#40 The Truth About Starting Over in Life
Tao Te Ching, Chapter 40: Unveil the essence of starting anew in life with Lao Tzu's teachings. Embrace change, resilience, and self-discovery on this transformative journey.
Welcome back to The Wisdom of Lao Tzu.
This week, we're delving into Chapter 40 of the Tao Te Ching.
Have you ever struggled to distinguish truths from the myriad of shams and falsehoods in life? Do you consider truth essential for a meaningful life?
Lao Tzu delves into the metaphysical aspects of Tao in this chapter, yet its implications for living truthfully are profound.
Let's get to it.
**40**
反者，道之動;
弱者，道之用。
天下萬物生於有，有生於無。
Border-crossing: English translations
#1 Lin Yutang’s version
Reversion is the action of Tao.
Gentleness is the function of Tao.
The things of this world come from Being,
And Being (comes) from Non-being.
#2 Edmund Ryden’s version
Reversal is the moving of the Way;
Weakness is the using of the Way.
The world’s myriad things are generated from being;
Being is the generated from beingless.1
#3 D. C. Lau’s version
Turning back is how the way moves;
Weakness is the means the way employs.
The myriad creatures in the world are born from Something, and Something from Nothing.2
Deeper dive
As the chapter states, “Reversion is the action of Tao,” which means that the silent workings of the Tao move in an eternal cycle.
Just like the sequence of four seasons, the phenomena of rise and fall, growth and decay, beginning and ending, and life and death, the things of the world evolve in a spontaneous manner following the Tao.
As Chuang Tzu describes,
“Division is the same as creation, and creation is the same as destruction. There is no such thing as creation and destruction, for these conditions are again leveled together into One.” 3
Being “leveled together into One (Tao)” is the function of Tao in silently moving and cycling. This touches on the essential character of Tao, as Chapter 25 illustrates,
Eternally revolving without fail,
Worthy to be the Mother of All Things.
I do not know its name
And address it as Tao.
If forced to give it a name, I shall call it “Great.”
Being great implies reaching out in space,
Reaching out in space implies far-reaching,
Far-reaching implies reversion to the original point. (Chapter 25)
Since Tao is in constant motion of an eternal cycle, the myriad things in the world also manifest themselves from the realm of nonbeing to being.
The realm of being is the ontological world, the world we can see, experience, and observe. On the one hand, it consists of endless activities and motions. Yet, it is also colored by falsehood, noises, and illusions.
In contrast, non-being, or beingless, is characterized by emptiness, stillness, calmness, and creativity recovery. This is where Tao resides. The transition from being to non-being indicates a process of discarding the temporary and deceptive and a quest for the ultimate truth.
That is why Wang Bi (226-249 AD) ascribes the world of non-being as the source of all things, “All things in the world are generated through being. And being regards non-being as its roots. If you aim for the fullness of being, you must return to non-being.” 「天下之物，皆以有為生。有之所始，以無為本。將欲全有，必反於無也。」4
Spiritual Taoism
The spirit of Tao implies that life is a nonstop journey. It is up to us to be active and embrace life's changes, to evolve, to explore, and to discover how we respond to situations in the unknown. Eventually, we find our natural rhythm in roaming with life’s changes and rediscovering our new selves on the journey.
The active nature of Tao informs us that if we want to seek a life of meaning and truth, we have to have the courage to face unpleasant truths and facts and be ready to challenge what is accepted and familiar.
The ultimate truth will be revealed after all the surface noises are discarded. We should be discreet in accepting what is presented to us.
We also get a crucial Taoist antidote to worries after realizing that all the myriad things will unfold by themselves by following the eternal cycle of Tao.
If we understand that life is composed of events and moments that move in nonstopping yet mysterious cycles, we will understand its impermanent nature.
This is how we can break away from the control of excess worries and anxieties, as we realize that we may have unconsciously placed our beliefs and faith in something that is not permanently fixed, such as the specious and transient values and ways of doing things, in particular moments or stages of life, or specific social environments in which we live.
By realizing that there are things beyond our control, we can draw attention within and live in the present. This starts with accepting the unpleasant and unbearable and becoming resilient in adverse situations.
Another fundamental lesson we learn is that we can find wisdom in the state of non-being. This is easy to grasp. Creativity, clarity, and direction are found in serenity and calm.
As Lao Tzu describes,
I do my utmost to attain emptiness;
I hold firmly to stillness.
The myriad creatures all rise together
And I watch their return.
The teeming creatures
All return to their separate roots.
Returning to one's roots is known as stillness.
This is what is meant by returning to one's destiny.
Returning to one's destiny is known as the constant.
Knowledge of the constant is known as discernment. (Chapter 16)
When we realize that we can constantly enter an empty state of mind, we are not to be driven by preconceived notions, partial views, desires, and prejudices. Inner peace, clarity, and understanding will find us again.
We become the masters of our spirit when we reside in a state of nonbeing and calm and awaken our consciousness. We can imagine returning to our inner room, where everything is moved outside. This signals an end and a new beginning.
If we can do that, we will not be shackled by temporary and popular values and pseudo-truths. As the outside noises disappear, spontaneous freedom comes back to us while we get ready to live again.
Thanks for reading!
Wishing you freedom and peace,
Yuxuan
Daodejing, trans. Edmund Ryden. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 85.
Tao Te Ching, trans. D. C. Lau. (London: Penguin Classics, 1963), 47.
Yutang, Lin, The Wisdom of Laotse, (Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2009), 137.
Wang Bi et al., Four Kinds of Laotse 老子四種 (Taipei: National Taiwan University Press, 2016), 35.