The Door of all Wonders:
The Commentary on the Tao Te Ching
by Nirguna, Chor-kok Lam
Chapter 67
The whole world says that my Truth is vast and resembles nothing.
As it is vast, it resembles nothing.
If it resembles anything,
it would, long before now, have become small.
I have three treasures, which I hold and cherish.
The first is known as compassion.
The second is known as frugality.
The third is known as not daring to be ahead in the world.
Being compassionate, one could be courageous.
Being frugal, one could be generous to give widely.
Not daring to be ahead in the world,
one could be the lord over people.
Now to forsake compassion for courage,
to forsake frugality for expansion,
to forsake the rear for the lead,
is sure to end in death.
With compassion,
one will triumph in war and be impregnable in defense.
Whomever the Heaven is going to rescue,
it will protect them with compassion.
Review
Here the Tao Te Ching tells us that the Truth is very vast, so vast that nothing can resemble the Truth. Any object we can observe cannot be the same as the Truth. The size of the sun is very large for us but even the Truth is larger than the sun. In Islam, Muslims always praise Allah by saying “Allahu arkbar” which means “The One God is the greatest.” Allah is the greatest who creates everything while Allah Himself is not created by anything. Everything, whether big or small, comes from Allah only. Allah is self-sufficient and infinite without beginning and end; hence Allah tells people in the Quran that we should not identify Allah with any creatures, knowing that Allah is the Lord of all creatures, not any creatures themselves. The concept of Allah is so great and cannot be fully comprehended by human intelligence. This concept of the Lord of all creation is the same here in the Tao Te Ching:
“The
whole world says that my Truth is vast and resembles nothing.
As
it is vast, it resembles nothing.
If
it resembles anything,
it
would, long before now, have become small.”
The Truth, Tao, mentioned by Lao Tzu, is greater
than anything we can see, therefore, Lao Tzu can only use an analogy for us to
understand the Truth as the space pervading everywhere whether we can see or we
cannot see. The space is so vast in the universe which contains billions and
billions of stars and planets. Our universe seems unlimited for us; however,
even the universe is also the creation of Allah only. Allah has created seven
universes. Each universe is greater than the presiding one. Prophet Muhammad
tells us that all these seven universes, comparing with Allah, are just like a
ring thrown into the Sahara Desert. Can people find a small ring in the vast Sahara
Desert?
After telling us the Truth, Lao Tzu tells
us the virtues which are the embodiment of the Truth. Lao Tzu tells us his three
treasures, i.e., the three great virtues he cherishes the most:
“I
have three treasures, which I hold and cherish.
The
first is known as compassion.
The
second is known as frugality.
The
third is known as not daring to be ahead in the world.”
“Not daring to be ahead in the world”
means to be humble. In the Tao Te Ching, there are many Chapters telling us to
be modest and simple in our living. Do not hanker for luxurious life. Do not be
extravagant. Do not be proud and arrogant to anyone. To be frugal and humble
are the virtues Lao Tzu always tells us. People who are rich and in high
positions will easily tend to be proud and arrogant which Lao Tzu warns us:
“To be arrogant when having wealth and
position,
it
will bring calamity upon oneself.”
(Chapter
9)
“Therefore,
the sage eliminates the extremes,
eliminates
the competitiveness, eliminates the arrogance.”
(Chapter
29)
Humility is the virtue Lao Tzu always
tells us. Frugality is also the virtue Lao Tzu reminds us of many times:
“Do
not treasure goods that are hard to obtain,
so
that people will not become thieves.”
(Chapter
3)
“Gold
and jade fill up the house,
none can keep them well.”
(Chapter
9)
“Goods
hard to obtain make one behave wrongly.
Hence
the sages are for the belly, not for the eyes.”
