Daodejing, Verse 68

Daodejing - Other Voices

Taoist views of war
Taoism (pronounced "dow"-ism...as in the chemical company), is based on the concept of the Tao, or the path--the journey. Of course, the Tao is more encompassing than these words can convey. The Tao is the oneness of all reality, the origin and nature of the universe. The Tao Te Ching was written about 2,600 years ago, presumbale by Lao Tzu. It consists of only 5,000 Chinese characters and 81 verses.

The Tao Te Ching has several verses that address the nature of conflict between peoples and nations. Below are a couple of these passages from the modern interpretation by Ralph Alan Dale:

Verse 68
The best soldier fights
without vengeance,
without anger
and without hate.

He puts himself humbly
below his comrades,
thereby eliciting
the highest loyalty from them.

This is the power of non-belligerence
and cooperation.
It is the ancient path to the Great Integrity [Tao].

Verse 69
There is a saying among those wise in military affairs:
"We do not act as hosts taking initiative,
but would rather be the guest assuming the defensive posture.
Rather than advancing one inch,
we would rather retreat one foot."

This is called advancing without moving,
rolling up one's sleeves without baring one's arms,
fighting without weapons,
capturing the enemy without attacking.

There is no greater disaster
than boasting of one's invincilbility.
Such boasts lead to the loss of the Three Treasures.
[note: the Three Treasures, from Verse 67, are love, moderation, and humility]
Therefore, when two opposing sides meet in battle,
the one without an enemy
will be victorious.

As someone who served in the U.S. Navy for twenty years, I find these words to be sage advice. I contrast them to what I consider to be the dangerous doctrine of pre-emptive warfare as being carried out in Iraq and detailed in the current U.S. National Security Strategy, which says, "To forestall or prevent such hostile acts by our adversaries, the United States will, if necessary, act preemptively in exercising our inherent right of self-defense."

I wonder how many of our military and political leaders have read the Tao Te Ching? I know many of them have read The Art of War by Sun Tzu , but they don't seem to have heeded its ancient wisdom either.

Sun Tzu believed that a strong military was an important tool in human relations, but that the conduct of warfare was an absolute last resort. Its consequences so potentially harmful that it had to be understood completely and practiced flawlessly when required. He began his treatise with an explanation that the most fundamental element of warfare was moral influence, as translated in English. The original Chinese uses Tao, to expain moral influence, that which causes us to be in harmony with one another, as Su Tzu explains.

The most famous excerpt from The Art of War can inform us today in our American culture war of red and blue, conservative and liberal, republican and democrat, pro-life and pro-choice, sin and salvation. He says, "Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never peril. When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril."

This is basically the golden rule in a different context. We can expand this beyond the adversarial nature of winning and losing into the creative and interdependent nature of human conduct. Love your neighbor as yourself, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, treat others as you wish to be treated. Know others and yourself, and you will always succeed. Know yourself and be ignorant of others and you have a 50/50 chance of success. Ignorant of others and yourself, and you will always fail. I would add that we have to know each other. Morality is about relationship and interchange and creating the best possible life for the most people even in a universe where justice is elusive. Something we seem to know, but aren't very good at implementing. We don't really understand what is of value to us because we are too busy squaring off against one another based on our own self-righteousness.

If religious liberals are to have a greater voice in the public square, we will have to set aside our victim cry, our love of self, the sanctity of individual belief, and fear of the other. We must come together in all of our diversity, stronger than any self-proclaimed moral majority, engaged in the sacred practice of loving kindness and moral action based on mutual understanding and interdependence with each other and all that exists.
~ from Keep the Faith, author Matt Tittle, original post date: 1/5/07 ~

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