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Location: Melbourne, Australia

An Australian from a Chinese background who loves the India Yoga System taught by Sri. Pattabhi Jois. This page is a study note of the classic sutra of Tao Teh Ching by the Great Lao Tzu.

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Tao Teh Ching Chapter 5

Chapter 5

天地不仁,以万物为刍狗;圣人不仁,以百姓为刍狗。
天地之间,其犹橐龠乎?虚而不屈,动而愈出。
多言数穷,不如守中。
The heaven and the earth is does not try to be kind, it treats everything with indifference. The sage, like heaven and earth, treat people with indifference.
Between Heaven and earth, isn't it like a bellows? It is void and yet not subdued; it moves, air keeps coming out.
Too much speech will reach exhaustion soon, it is better to observe moderation.


Detailed comment
This has been my favourite chapter so far.
刍狗, dogs made of grass. It is used as a deterrent for birds to protect the harvest. When the harvest is over, no one cares about the grass dogs and they are allowed to rot in the fields. The nature does not have a feeling, it does not love or hate any component of itself. It is indifferent. Here, the author says that sages are like nature, they treat fellow human beings with indifference, without passion.
, an ancient tools made of cow hide to blow air into a furnace, bellows. , an ancient musical tool with the shape of a whistle. The common thing here is that they are all instruments that deals with air. We humans are instruments of air. We breath, we take in air, we then discharge. If everything between heaven and earth are like bellows and whistles, we humans are also like them. We deal with our breath. This is everything that there is. This is the essence of being.
屈, the original meaning is to describe the state of being when one is not stretched. Thus it can mean curved, deformed. I have interpret here as subdued. This is a hard decision. The Tao is void, but it is not deformed, constantly air comes out.
In paragraph 3, Lao Tzu talks about using speech prudently. I failed to see the context of introducing the argument here.

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