(Chapter
12)
Apart from humility and frugality, Lao Tzu
tells us one more virtue here, i.e. compassion. Although in the Tao Te Ching,
Lao Tzu seldom tells people to be compassionate as much as to be humble and
frugal, he always describes the Truth as the most compassionate to all beings,
like a mother nourishing her children, being beneficial to all creatures:
“The
Truth (Tao) gives all creatures life.
The
Virtue (Te) rears them.”
Thus, the Truth gives them life.
The Virtue rears them:
It brings
them up and nurses them;
It brings
them to fruition and maturity;
It feeds
them and shelters them.
It
gives them life yet claims no possession.
It
benefits them yet exacts no gratitude.
It
is the steward yet exercises no authority.
Such
is called the Highest Mysterious Virtue.”
(Chapter
51)
For Lao Tzu, the Truth (Tao) is compassionate
in the form of Virtue (Te) which rears all creatures without harming anyone or
demanding anything. In Islam, Allah has two names, Rahman and Rahim, both mean compassion.
Rahman means “Entirely Merciful”, which tells us the mercy of Allah is equally
given to all creatures. Rahim means “Especially Merciful”, which tells us the
mercy of Allah is especially more for those who trust Him and do good deeds.
Allah is merciful to all of us generally, but His mercy will be even more for
the good people. This concept of compassion is the same in the Tao Te Ching.
Those who abide in the Truth will be more benefited than those who do not abide
in the Truth. The Truth is always with good people:
“The Truth of Heaven shows no favouritism.
It is forever on the side of good people.”
(Chapter 79)
Then Lao Tzu explains how these three
great treasures give benefits to us:
“Being
compassionate, one could be courageous.
Being
frugal, one could be generous to give widely.
Not
daring to be ahead in the world,
one
could be the lord over people.”
First, with compassion, which means we
have love inside us, we can be courageous to people. A person who fears
everyone and everything cannot be courageous to people whether he knows or does
not know. A person without love cannot have the confidence to do even good
deeds to others. Conflicts within the mind will arise once he or she acts with
love to others. He or she will worry anything bad, even a tiny bad feeling may
happen, not only by doing bad deeds, but doing good deeds. Therefore, in a
society lack of mercy, love and compassion, people all become apathetic to all
people. No one cares anyone. No one helps anyone. No one shares anything good
to anyone. Our modern city life tends to develop in the way all people become
strangers living together even within a family. The main reason is the lack of
love.
To be apathetic
to people is not any spiritual attainment but an obstacle to the healthy mind
according to the Yoga Sutra. The Yoga Sutra advises people to purify the mind
in the following way:
“The mind is
made clear by meditation on friendliness towards the happy, compassion for the
suffering, goodwill towards the virtuous, and disinterest in the sinful.” (Yoga Sutra 1.33)
It is really
very valuable to read ancient scriptures to be rightly guided. Many people have
been misled to have no feeling to anyone as something great they can achieve in
spirituality. They have totally mistaken. Prophet Muhammad tells us that a
person who cannot cry with tears in whatever situations is a very serious
fallen soul controlled by satanic force. There are so many fallen souls in our
apathetic society, but people think that they are very strong and great.
People with strong hearts can feel the
emotion and need of other people naturally and act in accordance with our pure
good nature. We all want people to be kind to us. No one wants other people to
be rude and harsh to us. This is our pure nature telling us what is good and
what is bad. However, without a sound heart with compassion, we do not know how
we should be when dealing with people. To be courageous, first we must have a
loving sound heart. Then, we can get along with people well by mutual love.
This is natural. This is our pure nature telling us to do so. We will not love
someone who is very cruel to us. Our nature cannot be taught to love someone
bad and cruel, and hate someone good and kind, unless we are distorted by
falsehood and become a sick person mentally and spiritually.
