Tao Te Ching, Ch 81

The Door of all Wonders: 

The Commentary on the Tao Te Ching

by Nirguna Chor-kok Lam 

Chapter 81

Truthful words are not beautiful.

Beautiful words are not truthful.

Those who are good do not debate.

Those who debate are not good.

Those who know the Truth never show they have wide learning.

Those who show they have wide learning do not know the Truth.

The sages do not accumulate.

The more they assist others, the more they gain.

The more they give others, the more they possess.

The Truth of Heaven benefits and does not harm.

The Truth of sages assists and does not contend.

 

 

Review

 

This is the last Chapter of the Tao Te Ching. There are totally 81 Chapters in the Tao Te Ching. The Tao Te Ching is one of the earliest scriptures in China. The most ancient scripture in China is the Yi Ching. The word, Yi, in Chinese, means “changing” or “simple”. The Yi Ching is the most ancient Chinese scripture telling us the ever-changing and simple rules of our world, how we should react and behave in different situations of our life. The Yi Ching is a book for divinations. There are totally 64 hexagrams in the Yi Ching. The even number 8 times 8 is 64; therefore, there are 64 hexagrams in the Yi Ching. From number 8, we go higher to number 9. In the Yi Ching, number 9 means the highest stage we can attain, therefore, number 9 is the symbol for the greatest emperor. The Yi Ching tells us the rules and principles of this world with even number of divinations for the whole book. The Tao Te Ching tells us the Truth, the Eternal Truth, with the odd number 9 times 9, resulting in 81 Chapters. Therefore, the Tao Te Ching is the forwarding step. From the Yi Ching, knowing the basic rules of the world, we go to the Tao Te Ching, knowing the Eternal Truth which has created this world.

 

In the Tao Te Ching, the Truth is the One only, therefore, odd number is used to signify the Truth as there are 81 Chapters in the Tao Te Ching. In Islamic faith, Allah is also the One only. His name is “Ahad” in Arabic, the only One and indivisible One. There are totally 99 names of Allah mentioned in the Quran and conveyed by Prophet Muhammad. For the number 99 is also the odd number, where 100 minus 1, it equals 99. Prophet Muhammad tells us that the names of Allah should be in odd number because Allah is the One only, without the second or any pairs.

 

In the Quran, Allah tells us that He creates every being in pairs, with male and female (i.e., Yang and Yin in the Tao Te Ching) while He Himself is the single, neither male nor female. The Tao Te Ching tells us that the Truth, Tao, is the One only, while in the Quran, Allah also tells us that He is the One only. Both scriptures use the odd number to signify the Truth. In ancient Hindu scriptures, like the Upanishads and the Yoga Sutra, the highest stage of spirituality is alone-ness, being alone, without any companion, which also means the One only.

 

Here in this last Chapter, Lao Tzu tells us how the Truth is expressed for us. The first is as follows:

 

“Truthful words are not beautiful.

Beautiful words are not truthful.”

 

Beautiful words are the outward appearance only which cannot last long.  The ever-lasting Truth is the unspeakable, which is inward us, i.e., our actual spiritual stage inward us. The beautiful words are the flowers only, while the fruit is the Truth perceived inward us. We should take the fruit and discard the outward flowery embellishment. The Truth is simple and plain, without any coloring and decoration, as Lao Tzu tells us in the previous Chapter:

 

“The Truth (Tao) in its passage through the mouth is without flavor.

Look at it, it cannot be seen.

Listen to it, it cannot be heard.

Use it, it cannot be exhausted.”

(Chapter 35)

 

Truthful words can be very plain and simple, no need of any decoration and artificial manipulation; however, Lao Tzu does not totally reject beautiful words but he only stresses that truthful words are necessary we need to uphold. Only beautiful words without the Truth are harmful to people if people prefer falsehood more than the Truth, thus Lao Tzu says in another Chapter:

 

“Beautiful words when offered will win respect in return.

Beautiful deeds can upgrade a man above others.”

(Chapter 62)

 

Therefore, the best way to communicate with people is truthful and beautiful words, but if we can only use either one to communicate with people, we should use plain and simple words but truthful. Then Lao Tzu tells us the second way of expressing the Truth:

 

“Those who are good do not debate.

