Tao Te Ching, Ch 65

The Door of all Wonders: 

The Commentary on the Tao Te Ching

by Nirguna, Chor-kok Lam 

Chapter 65

Those of ancient times who excelled in Truth

did not use it to make people smart,

 but to make them simple.

The reason why people are difficult to govern is that they are too clever.

Hence, to rule a nation by cleverness will be to the detriment of the nation,

Not to rule a nation by cleverness will be a boon to the nation.

Know these two are models.

Always to know the models is known as Mysterious Virtue.

The Mysterious Virtue is profound and far-reaching,

making things turn back to its Truth.

Only then is complete harmony realized.

Review

 

The Truth in the Tao Te Ching does not mean cleverness in worldly affairs. It means the purity inherent in every one of us before we are getting polluted by outward life through different interactions with people and surroundings. Our thoughts and deeds which seem smart and clever may turn us away from our pure nature which is truthful and simple. Truthfulness with simplicity is the pure nature inside us. To be truthful and simple, the Truth will naturally reveal to us without any need of outward teachings and studies.

 

Imagine how a baby can do any harm to people in our society. Inside us, if we can become as pure as a baby, we can be free from any evil deeds. A baby does not know what is good or bad. It does not know what is beautiful or ugly, but it will never do any harm to anyone. A baby of any kind is always lovely and never disgusting. Why? It is because it has the freshness close to the life not to the death. This simplicity is rare in our society when all the people become very smart and sophisticated. They have a lot of ideas plotting to implement. They need to tell people a lot what they should do and what they should not do.

 

Lao Tzu tells us that when the ancient Truth is lost, all kinds of very complicated moral teaching come out to fill our brain which make people more cunning and skillful to harm other people. The more sophisticated our society turns to be, the more chaotic situation will result. Unlike most people nowadays, the ancient sages do not tell people to be smart but to be simple:

 

“Those of ancient times who excelled in Truth

did not use it to make people smart, but to make them simple.”

 

The ancient Truth is used for making us simple, not smart and brilliant. People do not need to excel anyone, but to live harmoniously with each other. To live in harmony with each other, we do not need to have any competition to show that someone is better than others. What is the need to make some people very outstanding while some people are dull, lazy and stupid? How about making the environment where people are all good at working and simple with peace and harmony? When someone is uplifted to be very smart and successful while there are still many people in poverty or failure in any sense, what is the goodness of the society with a minority of outstanding class but many beggars and miserable people?

 

A smart person will only think how to make himself or herself smart and successful all the time. A not so smart person will admire the smart person and only want to be smart and clever. Being smart is the outward recognition not the internal spiritual attainment. Without truthfulness and simplicity, people can be very smart but will harm people for their benefits. A smart and clever person can cheat and harm another person in the way that the poor victim cannot do anything to defend himself because he cannot excel the smart and cunning person. Therefore, the pure nature of a person is much precious and beneficial to the whole world than the smartness and cunningness of any kind, thus Lao Tzu says:

 

“The reason why people are difficult to govern is that they are too clever.”

 

A clever person does not mean he can do goodness to other people. To be clever means to outwit and excel other people. If everyone wants to outwit other, how can they live in harmony without harming or downgrading other people? Our world tends to be undergoing the zero-sum game, not the win-win situation for mutual benefit. If the ruling class cannot uphold the Truth, people in our society will tend to harm each other in order to safeguard their selfish interest, thus Lao Tzu tells us the wisdom for ruling a country:

 

“Hence, to rule a nation by cleverness will be to the detriment of the nation.

Not to rule a nation by cleverness will be a boon to the nation.”

 

What the sage should do is to make people simple, not clever, which will be beneficial to all people in the society. To make people smart and clever, people tend to make argument of any kind. They will debate and argue all the time without getting any consent in any social affairs. People tend to discuss and quarrel all the time to reject any issue rather than getting any consent through cooperation. Our democratic society with modern education tends to develop our citizens to be smart and clever for debate and argument, not for mutual benefit.

 

More than 2500 years ago in ancient China, Lao Tzu warned us not to rule a nation by cleverness. It is the detriment of the nation rather than a boon which we can see how truthful the words of Lao Tzu in our contemporary democratic society where different political parties pose against each other through competitions, hence Lao Tzu tells us the Mysterious Virtue which people do not know and suffer in our society:

 

“Know these two are models.

Always to know the models is known as Mysterious Virtue.”

The two models of Mysterious Virtue are (1) to rule a nation by cleverness will be to the detriment of the nation; and (2) not to rule a nation by cleverness will be a boon to the nation. These two principles are mysterious because people hardly understand their benefits. They always think in the opposite way that we should rule our country with cleverness. They do not know people should rule the country with the Truth, not cleverness. People who do not know the Truth can never understand the benefit of not being clever but being simple and truthful. Our life will be simple and easy without any competitions among anyone. We are all winners if we can live with mutual love. There is no need for someone intentionally to sacrifice and serve others, but we all serve each other for mutual benefit. The Truth can make people harmonious together. It makes things from intrigues and complex into simple and truthful. When people all return to their simple nature, harmony is there. However, this Truth is very mysterious. We need to strive hard to attain our pure nature when everyone in our society has been taught to be impure.

 

Therefore, we all need to return, do not go any further away from our purity and simplicity, thus Lao Tzu ends with:

 

“The Mysterious Virtue is profound and far-reaching,

making things turn back to its Truth.

Only then is complete harmony realized.”