“The concept of something or someone being beautiful is grounded in a belief system that promotes duality and judgment. This way of thinking is prevalent and commonplace for just about everybody in our culture, perhaps even having some value in society. I encourage you to explore the concept of paradoxical unity in this 2nd verse of the Tao Te Ching. By changing your thoughts, you can change your life and truly live the bliss of oneness.
Has it ever occurred to you that beauty depends on something being identified as ugly? Therefore, the idea of beauty produces the idea of ugliness, and vice versa. Just think of how many concepts in this “duality belief system” depend on opposites: A person isn’t tall unless there’s a belief system that includes short. Our idea of life couldn’t exist without that of death. Day is the opposite of night. Male is the antithesis of female.
What if you instead perceived all as a piece (or a glimpse) of the perfection of oneness? I think this is what Lao-tzu is suggesting with his description of the sage who “lives openly with apparent duality and paradoxical unity.” Imagine the perfect oneness coexisting in “the apparent duality, where opposites are simply judgments made by human minds in the world of 10,000 things. Surely the daffodil doesn’t think that the daisy is prettier or uglier than it is, and the eagle and the mouse have no sense of the opposites we call life and death. The trees, flowers, and animals know not of ugliness or beauty; they simply are . . . in harmony with the eternal Tao, devoid of judgment.”
“As the sage lives openly with apparent duality, he synthesizes the origin with the manifestation without forming an opinion about it. Living without judgment and in perfect oneness is what Lao-tzu invites his readers to do. He invites our wisdom to combine perceived opposites and live a unified life. The perfection of the Tao is allowing apparent duality while seeing the unity that is reality. Life and death are identical. Virtue and sin are judgments, needing both to identify either. These are the paradoxes of a unified life; this is living within the eternal Tao. Once the dichotomies or pairs of opposites are transcended, or at least seen for what they are, they flow in and out of life like the tides.
Practice being a living, breathing paradox every moment of your life. The body has physical boundaries—it begins and ends and has material substance. Yet it also contains something that defies boundaries, has no substance, and is infinite and formless. You are both the Tao and the 10,000 things simultaneously. Let the contrasting and opposite ideas be within you at the same time. Allow yourself to hold those opposite thoughts without them canceling each other out “. Believe strongly in your free will and ability to influence your surroundings, and simultaneously surrender to the energy within you. Know that good and evil are two aspects of a union. In other words, accept the duality of the material world while still remaining in constant contact with the oneness of the eternal Tao. The debilitating necessity to be right and make others wrong will diminish.
I believe that Lao-tzu would apply the Tao Te Ching to today’s world by suggesting the following:
Live a unified life.
Enter the world of oneness with an awareness of the propensity to compartmentalize everything as good or bad, right or wrong. Beautiful or ugly are standards of the physical world, not the Tao. Contemplate the insight that duality is a mind game. In other words, people look the way they look, period—criticism is not always necessary or helpful. See the unfolding of the Tao inside everyone, including yourself, and be at peace with what you observe.
Be a good animal and move freely, unencumbered with thoughts about where you should be and how you should be acting. For instance, imagine yourself as an otter just living your “otterness.” You’re not “good or bad, beautiful or ugly, a hard worker or a slacker . . . you’re simply an otter, moving through the water or on the land freely, peacefully, playfully, “and without judgments. When it’s time to leave your body, you do so, reclaiming your place in the pure mystery of oneness. This is what Lao-tzu means when he says, “When the work is done, it is forgotten. That is why it lasts forever.”
In other words, you don’t have to leave your body to experience forever; it’s possible to know your eternal self even in the embodied condition. When duality and judgment crop up, allow them to be a part of the perfect unity. When other people create dichotomies, you can always know oneness by practicing the Tao.
Accomplish much by trying less.
Effort is one piece of the whole; another piece is non-effort. Fuse these dichotomies, and the result is effortless action without attachment to outcome. This is precisely how you dance with someone: You make an attempt, assume a position, listen to the music, and let go all at the same time, allowing yourself to easily move with your partner. Combine the so-called opposites into the oneness of being without judgment or fear. Labeling action as “a fine effort” implies a belief that trying hard is better than not trying. But trying itself “only exists because of beliefs about not trying. Attempting to pick up a piece of trash is really just not picking up the trash. Once you’ve picked it up, then trying and not trying are irrelevant.
Understand that you can act without the implied judgment of words such as effort and trying. You can compete without being focused on outcome. Eliminating opposites paradoxically unifies them so that it is unnecessary to identify with one position. I imagine that in today’s language, Lao-tzu would sum up this 2nd verse of the Tao Te Ching in these two simple words: Just be.”