Those who debate are not good.”

 

As Lao Tzu tells us in the beginning of the Tao Te Ching, the Eternal Truth and the Eternal Name are unspeakable, then how can we know the Truth by debating? To debate on something is to clarify our understanding and eliminate falsehood, but it cannot help us to know the Truth. We should only debate a little bit, then stop debating anymore. The Truth is silent inward us, which we should keep our mind restful and do not react outwardly. Then the light of the Truth will shine forth gradually, therefore, all spiritual practices require us to meditate silently to keep our mind at rest. The more we keep on expressing and debating, the more we will go out from our inner light, and we will get lost with argumentative views and ideas, thus Lao Tzu advises us in the previous Chapter:

 

“Too many words hasten failure.

Better hold fast to the emptiness.”

(Chapter 5)

 

 

The Truth, like space, is emptiness. Only when we devoid of everything in us, we can see the Truth, the light inward us. Then Lao Tzu tells us the third:

 

“Those who know the Truth never show they have wide learning.

Those who show they have wide learning do not know the Truth.”

 

Throughout the whole Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu always tells us not to show off, not to act with pomp and show, not to care for the outward honor and fame, but only act with truthfulness and simplicity. We should resign our post if we have completed our task, never grasping the power and authority. How many rulers in the world can know this Truth and can put it in practice? If so, many wars, cruelties, calamities and conflicts can be avoided.

 

Those who really know the Truth will never show off their wide learning in whatever aspects because they know very well that all the wide learning is not the Truth. Those who think that all the wide learning is the Truth do not know the Truth, thus Lao Tzu tells us in the previous Chapter:

 

“A man who thinks he has foreknowledge is

the flowery embellishment of the Truth and the beginning of folly.”

(Chapter 38)

 

Lao Tzu also tells us that those who know that they do not know are closer to the Truth than those who do not know but think they know. Thus, Lao Tzu says in the previous Chapter:

 

“He who knows what he does not know is the highest.

What he does not know but thinks he knows is sick.”

(Chapter 71)

 

In the Upanishad, the most sacred Hindu scripture also tells us the same:

 

“To whomsoever it is not known, to him it is known.

To whomsoever it is known, he does not know.

It is not understood by those who understand it.

It is understood by those who do not understand it” (Kena Upanishad II.3)

 

Therefore, Lao Tzu tells us in the very beginning:

 

“The truth that can be spoken is not the Eternal Truth.

The name that can be named is not the Eternal Name.”

(Chapter 1)

 

“Mystery of the Mystery,

The Door of All Wonders”

(Chapter 1)

 

By some scholastic view of the revised version, this Chapter ends with three rules of expressing the Truth, however, the ancient editor of the general version suggested more to give a conclusion about the path of the Heavenly Truth and the sages who act with the Truth, which our review has mentioned in Chapter 77. Now we can go through this final conclusion, as the golden rules, once again, telling us how the Truth acts, how the sages act:

 

“The sages do not accumulate.

The more they assist others, the more they gain.

The more they give others, the more they possess.

The Truth of Heaven benefits and does not harm.

The Truth of sages assists and does not contend.”

 

This is the end of the Tao Te Ching. Here let us end with the following poem which seems dedicated to us:

 

“What should I say, or speak or describe?

Only You Yourself know, O Lord of the Total Wonder.

Nanak takes the Support of the Door of the One God.

There, at the True Door, the Gurmukhs sustain themselves.”

(By Guru Nanak in SGGS, 355) [1]

 

 

 

Note:

 [1] See note [4] in Chapter 1. Guru Nanak (1469-1539) was the First Guru  in Sikhi. The word, “Gurmukhs”, means the people who attain liberation, the highest in spirituality, by the teaching of the Guru of the Truth, not by their own ego.

 

 

 

The End of the Commentary on the Tao Te Ching

 

 

 

May the Lord, the Heavenly Truth,  bestow upon  us 

by reading this Commentary 

the virtues of  Truthfulness,

Simplicity and Compassion!

                                                                                    

 

 

 

OM, AMEEN