Tao Te Ching, Ch 77

The Door of all Wonders: 

The Commentary on the Tao Te Ching

by Nirguna, Chor-kok Lam

 Chapter 77

Is not the Truth of Heaven like stretching a bow?

The high it presses down.

The low it lifts.

The excessive it takes from.

The deficient it gives to.

It is the Truth of Heaven to take from what has in excess

in order to make good for what is deficient.

The way of man is otherwise.

It takes from those who are lacking

in order to offer more to those who already have more than enough.

Who can take what he himself has in excess and offer this to the world?

Only those who abide in the Truth.

*Therefore, 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.*

Therefore, the sages act without conceit,

accomplish their tasks yet claim no credit.

They do not wish to show off their merits.

 

*Note: The 5 verses in italics are in Chapter 81 in the widely circulated general version of the Tao Te Ching, while commentators suggest those verses should be placed here in Chapter 77 as they are more related in meaning. Here in the review of this Chapter, these extra verses are included for explanation and appreciation in order to make the meaning of this Chapter more complete.

 

 

Review

 

Here in this Chapter, Lao Tzu tells us three paths, the path of Heavenly Truth, the path of human beings, and the path of the sages who are abiding in the Truth, the Heavenly Tao. First Lao Tzu tells us the path of Heavenly Truth:

 

“Is not the Truth of Heaven like stretching a bow?

The high it presses down.

The low it lifts.

The excessive it takes from.

The deficient it gives to.”

 

Here Lao Tzu uses a parable to tell us how the Truth of Heaven beneficial to all beings, like stretching a bow, by taking action to make all beings turn into their equilibrium to maintain balance among them. The Truth tells us to possess what we need but not to be excessive or to be deficient. Both the excessive and the deficient in possession of belongings will cause imbalance in us with the environment. This is how the Heavenly Truth will do:

 

“It is the Truth of Heaven to take from what has in excess

in order to make good for what is deficient.”

 

A harmonious society is a society with balance among all people based on righteousness and compassion, which is the Truth of Heaven, therefore, those who have excessive resources should provide their excessive to help those who are deficient. This is the basic principle for governing a country. Our modern affluent society can run well with good taxation and social welfare system which can help those in need to live well. They do not need to steal or rob to harm people when they can improve their livelihood by proper means.

 

The Tao Te Ching tells us those who follow the Truth in their life will be safe and good, while those who do not follow the Truth will be destroyed with calamities caused by their actions. However, our human society, many times, do not follow the Truth of Heaven but the rules made by selfish human beings, i.e., the path of human without abiding by the Truth as Lao Tzu says:

 

“The way of man is otherwise.

It takes from those who are lacking

in order to offer more to those who already have more than enough.”

 

We can see so many examples in our human society how the rich people accumulate their wealth to the large extent while there are many people living in poverty with low salary and hard work. Those who are rich are blind to those who are lacking. They just want to accumulate more and more wealth to ensure their comfortable and luxurious living. It should be the duty of the ruling class to re-distribute the social resources in the way that all people can have the sufficient provisions of living. Otherwise, the government will deem as unrighteous to let the poor and lower class continue to be poor and lower as a rigid boundary among people in the society.

 

However, this is the real picture in many backward countries with a lot of social problem like poverty, high crime rate and pollution. India is a horrible society in this way, how the low caste people are so poor and low while the rich and high caste people even think that they should keep looking down upon the low caste by separating them without any act to help uplift them with the principle of humanity of righteousness and compassion. I see in my experience how the low caste people even copy the high caste people to look down upon other people in the way exactly like a king and queen oppressing the poor grass roots. I see in my experience how the Indians act very nice and kind to the rich people but very rude and harsh to the poor people treating them as beggars and criminals while they are not begging anything or committing crimes. India is only an example. There are many places in our society acting like that. Many times, people tend to be very friendly and good to high class people to let them possess more and more resources in our society but neglect the low-class people. They do not want to uplift the low-class people by keeping them poor all the time. This is the way of man Lao Tzu tells us. Then Lao Tzu asks a question:

 

“Who can take what he himself has in excess and offer this to the world?”

 

Then Lao Tzu tells us the answer:

 

“Only those who abide in the Truth.”

 

The person who has the Truth is the sage called by Lao Tzu. The reason why the traditional commentators of the Tao Te Ching advise to place the following verses in this Chapter to make the elaboration more intact as the following verses tell us the third path, i.e., the path of the sage “who can take what he himself has in excess and offer this to the world”:

 

“Therefore, 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 Truth Lao Tzu tells us here. The Truth benefits people and does not harm people. Those who harm other will suffer the consequence. In the same way, those who benefit other will also have the good return. This is the law of karma, the cause and effect of our deeds. When we assist others, it turns into the cause like a seed sprouting in the future. So, the more we give, we will take them back in the future. That is the Truth: what we sow and what we heap. We do not know what the result of our present action will be, whether good or bad, only Allah knows the best, but we can know the Truth and act with the Truth. Whether good or bad, they are all temporary. So, we should act according to the Truth, not only considering for the interest and benefit behind. We will not commit crimes to harm people even there are a lot of benefits seen.

 

If we have the Heavenly Truth within us, we can act with it. We will not contend with anyone. We will not compare with anyone. There is no jealousy or envy for the sages who do not want to compare or contend with anyone. Jealousy is an evil instinct which makes people let down other people just because they see people are better than them in some ways. Our society becomes corrupted by selfishness and jealousy among people. When people know the Truth that the more they give, the more they will take back, they will not be selfish anymore. There is no need to act against each other in order to uplift someone and let down someone. We are the One Soul only. What we do, we will get back the consequence of our deeds without missing, as Lao Tzu tells us in the previous Chapter:

 

“The net of Heaven is cast wide.
Though it is loose, yet nothing ever slips through.”

(Chapter 73)

 

As the sages do not want to compare and contend with anyone, how can they have conceit? They embrace the One only. They do not see anyone higher or lower. They will not bow down to the high class and press down the low class. They do not want to show their merits even. They see the Truth only. They identify themselves with the Truth only, thus Lao Tzu ends with the verses telling us the path of the sages:

 

“Therefore, the sages act without conceit,

accomplish their tasks yet claim no credit.

They do not wish to show off their merits.”