Verse 2: In Opposition

Verse Two

Under heaven all can see beauty as beauty only because there is ugliness.
All can know good as good only because there is evil.

Therefore having and not having arise together.
Difficult and easy compliment each other.
Long and short contrast each other;
High and low rest upon each other;
Voice and sound harmonize each other;
Front and back follow one another.

Therefore the sage goes about doing nothing, teaching no-talking.
The ten thousand things rise and fall without cease,
Creating, yet not possessing,
Working, yet not taking credit,
Work is done, then forgotten.
Therefore it lasts forever.

~ Gia-Fu Feng & Jane English translation ~

Verse two provides an introduction to two concepts that run throughout the Tao Te Ching and Taoist philosophy overall: yin and yang plus wu wei. The Taoist worldview is what it is because of these concepts.

The first of the two -- yin and yang -- represents the oppositional forces inherent in all things. It's not altogether different from Georg Hegel's formulation of the dialectic process which posits that for every thesis there is a reaction, it's antithesis, and these two forces negate each other individually to produce a new thesis in the form of a synthesis.

This ongoing process is captured in the yin yang symbol which adorns every post on this blog. It signifies that each force is always flowing into the other and that each force -- positive and negative -- encompasses a portion of the other. In essence, Taoism is about understanding the oppositional forces inherent in nature.

But this is an exercise fraught with danger as A Musing Taoist points out,

It's possible to take these verses to indicate an extreme form of relativism, but I see it more as recognizing the dependencies. You can't have an idea of difficult without having an idea of easy. If you know what high means, then not-high becomes low. But the labels are not the thing itself. Once something is labeled, it becomes difficult to lose the label and just see the thing. If you look at a car and think "car," are you really seeing the car, or are you seeing an idea of the car? You see that the car is silver, but are you experiencing the way the light shimmers at you so that you can see the silver? Words get in the way. They separate us from our experiences. They have their uses, of course, but sometimes we have to go beyond the words.

As the above comment points out, in order to think and converse about the world around us, we need to draw distinctions among the various things. If we did not draw these distinctions, language would be next too impossible. Yet, the distinctions themselves often take on a life of their own as the names and descriptions we give things become the things in our minds.

It is our attachment to these things in our mind that causes imbalance. As Rachael of the site Taoism for Teens explains it,

All of these comparisons cause unhappiness and unbalance with the Tao. The "Sage" knows that comparisons are only judgments that are relative to the situation and those who make them. That which is ugly to one person may seem beautiful to another.

The second concept introduced in this verse is wu wei which can be translated as doing without doing, doing without conscious thought or going with the flow. Another way to capture the essence of wu wei is to liken it to the athlete or artist who says that he/she was "in the zone". Such a person accomplishes their craft effortlessly without having consciously to think of the needed steps to hit a baseball or paint a picture. As the Nike ad says, Just Do It.

Diane Dreher writes,

As we follow the Tao, one lesson appears again and again, trust the process. We cannot change the cycles of life to suit ourselves, but we can learn to flow with them.

From my perspective, one of the elements that thwarts this flow time and again is our ego-driven need to be acknowledged or rewarded for whatever it is that we set out to accomplish. When we complete the work in a successful manner, we think of the finished result as ours, an appendage of ourselves. If we don't receive undying praise or recognition for our accomplishments, we become angry, hurt, and frustrated.

I have many faults and foibles, but seeking recognition generally is not one of them. For years I was involved with many progressive and leftist organizations as a behind-the-scenes administrative wonk. I performed the tasks that kept organizations running -- fundraising, accounting, database management, public relations, etc.

In my mind's eye, success was measured by not being noticed at all. If things ran smoothly to the point that no one realized that a specific someone was responsible for doing the needed work, then I was pleased as punch.

From time to time, however, generally at public events, someone on an organization's board would decide that I needed to be recognized for my accomplishments. If provided with advance notice, I would argue against it and, if not provided notice, I tried to make sure I was somewhere else. Why should I be singled out for credit for doing what I was supposed to do? Besides, I didn't do what was needed for me, but for the group. That the group was successful in its endeavor is all that matters.

This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.