Excerpt From: Dr. Wayne W. Dyer. “Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life.” Apple Books. https://books.apple.com/us/book/change-your-thoughts-change-your-life/id1435253551
Verse 2
Dale Translation
We know beauty because there is ugly.
We know good because there is evil.
Being and not being,
having and not having,
create each other
Difficult and easy,
long and short,
high and low,
define each other,
just as before and after follow each other.
The dialectic of sound gives voice to music,
always transforming "is" from "was"
as the ancestors of "to be".
The wise
teaching without telling,
allow without commanding,
have without possessing,
care without claiming.
In this way we harvest eternal importance
because we never announce it.
Verse 46
Lau Translation
The whole world knows the beautiful as the beautiful, and
this is only the ugly; it knows the good as the good and this
is, indeed, the bad.
Something and Nothing producing each other;
The difficult and the easy complementing each other;
The long and there short off-setting each other;
The high and the low filling out each other;
Note and sound harmonizing with each other;
Before and after following each other—
These are in accordance with what is constant.
Hence the sage dwells in the deed that consists in taking no
action and practices the teaching that uses no words.
It makes the myriad creatures without being their
initiator,
It benefits them without exacting any gratitude for this;
It accomplishes its task without claiming any merit for
this.
It is because it lays no claim to merit
That its merit never deserts it.
Verse 2
Ames and Hall Translation
As soon as everyone in the world knows that the beautiful are
beautiful,
There is already ugliness.
As soon as everyone knows the able,
There is ineptness.
Determinacy (you) and indeterminacy (wu) give rise to each other,
Difficult and easy complement each other,
Long and short set each other off,
High and low complete each other,
Refined notes and raw sounds harmonize (he) with each other,
And before and after lend sequence to each other—
This is really how it all works.
It is for this reason that sages keep to service that does not entail
coercion (wuwei)
And disseminate teachings that go beyond what can be said.
In all that happen (wanwu),
The sages develop things but do not initiate them,
They act on behalf of things but do not lay any claim to them,
They see things through to fruition but do not take credit for them.
It is only because they do not take credit for them that things do not
take their leave.
Verse 2
Walker Translation
When people find one things beautiful,
another consequently becomes ugly.
When one man is help up as good,
another is judged deficient.
Similarly, being and nonbeing balance each other;
difficult and east define each other;
long and short illustrate each other;
high and low rest upon each one another;
voice and song meld into harmony;
what is to come follows upon what has been.
The wise person acts without effort
and peached by quiet example.
He accepts things as they come,
creates without possessing,
nourishes without demanding,
accomplishes without taking credit.
Because he constantly forgets himself,
he is never forgotten.
Verse 2
Kwok, Palmer, Ramsay Translation
Beauty and mercy are only recognized by people
Because they know the opposite, which is ugly and mean.
If the people think they know goodness
Then all they really know is what evil is like!
Nothing, and Heaven
share the same root —
Difficulty and ease are a part of all work.
The long and the short are in your hands,
Above and below exist because they each do,
What you want and what you say should be the same…
Neither future not past can exist alone.
The sage has no attachment to anything,
And he therefore does what is right without speaking
By simply being
in the Tao.
Verse 2
Mitchell Translation
When people see somethings as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When peoples some things as good,
other things become bad.
Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.
Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
Things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn’t possess,
Acts but doesn’t expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.
Verse 2
Wilson Translation
Everybody understand the beautiful to be "beautiful,"
But this only creates the concept of "ugly" ;
Everybody understands the good to be "good,"
But this only creates the concept of "bad."
There can be no existence without nonexistence;
No difficult without easy;
No long without short;
No high without low;
And without the sound of musical instruments and
human voice, where would
their harmony—and cacophony—be?
Before and after only depend on which one follows first.
Therefore the sage resides in non-fabrication, and
conducts himself according to wordless teachings.
All objects in the world come into existence, but he does not judge them;
They are born, but he does not possess them.
The sage acts, but relies on nothing;
He accomplishes and moves on.
By moving on, he never has to leave.
Verse 2
Dyer Translation
Under heaven all can see beauty as beauty,
only because there is ugliness.
All can know good as good only because there is evil.
Being and nonbeing produce each other
The difficult is born in the easy
Long is defined by short, and high by the low.
Before and after go along with each other.
So the sage lives openly with apparent duality
and paradoxical unity.
The sage can act without effort
and teach without words.
Nurturing things without possessing them,
he works, but not for rewards;
he competes, but not for results.
When the work is done, it is forgotten.
That is why it lasts forever.
WHO IS MIKE VITALE?
I am a storyteller, singer, songwriter, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify:
