the short of it:
Exclusivity isn’t inclusivity.
41. The Unreality of Appearance.
The superior scholar when [they consider] Tao earnestly [practice] it; an average scholar listening to Tao sometimes follows it and sometimes loses it; an inferior scholar listening to Tao ridicules it. Were it not thus ridiculed it could not be regarded as Tao.
Therefore the writer says: Those who are most illuminated by Tao are the most obscure. Those advanced in Tao are most retiring. Those best guided by Tao are the least prepossessing.
The high in virtue (teh) resemble a lowly valley; the whitest are most likely to be put to shame; the broadest in virtue resemble the inefficient. The most firmly established in virtue resemble the remiss. The simplest chastity resembles the fickle, the greatest square has no corner, the largest vessel is never filled. The greatest sound is void of speech, the greatest form has no shape. Tao is obscure and without name, and yet it is precisely this Tao that alone can give and complete.
41. ‘Sameness and Difference.’
41.1 Scholars of the highest class, when they hear about the Tao, earnestly carry it into practice. Scholars of the middle class, when they have heard about it, seem now to keep it and now to lose it. Scholars of the lowest class, when they have heard about it, laugh greatly at it. If it were not (thus) laughed at, it would not be fit to be the Tao.
41.2 Therefore the sentence-makers have thus expressed themselves:
‘The Tao, when brightest seen, seems light to lack; Who progress in it makes, seems drawing back; Its even way is like a rugged track. Its highest virtue from the vale doth rise; Its greatest beauty seems to offend the eyes; And he has most whose lot the least supplies. Its firmest virtue seems but poor and low; Its solid truth seems change to undergo; Its largest square doth yet no corner show; A vessel great, it is the slowest made; Loud is its sound, but never word it said; A semblance great, the shadow of a shade.’
41.3 The Tao is hidden, and has no name; but it is the Tao which is skilful at imparting (to all things what they need) and making them complete.
41. Sameness in Difference.
41.1 When a superior scholar hears of Reason [they endeavor] to practice it.
41.2 When an average scholar hears of Reason [they] will sometimes keep it and sometimes lose it.
41.3 When an inferior scholar hears of Reason [they] will greatly ridicule it. Were it not thus ridiculed, it would as Reason be insufficient.
41.4 Therefore the poet says:
41.5 “The Reason-enlightened seem dark and black, The Reason-advanced seem going back, The Reason-straight-levelled seem rugged and slack. 41.6 “The high in virtue resemble a vale, The purely white in shame must quail, The staunchest virtue seems to fail. 41.7 “The solidest virtue seems not alert, The purest chastity seems not alert, The greatest square will rightness desert. 41.8 “The largest vessel is not yet complete, The loudest sound is not speech replete, The greatest form has no shape concrete.”
41.9 Reason so long as it remains latent is unnamable. Yet Reason alone is good for imparting and completing.
The long of it:
Taoism is not an exclusive philosophy. It doesn’t depend on certain people, or certain words, or any sort of acknowledgement to exist. Everyone is a part of it, whether they admit it or not. The only membership requirements are competency and/or incompetency, both fluid categories dependent on each other. Those who embrace this dependency can experience both without harm. Those who try to force exclusivity only wind up proving the rule.
-TB
