Verse Twenty-One
What need have I to know of the origin of all things
There is no origin of all things except that which I perceive
What need have I of explanations of others
I know the truth of it all is simply the truth of it all
Without definition and without claim
It is elusive because it is without explanation
It changes images according to whim
Or it does not
Without thinking of perfection
I am that
~ Stephen Kaufman rendition~
Since the beginning of time, humankind has wanted to understand the origins of life in the hope of coming to understand its absolute meaning. However, try as we might, the vital information we have fervently striven for is far beyond our grasp. While the human brain is a marvelous contraption capable of immense calculations and storing massive amounts of information -- much of it trivial -- the totality of the universe is so broad and expansive that it simply swamps our limited capabilities.
Out of this void has sprung religion. Since we can't know that which genuinely is unknowable, we have created hundreds of little stories to explain the unexplainable. Each group believes that their set of myths and legends is superior to that of anyone else. In time, the fables lose their mythic qualities and adherents come to accept such as historical and metaphysical reality. This merely represents yet another example of confusing the moon for the varying fingers pointing at it.
The reason I chose Stephen Kaufman's rendition of Verse 21 is that it seeks to tease out this conundrum humanity continually places itself in -- our quest to understand what we can't understand and the utter futility of the quest in the first place. As Kaufman explains it,
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
Out of this void has sprung religion. Since we can't know that which genuinely is unknowable, we have created hundreds of little stories to explain the unexplainable. Each group believes that their set of myths and legends is superior to that of anyone else. In time, the fables lose their mythic qualities and adherents come to accept such as historical and metaphysical reality. This merely represents yet another example of confusing the moon for the varying fingers pointing at it.
The reason I chose Stephen Kaufman's rendition of Verse 21 is that it seeks to tease out this conundrum humanity continually places itself in -- our quest to understand what we can't understand and the utter futility of the quest in the first place. As Kaufman explains it,
Man lives in the world and is part of it. At the same time, he is not of it. He is the effect of Heaven's causation. Perhaps he is not. When a man seeks to determine his own destiny, he can only describe the universe according to his own personal needs. This is as it should be. When a man accepts the universe on those terms, he ceases needing explanations about anything. If anything is anything, then everything is everything. It is very simple.At the end of the day, all any of us know is that we're here -- present as a manifestation of something. Why does it or should it matter what that something is? To live one's life is the meaning of life and we can only know this by living it. Beyond this one elemental observation, everything else is pure conjecture and, maybe, delusion.
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
there is no 'origin' bacause creation does not exist, nor destruction. there is only a change and re-forming of what was already there to begin with. there is no 'old' and there is no 'new' (on a fundamental level)... everything is timeless and eternal. creation is simply the assembly of 'old' things to make a 'new' structure.
ReplyDeleteI think you summed it all up rather well!
ReplyDeleteNot my favorite translation --- I am always one who will seek to understand, and am not satisfied with not understanding. Yes, it is possible to tease out the origins of many things. It is also possible to know without being able to explain how we know. It's a duality, not an either/or. The Tao doesn't tell us not to understand, it gives us insights into how to look.
ReplyDeleteTao Te Ching: Chapter 21
translated by Frank J. MacHovec (1962)
The Teh follows Tao.
Tao is like a dream: invisible; intangible; obscure.
It is invisible yet there is form to it. It is intangible yet there is a feel to it.
It is obscure yet there is method to it.
The method is true and so there are signs of it.
From ancient times until now
the signs have never ceased by which we can see the beginning.
How can I know the nature of the beginning? By these signs!
Donna,
ReplyDeleteFor me, that's the beauty of the TTC. It can speak to different people in different ways or speak to each of us in a different ways at different times.