Second, with frugality, we can live a
simple life without any need for over-spending on luxurious or unnecessary
items. What we need in our life may not be so much as nowadays many people
consume too much more than they need. For Lao Tzu, being frugal does not mean
that we should be mean to ourselves and to other people. He does not mean that
we should live in poverty. He tells us to live well enough and no more
extravagant life only. Lao Tzu tells us we should spend as needed rather than
accumulating wealth without proper spending on what we need. We should spend
our wealth beneficial to ourselves and to other people in need. Meanness, i.e.,
to be stingy, is nothing good in the Tao Te Ching:
“Thus,
excessive meanness is sure to lead to great expense.
Hoarding
too much is sure to end in immense loss.”
(Chapter
44)
What we should
do is as follows:
“Knowing
contentment, you will suffer no disgrace.
Knowing
when to stop, you will avoid danger.
You can
then endure.”
(Chapter
44)
So, by being frugal in our daily life, we
can have good saving for our future need. We can be generous to people without
over-spending if we have good surplus in our daily expense. Lao Tzu tells us
not to waste our resource, but we should use our wealth and resources properly.
We should accumulate our wealth by being frugal for actual need only, not for
extravagant living.
The third is “not daring to be ahead in the world”. As a ruler, he should be humble and concern the welfare of the public
rather than his own individual interest. What we all need is simple living,
then as a ruler, he should not think that he should live better than all people
and get more interest than all people can have. Only this kind of person, who
regards the interest of the whole ahead of himself, can be our lord to rule
over people. Lao Tzu never says anything about democracy. He has only mentioned
many times how a good ruler should be in the Tao Te Ching. If there is a very
good political system without good people, the system will turn into corruption
only. Lao Tzu tells us how we can behave well in accordance with the Truth,
rather than proclaiming any kind of political system like democracy as what we
have done now.
Then Lao Tzu tells us how people have
turned away from the ideal, how people forsake his three great treasures and
seek the outward benefits only:
“Now
to forsake compassion for courage, to forsake frugality for expansion,
to
forsake the rear for the lead, is sure to end in death.”
First, people do not cherish compassion
but want to be courageous only. Being courageous without compassion will lead
us to do anything good or bad. We will become arrogant to people easily if we
do not have compassion to consider the feeling and situation of other people.
It is very dangerous for an arrogant person full of confidence and courageous
to do anything he or she likes. Without compassion, people can harm other
people by being courageous.
Third, people do not cherish humility and
want to be ahead rather than in the rear. If most people want to lead ahead
rather than standing in the rear, then there will be a lot of competitions
among people. Lao Tzu tells us that a good ruler should stand at the back
rather than standing in the front to show his superiority. Being a leader
standing at the back is a sign of humility which he only wants to serve people
well rather than being served by all people. This ruler is a sage ideal for Lao
Tzu. However, in our history, most of the time ruling class has been well
served by the majority in resources rather than serving people with humility.
In the poor countries of our world, only the ruling class can live luxuriously
while most people still live in poverty. They have no idea to improve the life
of the general public.
To forsake the three great treasures,
people can only lead to death. This is a severe warning Lao Tzu told us more
than 2500 years ago. We human mostly have lost these three treasures. How can
we have remedy for our situation? Then Lao Tzu tells us that we all should pick
up the compassion first. Among these three treasures, compassion is the most
important that we should turn back first before we can have frugality and
humility. Without compassion, what is the need for frugality and humility? We
human all need to love and be loved. Without compassion, how can we do anything
good to ourselves and to others? We should follow the Truth, how the Truth
manifests its love to all beings by nourishing them and protecting them, thus
Lao Tzu tells us:
“With
compassion,
one
will triumph in war and be impregnable in defense.”
People who are abiding in the Truth are
always saved by the Truth, like in a war, with compassion, people can cooperate
to benefit each other mutually. The power of cooperation can be great that each
one can contribute for the whole sake. Mostly it is the corruption among people
that leads to the downfall of an empire in our history. If people can have
compassion by the Truth which is the greatest treasure among all treasures,
this compassion will turn into great power for salvation. The Truth will save
those who love the Truth:
“Whomever
the Heaven is going to rescue,
it
will protect them with compassion.”
沒有留言:
張貼留言