Tao Te Ching, Ch 78

The Door of all Wonders: 

The Commentary on the Tao Te Ching

by Nirguna, Chor-kok Lam 

Chapter 78

Nothing in the world is softer or weaker than water.

Yet nothing is better than water to overcome the hard and strong.

It is because nothing can replace water.

That the weak overcomes the strong, 

the soft overcomes the hard,

everyone in the world knows, 

yet no one can put into practice.

Therefore, the sage says,

“The one who takes on himself the humiliation of the state

is worthy of being the Ruler.

The one who takes on himself the calamity of the state

is worthy of being the King of the world.”

The truthful words seem to be opposite.

Review

   

In many Chapters of the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu always remains us that to be soft, mild and gentle is more powerful than to be hard and strong. This mild and gentle power can endure long, while the strong and hard power cannot last long, only bursting powerfully in limited and short duration, like the weather of typhoon and torrential rain:

 

“Thus, strong wind cannot last all morning.

Sudden downpour cannot last all day.

Who makes this so?

The Heaven and the Earth.

Even the Heaven and the Earth cannot be long-lasting.

How can human be?”

(Chapter 23)

 

Here in this Chapter, Lao Tzu keeps on telling us the power of being soft and weak, like water, which seems the softest and weakest, but its power can be unbelievable. In the Tao Te Ching, water is always used to resemble the Truth. The Heavenly Truth is as soft as water but very powerful, far more powerful than being hard and strong. Here Lao Tzu tells us once again:

 

“Nothing in the world is softer or weaker than water.

Yet nothing is better than water to overcome the hard and strong.”

 

Water is essential for all living creatures. Without water, no one can survive. We all need water to nourish our life. Water can overcome the hard and strong. Yet water is very soft and gentle. It is because no power is possible without water. How can a person act with strong and hard power if he does not have water? His life is endangered, how can he be strong? Thus, Lao Tzu tells us the reason why water, though seems to be soft and weak, can overcome the hard and strong:

 

“It is because nothing can replace water.”

 

Can people live without water? Can people find anything to replace water? The answer is “no” only. Then we can see how the soft and weak can be very powerful in the way if we know how to make use of it. The soft power is more enduring than the strong and threatening power. It makes people follow us without using arm force to kill and harm. We can see this Truth in our Chinese History. Those dynasties which used gentle power to rule the people could last longer than those dynasties which used harsh and oppressive power to rule the people. The harder the empire to rule the people, the rebellious force would be harder and harder.

 

This Truth seems very easy for people to understand. People will take off their clothes by themselves if they feel very hot in strong sunlight while they will keep their clothes tightly when facing strong wind. The strong wind cannot enforce people to take off their clothes by themselves while the sunlight can do it with ease. Though we all know this Truth, people can seldom practice it. We tend to use strong and hard power to command to make people submissive to us, thus Lao Tzu says:

 

“That the weak overcomes the strong, the soft overcomes the hard,

everyone in the world knows, yet no one can put into practice.”

 

Lao Tzu is a great philosopher who tells the world to use the soft and mild power rather than using the hard and strong power. He tells us to let people develop themselves in the healthy environment without being disturbed and harmed. However, many times in our human world, those who have power tend to be harsh to their people while those who do not have power tend to be weak and submissive. Both act without knowing the Truth. For Lao Tzu, there should not be anyone who is going to oppress and be oppressed. To oppress and to be oppressed are both opposite to the way the Truth acts.

 

It is why throughout the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu always tells the ruling class with power and wealth to be soft, mild, gentle and humble, rather than only telling the general public to be soft and weak. The more powerful you are, the more you should be humble, which is the advice Lao Tzu tells us all the time. We can set a model for people to follow the virtues of truthfulness and simplicity if we are on the top level of the society. Then our society will be in harmony. The strong will not oppress the weak while the weak can be well-cared to uplift themselves. It is the duty of the ruling class to use the mild and gentle power to look after their people rather than oppressing them for their own benefit, thus Lao Tzu says in the following:

 

“Therefore, the sage says,

“The one who takes on himself the humiliation of the state

 is worthy of being the Ruler.

 The one who takes on himself the calamity of the state

is worthy of being the King of the world.””

