Great post.

So nice to see people getting into the Dao De Jing, reading the comments of people who’ve never encountered it before. It is a remarkably beautiful text, albeit hard to read sometimes. It definitely changed the course of my life when I first read the Richard Wilhelm version maaaaaaaany moons ago.

I’d like to offer a slightly different translation of a couple of lines from the second part of the verse, which shifts the understanding slightly.

故常無欲，以觀其妙；常有欲，以觀其徼。
Hence, one is always without desire, by means of beholding its subtle mysteriousness; Constantly having desire, by means of beholding its boundaries.

This is my translation. The idea being that the act of perceiving the “subtle mysteriousness” of the Dao will naturally bring about a lack of desire; and that conversely seeing the limitations of the Dao brings about the presence of desire. The writer here is using a grammatical tool to show the interdependence of polarity, which is also used in the next verse. This grammatical construct seems to me to be typical of a school of thought that began to think and write about paradox and the problem of language, so that’s why I would be dating this verse to somewhere around 3rd-2nd Centuries BCE.

It also puts it around the time that the Yinyang school was being developed, maybe just before, I’m not certain yet. I’ll only know once I finish with my translation, but I think there is no mention of “yin” or “yang” in this text, as these terms appear only around the start of the Han Dynasty, when this form of Daoism began to influence imperial policy.

Also the word 欲 gets translated as “desire”.... my understanding is that it is the equivalent of Kāma – passion, lust, etc. I’m not up on Sanskrit, but I think I remember reading somewhere that this is not the same word used in The Buddha’s 4 Noble Truths (the origin of dukka, suffering)...

But yes, very similar to Buddhist ideas, which is remarkable considering there is no evidence of contact between China and India before the 2nd Century CE... although ‘no evidence’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘didn’t happen’.

You’re right though about the ‘fractal’ nature of this text, and the Dao as a concept. I think it speaks to a true universal pluralism, with language and perception being the real constraints – it reminds me of a Terence McKenna quote:

If the truth can be told so as to be understood, it will be believed.

The sheer number of different translations and commentaries (and versions, a la the Mawangdui manuscript version and the Guodian version) shows that ancient Chinese thinkers placed an emphasis on personal engagement with the Dao, lived experience and felt sense being valuable. That’s why I love the last line in particular 衆妙之門 “its schools/portals are many and wondrous”, meaning there are many doors/portals/gates one can use to enter the “mystery of mysteries”.

Looking forward to reading tomorrow for verse 2.

😊🙏🏽☯️