The Short of It:
The power to question reality is the only answer we need.
21. the vacant heart.
Virtue in its grandest aspect is neither more nor less than following Tau. Tau is a thing indefinite, impalpable. Impalpable! Indefinite! and (yet) therein are things. Profound! Dark! and (yet) therein is essence. This essence is most true, and therein is faith. From of old until now it has never lost its name. It passes into (or inspects) all things that have beginning. How know I the manner of the beginning of all things? I know it by this (Tau).
21. ‘the empty heart.’
The grandest forms of active force From Tao come, their only source. Who can of Tao the nature tell? Our sight it flies, our touch as well. Eluding sight, eluding touch, The forms of things all in it crouch; Eluding touch, eluding sight, There are their semblances, all right. Profound it is, dark and obscure; Things’ essences the truth enfold Of what, when seen, shall then be told. Now it is so; ’twas so of old. Its name- what passes not away; So, in their beautiful array, Things form and never know decay.
How know I that it is so with all the beauties of existing things? By this (nature of the Tao).
21. emptying the heart.
21.1 “Vast virtues’s form Follows Reason’s norm. 21.2 “And Reason’s nature Is vague and eluding. 21.3 “How eluding and vague All types including! How vague and eluding, All beings including! How deep and how obscure. It harbors the spirit pure, Whose truth is ever sure, Whose faith abides for aye From of yore until to-day. 21.4 “Its name is never vanishing, It heeds the good of everything.”
21.5 Through what do I know that “it heeds the good of everything”? In this way, verily: Through IT.
The Long of It:
Chapter 21 has various interpretations, differing around how the chapter opens and closes.
The first character of the chapter is k’ung, meaning (among other things) vast, or empty (Wang, Pine). Most choose vast. The translators above tried to split the difference by including the alternate meaning in their self-described chapter titles (i.e. Empty Heart). The paradox might be exactly what Lao Tsu was aiming for.
An empty translation however, changes the focus of the first line from what Tao is to what Tao isn’t. Now we can slide into the rest of the chapter easier, rather than getting stuck on what seems like a premature punchline. Because Lao Tsu is just getting started, and spends all but the last line of Chapter 21 setting us up.
The middle of the chapter dances around and doesn’t say anything hard to understand. Tao is nothing and everything at the same time. It is forever swirling around to create stuff, and we can never quite put our finger on what is happening.
But then Lao Tsu maneuvers in close with a question: if we can’t ever know Tao, how do we know it exists?
His answer (the end of the chapter) also depends on translator preference, but over the referent this time. What does by this refer to? Like Chalmers and Legge, some try to force a meaning (by including Tao in parentheses). But if Lao Tsu had meant Tao, he would’ve just said Tao. He didn’t (Ames, Star, Wang, etc).
Wait for It:
Since the Tao Te Ching is more a contextual document than a literal one, more astute translators recognize Lao Tsu’s paradoxical tone here (Ames, Hoff, Pine, Wilson). How does Lao Tsu know Tao is like this? Well, he’s asking the question, and we are reading it. By this.
It’s just the sort of paradox Lao Tsu loves. Because we are here to witness it. Because it is happening right now. The mystery of our existence proves itself.
Our power to decide is the ultimate power in the Universe. Our ability to question our reality gives us the power to answer it. The question is the answer.
“Agency cannot be isolated from action…. One and one’s posture or perspective is thus integral to what is known. Knowledge entails proximity.” (Ames 109).
-TB
Works cited
Lao Tzu. Pine, Red. Lao-tzu’s Taoteching. United States: Mercury House, 1996.
Lao Tzu. Wilson, William S. Tao Te Ching: A New Translation. United States: Shambhala, 2012.
