like a tiger which consume their energy unnecessarily. To be always excited is harmful to health, while to be mild and gentle like deep sleep or meditation is beneficial to our health. The aging process will slow down if we can always keep ourselves in harmony. On the contrary, the aging process will be fast if people always consume their energy in excessive enjoyment and over-elated emotion losing the balance of life, therefore, Lao Tzu tells us to be always mild and gentle in our body and mind. To pose strong is harmful instead. The stronger the people turn to be, the faster in aging the people will have.

 

To be strong and stronger will turn us to the end of death, which is opposite to the Truth. The Truth is in the beginning, not the end. The end is the destruction, the death. So, we should return to our beginning, like the same as what Lao Tzu and Prophet Jesus say, thus Lao Tzu ends with the verse to warn us:

 

“That which goes against the Truth will come to an early end.”