#DaoDeJing Ch. 48
c. 350 BCE

Ch. 48 repeats the theme of ch. 47 on the distinction
between the coming out process & the return process.

When the sage returns to Dao,
he also returns the world to Dao.
Chen, p. 168, abbr.

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In reading early Daoism, I thought it could be a
nature-based worldview for a post-capitalist world.
But #Daoism arose in a stable climate.
The future will unfold within a wildly unstable #climate.
Are all stable-climate worldviews now unsuitable?
#mind-in-nature

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Ron Hogan is an example of someone
making the Dàoist teachings their own.

The DDJ is not anti-empiricism per se,
but against empiricism for greed & power.
Understanding nuclear fusion is fine,
building nuclear plants & bombs is not.

#Daoism could be a guide to re-envision our world.

#DaoDeJing 47

The empiricism of modern western science
is conquest by division.
The unruly material world is to be disciplined,
nature is to be tortured piece by piece
so that it may be conquered.

#Daoism preaches a religious empiricism
witnessing Dao’s presence in the world.

Ellen Chen p167 abbr.
#DaoDeJing 47

#DaoDeJing Ch 47
c 350 BCE

A theory of knowledge: how to know the Dao of heaven.
Ch 46: the futility of accumulating desirable objects.
47: the futility of accumulating knowledge about the world of things. (Chen p. 166)

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The source of temporal life is eternity.
Eternity pours itself into the world...

Now, eternity is beyond all categories of thought.
This is an important point in all of the great Oriental religions.

Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth, p.49
#mythology #Daoism

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Ron Hogan is an example of someone
making the Dàoist teachings their own.
His tr. makes ch. 46 very clear & direct.

The teaching against craving desire is universal.
Craving desire is unnatural & born of false consciousness.
Our world is in apocalyptic danger due to this.

#Daoism #DaoDeJing Ch. 46

Then, even female horses are used for combat
& stationed at the front, thus the phenomenon
of giving birth at the borders.

2. The same message as found in chs 33.3 & 44.3:

Conscious desire,
following upon the knowledge of values,
is a symptom of discontent.
Chen p. 165

#Daoism #DaoDeJing Ch. 46

Ellen Chen (1989, p.165)

1. Peace reigns in the world when Tao is practiced.
Military horses, idle in peace time, are used on the farm, their dung fertilizing the fields. When the world does not practice Tao war erupts.

#Daoism #DaoDeJing Ch. 46

Dào Dé Jīng Part 2: Dé, Ch. 46
c. 350 BCE

"This ch. returns to the theme of ch. 44
and reflects on the root of war as due to
the ruler’s insatiable desire for acquisition."
Ellen Chen

A topical teaching, n'est-ce pas?

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Ron Hogan's focus is on individualizing the text &
misses the big picture of the original context.

It works as a personalized teaching,
but some of us need the big picture.

We have become alienated from nature,
& our big forebrain has destabilized its natural balance.

#Daoism #DaoDeJing Ch. 45

Tao as the coincidence of opposites, described in (1),
is the tranquility that produces this beautiful
and harmoniously balanced natural world.

Ellen Chen (1989, p. 163-4, abbr.)
#Daoism #DaoDeJing Ch. 45

Ellen Chen (1989, p. 163-4, abbr.)

The message here is not that one opposite
should overcome another
but that their turning constitutes the round.

This is to read Tao in its dynamic process
through the progression of four seasons.

#Daoism #DaoDeJing Ch. 45

Dào Dé Jīng Part 2: Dé, Ch. 45
c. 350 BCE

The first part offers a theology of
the coincidence of opposites.
The second part gives a theology of
the round whose center is at rest. (Ellen Chen, p. 163)

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To live humbly, to be at peace with oneself & the world,
to not squander life’s energies are ways to long life.
This primordial trust in the goodness of life and the world reflects ch. 13. (Chen, p. 163)

Ron Hogan's translation below, clear & direct as ever.
#Daoism #DaoDeJing Ch. 44

Ellen Chen, cont.

3. When a person is contented with what he has he does not push his luck to the limit that invites the turning of fortune. Also, he does not push himself to the brink of destruction, often the fate of the over-ambitious.

#Daoism #DaoDeJing Ch. 44

Ellen Chen, (1998, p. 162)

1. The Taoist treasures his body, the seat of his life,
more than any of life’s accoutrements,
including fame or wealth.

He also suspects that acquiring fame and wealth
shortens life.

#Daoism #DaoDeJing Ch. 44