v. 77

The Way of Heaven
is like a bow bent to shoot:
its top end is brought down,
its lower end raised up.
It brings the high down,
lifts the low,
takes from those who have,
gives to those who have not.

Such is the Way of Heaven,
taking from people who have,
giving to people who have not.
           Not so the human way:
           it takes from those who have not
           to fill up those who have.
Who has enough to fill up everybody?
Only those who have the Way.

So the wise
do without claiming,
achieve without asserting,
wishing not to show their worth.

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu, trans. by Ursula K. Le Guin

Only four more verses remain in the Tao Te Ching. I will have finished this reading of the collection of aphorisms pointing to some of the most wondrous and the most troubling dimensions of experience. Nothing of this nature has changed since these iron age era words were written down upon silk, and upon bamboo strips. Humans are able to develop external representations of a virus or of a galaxy. By contrast our understanding of human nature (whatever that is) so far has not opened the gate to a generally more humane engagement between communities and between nations. Warfare, human caused immiseration can be identified at all levels across the world. Moral change, advance of the spirit is a multi-generational project. Change is very, very slow.

Often I feel the urge to raise my voice and shout across the room here at Starbucks, “What the fuck is wrong with us?” This imaginary outburst would not make any difference. The viewpoint is widely understood and many would agree. Yet, each of us continues to play our part, fulfilling the requirements of survival, of our destiny, – even if the behavior hurts someone, living somewhere else, that we will never meet. Such is the upshot of living in America. Our country doesn’t apologize for any of its past policies because we’d rather not make amends, or admit mistakes. Patriotism of late, means your country has never been wrong.

In addition our corporations, held by all kinds of people who own stocks, – by and large will do anything, “whatever it takes” to increase profits. Economy without values is a shortcut to increasing profits. So this is where we find ourselves on July 11, having just “celebrated” 250 years as a country. We are the beneficiary of empire, and our practices and means on many accounts have been shameful. Who feels embarrassment?

Taoist spare lines offer a diagnosis of our predicament. The down to earth metaphor of a drawn bow is utilized. A tension between the upper and the lower end of a bow on the cusp of release is the example. The upper arm is the “too much” of good fortune, the blind luck of birth, of primo education, etc., that results in a shocking degree of affluence. Contrast the lower arm, the “too little” of a majority of fellows who must just-scrape-by, living hand to mouth, barely paying the bills, or perhaps failing at that minimum. The wolf waits around the corner. The yin of “too much” correlates with the yang of “too little”.

Lao Tsu declares such economic arrangements are a “rigged game.” A few are enriched, because so many are slighted in the arrangement which they must accept. Maybe you do not see it that way. I do not write to persuade anyone.

Lao Tsu observes this is simply the way humans arrange things. Even if this has always been the case, injustice does not have to be. The Way of Heaven is a more even distribution of value. The point being, while I am not compelled to help others that have a lot less, – I ought to want to do so.

Enjoy the art of Barnett Newman, Onement 1, 1948, MOMA.