 

As the rulers and kings who have more power and resources than anyone, they should take their duty to be beneficial to their people, therefore, Lao Tzu says that they should take on the humiliation of the state and also the calamity of the state. They should act to solve this humiliation and calamity instead of doing nothing to enjoy with luxurious and comfortable life. The humiliation and calamity of their people is their own humiliation and calamity that they should try hard to tackle which is the real duty they should do well. Those rulers and kings who can work to be beneficial to their people, their countries can last long with peace and harmony because they have the Truth, acting with humanity.

 

However, in our actual world, people turn to the opposite way. Those rulers who have power and resources will keep their vested interest strong and neglect the hardship of the grass roots. They live in the five-star-hotels or even more luxurious palaces and castles while the poor people in their own country cannot live and eat well at the minimum level. They receive the tax from their people every year to accumulate their wealth while they do nothing to improve the basic need of their people. Ironically, we all think it should be alright as the noble class should be treated with all care while the low class should be neglected. We will bow down to the noble class who eat well and dress nicely while we should look down upon the poor people who can only beg. This is the picture I saw every time I was in India, the only underdeveloped country I visited the most. But I saw the same situation in African countries also by reading, how the rich people eat a meal in a restaurant cost far more than the amount of the whole-year salaries of poor people. Ironically, we human take this situation as normal, thus Lao Tzu says:

 

“The truthful words seem to be opposite.”

 

How can people appreciate what Lao Tzu tells us here if “the truthful words seem to be opposite”? Our rulers should enjoy the best while the grass roots can live without care. This is our perception. Would you think the rulers should be humble themselves to serve the public as all the time advocated in the Tao Te Ching? Prophet Muhammad is the sage that ruled his people with the virtues of the Tao Te Ching. Unlike other very well-known sages in different religions such as Jesus and Buddha, Prophet Muhammad did rule his people in the Arabic Peninsular dealing with both secular and religious affairs.

 

     Among all the messengers of Allah, Prophet Muhammad was the Last Prophet from Allah who gave us the Quran, the direct revelation from Allah. The life and teaching of Prophet Muhammad had been clearly recorded in detail, so that we can appreciate and learn from Prophet Muhammad as the clear and detailed guidance in our life. Prophet Muhammad was a perfect model for us to follow in various roles. He was not a monk, but he told us the truth by living his life not only by words more than a monk can do. He was a perfect father, son, husband, brother, relative, friend, master, spiritual teacher, social reformer, political leader, spiritual leader, devotee of Allah and ascetic. Prophet Muhammad could make himself as God for people to worship as he had attained much more favourable conditions to do that far more than Jesus and Buddha could have. No! Prophet Muhammad never allowed people to do that. His words and deeds were so truthful and great that He never intended to pretend to be greater than us, like some god or statue for people to worship only.

 

In the Quran, Allah says Prophet Muhammad has a sublime character, a great moral character:

 

“By the pen, and all that they write! By the grace of your Lord, you are not a mad man. Most surely, you will have a never-ending reward, for you are truly of a sublime character.” (Quran 68:1-4)

 

Truly, the more I know about Prophet Muhammad, the more love and respect I have to him. It is not only a personal point of view. Even scholars with conscientious studies, should regard Prophet Muhammad was the real saint who made contribution to mankind ranked the top among all the saints. One of them was the historian, Michael H. Hart, who ranked Prophet Muhammad as the number 1 among all the most influential persons in our world including all the religious founders and saints. In his book, “The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History”, he said,

 

“My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world’s most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular levels.” 

 

By different narrations of his companions during his lifetime, Prophet Muhammad was well-known as an honest, generous, humble and forgiving person. He lived in modesty without luxury. He cared his people much with great humanity. He respected women more than anyone in his own times even in the whole world that his companions might feel it was not their Arabic culture and tradition to treat women with care and dignity rather than the potential slaves of someone. However, how many people have really followed Prophet Muhammad even among the Muslim countries? In the Islamic history, we can find easily rulers with extreme luxurious living and cruelty of the Muslims to people including Muslim women. Most people follow their cruel and violent instincts taking any religious faith as rituals only. There are so many sages in different religions, but we can find all the crimes and cruelty in different religions even including Buddhism. In the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu knows it very well. He always expresses about his teaching that:

 

“Everyone in the world knows,

yet no one can put into practice.”

 

The reason behind is:

 

“The truthful words seem to be opposite.”