Tao Articles
Tao Te Ching, Chapter III
Interpretation by Master Henry Chang
Translated by James Tu
Transcribed by Terri Ann Guingab
Chapter Three
Not exalting the gifted prevents quarreling.
Not collecting treasures prevents stealing.
Not seeing desirable things prevents
confusion of the heart.
The wise therefore rule by emptying hearts
and stuffing bellies, by weakening ambitions
And strengthening bones.
If men lack knowledge and desire, then clever
people will not try to interfere.
If nothing is done, then all will be well.
In the first three chapters of the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu tries to explain the concept of non-action. The second chapter is very conceptual, and this chapter is more concrete. He starts by saying "not exalting the gifted, so people will not quarrel. " To use an example to explain this, in modern democracy, we like to elect people with talent and capability. Therefore, everyone wants to be a sage so that they can be elected.
But in fact, the sages can only be used for their vocation. It is impossible to be a sage for an entire lifetime. A person might be somebody's sage for a period of time, but not forever. If we keep exalting sages, it might create problems. For example, the pressure to be a sage may lead people to be inauthentic.
The next sentence, “not collecting treasures prevents stealing” means that we should not exalt the value of any material item either. For example, everyone thinks that diamonds are a precious thing. Many people want diamonds, and if they cannot get them than they may steal from others in order to obtain them. They become thieves. So if you don’t exalt treasures, then nobody will desire them and stealing won’t occur.
In order to obtain diamonds, you might do something that goes against your conscience. When you aren’t acting out of your true nature, you’re in disorder. It’s unnatural for you to be in conflict with your own true nature.
"The wise, therefore, rule by emptying hearts and stuffing bellies. By weakening ambitions and strengthening bones. If men lack knowledge, then clever people will not try to interfere. If nothing is done, then all will be well."
So when a sage manages a country, he will empty people's hearts, stuff peoples’ bellies, weaken peoples’ ambitions, and strengthen peoples’ bones. In this verse, "heart" means soul and “belly” means body. The heart should be empty, but the belly should be stuffed. The heart and ambition reside in the spiritual realm. Meanwhile, everything on the physical realm- the belly, flesh, and bones- should be strengthened.
The reason for emptying the spiritual parts of ourselves and strengthening the physical parts is for their purposes. In our daily lives- in the world- we need to use our physical body to accomplish things. However, we need to empty our heart and weaken our ambitions. Because when your heart is empty and your ambition is weak, you start to connect with the whole.
In other words, emptying the heart and weakening ambition are methods. They are not ultimate Truth, they are just means. So, how can you do anything without a heart, or with a weak ambition? When you empty your heart, another heart will surface. That heart is the "heavenly heart" and that ambition is "heavenly ambition". In other words, you have merged with heaven into One. The Chinese call it “unification of heaven and humanity.”
When you have a strong body, you can take on very important missions. Like the Chienn Gua in I Ching, which is the first Gua (hexagram, or set of lines) in the I Ching. When the six
"If man lacks knowledge and desire..."
When a man lacks knowledge, he can distinguish what is precious from what is not, what is rare from what is not rare. Desire is pursuing things that you do not have. So, when people have no knowledge or desire they will not waste their spirit or energy.
When clever people interfere, they cheat people. So if people have no knowledge or desire, the clever people wouldn’t dare to cheat them. If, for example, an Emperor said the trees in southern part of the country were very valuable, then clever people would try to use that rarity to take advantage or cheat other people. The clever person will sell them as expensive as possible.
But when people have no knowledge and desire, those clever people cannot sell their things because other people don't want them (or don’t value its rarity). In other words, lack of knowledge and desire is a way for Emperors to protect their people. It helps people live according to their own true nature. Lao Tzu doesn’t want people with petty smarts to interfere in other people’s lives and gain profit from it.
Some people don't understand what Lao Tzu focuses on here. They may think that Lao Tzu, in telling people to “empty their hearts” and “weaken their ambition” is trying to turn people into fools. But Lao Tzu is actually trying to teach people how to protect themselves.
Do people still have knowledge and desire, if they lack knowledge and desire? If the Emperor didn't instill in them any particular knowledge or desire, then people will have their own natural knowledge and desire. They will know what they should know and desire what they should desire. Needs vary from person to person depending on their daily lives- for example, their jobs. It's not necessary for everyone to learn the same thing. With this foundation of understanding, the Emperor can then practice non-action, and everything is done well.
In our society today, many people have too much knowledge and desire. It is impossible to practice non-action on the material level. Lao Tzu’s theory is right, but we can’t put it into action. It’s not that Lao Tzu’s words are meaningless, but that our society has a wrong, artificial structure.
In the first lecture I said that the Tao Te Ching represents truth. It should be placed in our hearts- it’s not to be used in everyday life. Even emperors who understand the Tao logic cannot use it. Confucius and Lao Tzu couldn’t even persuade the emperors to do it. Philosophy just helps us to understand that such logic exists in the universe. It doesn’t necessarily mean we have to practice that exact logic in our everyday lives, which again are based on an unnatural social structure.
The key point of the Tao Te Ching is for us to understand such logic of the universe, so that we can integrate with the universe. This is what is meant by “the unification of heaven and humanity.” If our logic, or reason, isn’t in sync with heaven’s, then we cannot unify with heaven. So, we should hold this logic in our heart. Lao Tzu’s focus is always on the spiritual realm. Although Lao Tzu often discusses the management of countries or people, the logic in the Tao Te Ching is for our heart to understand.
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So Chapter Three again...
"Not exalting the gifted prevents power. Not collecting treasure prevents stealing. Not seeing desirable things prevents confusion of the heart. The wise therefore rule by emptying hearts and stuffing bellies. By weakening ambitions and strengthening bones. If man lacks knowledge and desire, then clever people will not try to interfere. If nothing is done, then all will be well."
Let's use an example. There's a very famous period in Chinese called "The Ruling of Wen-Jin", the management of Wen and Jing Emperors. They were born in the period of the Han dynasty, about three or four hundred years after Lao Tze. They followed wu wei, the administration of non-action. We know that Han Dynasty executed the administration of non-action, because there were too many you wei, or intentional human actions in Qin Dynasty. We know that the Great Wall was built in the Qin Dynasty. It squandered a lot of labor and financial resources to build the Great Wall. And many stringent laws were made in that period, too. They created a lot of animosity from people.
So these two emperors in the Han Dynasty used the administration of non-action, and won a lot of support from people. That period became a very prosperous and stable period. But we have to know that to really realize the administration of non-action, people have to have no knowledge and no desire. There cannot be so many people with the street smarts. In other words, the administration of non-action is only an ideal, a slogan.
Were it not just an ideal, then it should have been followed many years after that period, even up until now. Because it was just an ideal, after a while, it was destroyed. This period become just an example for people to witness and imagine the benefits of the administration of non-action.
We know that after these two emperors in Han Dynasty, the following Emperor abolished the policy of non-action and followed only the Confucianism. On the surface, it seems that Confucianism is very much like Taoism. But again it just has the name of administration of non-action, not the reality.
The reason I use these examples is for you to understand that in our human life, there is still no period where we can see the administration of non-action. But Lao Tzu's notion of administration of non-action is for our heart. It's to manage, administer our heart.
We can do it every day, for example, in meditation. When we meditate, we are performing non-action. We don't try to dictate or order any part of our body.
We just try to help our body unify with the nature.
So inner administration of non-action can be realized in ourselves. But externally, because of wrong times, it's not possible to see it realized. That's what the next two chapters are going to talk about.
I'd like to explain some concepts in this next chart. We know that here in this chart, "wu", or non-being, creates the beings. How can non-being create beings? It’s like a concept, an idea. When someone has an idea, the energy follows.
Whenever we think about something, the energy starts to come out. Many people say it's the power of prayer, or will. And that power of will generates a phenomenon. When lot of energy is concentrated, a phenomenon is created. When the Chi is strong, we can feel the existence of it, like air. If the wind is not strong, we cannot feel air. But when the air flows strongly, then we feel wind.
It's like the fourth level on the chart—Si Xiang, or Four Phenomena. There is still nothing, but you can feel its resistance. Then in the next step, it becomes the Ba Gua, the Eight Trigrams. We know that in I Ching, when Yang goes to the extreme, Yin is generated. And when Yin goes to the extreme, Yang is generated. So here, on the Four Phenomena, on the right hand side, we have two Yang
The Ba Gua, because it's a three dimensional reality, is something physical but was generated by a simple idea. All our hearts will create the Ba Gua. Even if we don't want to follow it, we cannot do it. Because it's like a formula, a mathematical formula of nature. These are the only possibilities. Heart will generate the phenomena and the objects.
We say that the objects, or environment, are shaped according to the heart. What we fear is that our heart will be affected by the physical realities. Because if we are, our hearts will be changed by our circumstances. And the reason we are influenced by the circumstances, instead of the other way around, is that we are following what people label as "good" or "virtuous". That's not creating reality from our heart.
I'm not sure if everybody understand why non-being can create beings. The problem is that, above the two dimensional Four Phenomena, it cannot be seen. Although it's just an idea (Li, in Chinese). From Li (the idea) come Qi (energy) and Xiang (the physical manifestation). All things in the universe are composed of these three things. Modern science also tells us that everything, every physical object has energy, like atomic, nuclear energy that could be generated from uranium.
The “idea” part of the chart still cannot be proven with modern science, but we should believe in it. If we don't, there's no explanation of where everything in the universe comes from originally.
Some people believe that that's the idea of God. This is the same system of God-centered belief. When we think in our heart is the same thing that God thinks. So when the Bible says that God said "Heaven comes into being," does that mean God creates beings from another being? Does that fit physical laws?
So actually, that is also the Qi Xiang. God creates everything by the Qi Xiang as well.
In the Bible, God created everything, it was manifested by his words. So we know that in language, in thinking, there's a concept that unites theory. When you say something, there's an idea in your brain. There must be an energy as well accompanying it. Then there's a physical reality. The reality then is only two dimensional. It needs something more. So you create heaven and earth first. With heaven and earth, you can create other things. Like what I Ching said, heaven and earth. They were different energy. With energy, materials are created.
We can say that the materials are the concentrations of a lot of energy. What it's released, it's the extension of nuclear energy. This part is scientifically proven. More complicated things have to come from the matching of different Ba Guas, different trigrams. Like when God created humans, he made human beings from the blowing earth with the air. Blowing air is the match of two Ba Guas, two trigrams. Two to the power of three, followed by two to the power of three are these manifestations.
So human beings are not simple, purely physical objects. We have the spiritual part. In other words, we have these three things—li, qi, xiang. So we can think and we can create. This intangible part shares the same structure with God. It's abstract and so not easy to understand.
But we can experiment on it. We can experiment ourselves. From the li, qi, xiang, you can see your own Ba Guas, your own trigrams and your own hexagrams. Many people that meditate would appreciate and understand this structure of creations. In other words, there is science in Chinese philosophy. Actually, in ancient times, science and philosophy were not divided. In Ancient Greece, the scientists were also philosophers. Although it sounds abstract, we have to know how we come from this structure.