Tao Te Ching: Chapter 7 Commentary

This is part of a series examining the Tao Te Ching from a Christ-centered, LDS perspective.

Chapter 7 of the Tao Te Ching examines the importance of selflessness in achieving steadfastness and other goals.

Heaven and Earth. Image here.

The chapter reads:

Heaven and Earth are everlasting
The reason Heaven and Earth can last forever
Is that they do not exist for themselves
Thus they can last forever

Therefore the sages:
Place themselves last but end up in front
Are outside of themselves and yet survive
Is it not due to their selflessness?
That is how they can achieve their own goals

Selflessness, a Christian virtue

Generally speaking, this is Christian doctrine. Matthew 19:19 explains that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. The Sermon on the Mount really expands on this idea, urging Christians to "go the extra mile" (Matthew 5:41), to give those who sue us for our coat our cloak also (Matthew 5:40), and generally bless those that curse us and do good to those who hate us (Matthew 5:44). What are all these admonitions but a call to stop existing for ourselves, and start existing for others--placing ourselves last? 

This concept is also widely recognized in the secular world.
Image here. 

Who really wants to walk an extra mile with that Roman soldier? Who really wants to give up their cloak after they've already been sued for their coat? Who wants be kind to those who hate them? Right? Anybody? These are not natural reactions. Mastering them requires selflessness and a willingness to "place [ourselves] last." But we know from the Bible that keeping these commandments results in "last[ing] forever" through eternal life, and "acheiv[ing] [our] own goals" of salvation. 

Yin, Yang, and a Celestial Marriage

Now I want to note is the reference to Heaven and Earth. In Taoist philosophy, Heaven is yang and Earth is yin (Heaven is infinite, Earth is finite). So this is very much referring to the masculine and feminine aspects. In that way, it can be understood to be offering advice for a solid marriage, if you choose to read it that way. Heaven and Earth--yin and yang, masculine and feminine, male and female, "can last forever," because "they do not exist for themselves." The wise therefore "place themselves last but end up in front," "are outside of themselves and yet survive."

Yin and yang. Public domain.

But this is also Christian doctrine. I say Christian and not just Mormon because it is straight-up right there in the Bible. Here is one succinct scripture about the concept, Ephesians 5:23-25: 

23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. 24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. 25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 

 Christ is Infinite, the masculine aspect, and the church is finite, the feminine aspect; as Christ is yang to the Church, husbands are yang to their wives. Or at least, they are supposed to be.

Yin

Verse 24 commands wives to be "subject" to their husbands "in every thing." Not just some things, but actually everything (see also 1 Corinthians 7:10-14--where it is recommended that wives even stick with their "unbelieving husbands," and 1 Peter 3:1, where wifely "subjection" is said to make disobedient husbands come around to follow the Word). What is this, as a wife, but not existing for yourself? I can speak from experience when I say that subjecting yourself to your husband in all things necessarily means putting yourself last. In my case, I've made a number of sacrifices in order to keep the commandment to "subject" myself to my husband "in every thing."

Eve covenanted to obey her husband.

Yet, as his wife, I've enjoyed miracles as a result. Every time I have put my own self aside in order to keep that commandment, I've ended up being more blessed as a result. For more on this Biblical order, see Colossians 3:18 and Ephesians 5:22, or even just Genesis 3:16 and Moses 4:22 (and go ahead and recall the first covenant in the endowment ceremony). There's more than just that, also. Consider the Proclamation to the World on the Family. If fathers are to "preside," that puts them in the leadership position and the wife in the subordinate position. They are still "equal partners" when living this Biblical edict. Submission is not weakness; actually, it is strength, as the Tao Te Ching explains later. If God's house is a house of order, someone has to be in charge. The Bible explains who that person is supposed to be in a godly marriage.
And as the TTC explains, along with books on Biblical marriage like Fascinating Womanhood, and as personal experience will verify if you attempt it, living this actually does allow "Earth" or the yin aspect, women, to "achieve their own goals" as this chapter of the Tao Te Ching concludes. I can verify with personal experience that when I live this Biblical recommendation (if not commandment), I end up happier in the end.


Yang

On the yang side, men are commanded in the scripture I quoted about (Ephesians 5:25) to love their wives as Christ loved the church--to the point of giving up their lives for them. The Proclamation explains that the role of husband is to "preside," "provide," and "protect." This puts them in the leadership position in the home (a function only made possible by a wife willing to submit to his leadership), as well as in the position of working every day to provide the necessities of life, and in the position of protecting their family from harm. Those are all big jobs and come with a lot of responsibility. They take self-control, just as wifely submission takes self-control on the part of the wife.

Just as it is natural for women to want their own way, and to resist submission, it is natural for men to not want to work all the time, and not want the responsibility of a family. A functional marriage and family relies on both partners putting the other ahead of themselves. When a man puts his wife's needs above his own by providing for her, protecting her, and presiding over her and his family, even if he might rather be viewing pornography or playing video games full time, and when a woman meets her husband's needs by submitting even when he seems wrong or wants to do something she doesn't want to do, they both come out ahead.

[Obviously, pray and follow the Spirit with this. And no woman must obey a husband who commands something morally wrong. The Biblical pattern for a family is man and woman, yet we also allow for single parenthood while recognizing that it is not ideal. It is not our job to judge others' situations, but it IS our job to recognize what the scriptures say about the wife's role in marriage, and pray about how the Lord wants us to live that role. Sometimes the Lord wants us to get out of a bad marriage. But sometimes He wants us to follow the Bible instead, even though it is hard. Follow the Spirit.]

This is such a huge topic, it will need another post. Or two. Or three. Or a book. But hopefully this covers some of the basics.

To go back to the text of the chapter from a marriage-based perspective: when each partner in marriage decides "not to exist for themselves," they can "last forever." When we "place ourselves last," we "achieve our own goals."

Conclusion

 The Tao Te Ching provides a Biblically-sound pattern for marriages that fits with both ancient Christian writings--from as far back as Genesis--and modern LDS teachings, although the concepts are couched differently for each audience.

Tao Te Ching: Chapter 1 Commentary

This is part of a series examining the Tao Te Ching from a Christ-centered, LDS perspective.

Chapter 1 of the Tao Te Ching contains incredible beauty and depth--especially considering it is only nine lines long. Read it slowly: 

The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named is not the eternal name
The nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth
The named is the mother of myriad things
Thus, constantly without desire, one observes its essence
Constantly with desire, one observes its manifestations
These two emerge together but differ in name
The unity is said to be the mystery
Mystery of mysteries, the door to all wonders

God led me to this as I was floundering in the depths of what I call my "gender crisis." It's not that I felt transgender or something; I was just unhappy about the role of women and that I was doomed, as I felt at the time, to the feminine role. I hated femininity, and to be honest, I didn't really understand it, except that I felt it was inferior to masculinity. While I was struggling with the concept of gender and gender roles, that was when I started feeling the Holy Ghost nudge me to the text of the Tao Te Ching.

Temple Sealing

Image here.

I love this first chapter because it gets to the root of the Gospel. Or rather, what we know to be the root of the Gospel thanks to modern prophets and the temple. According to this chapter, the unity of masculine and feminine essences--the nameless and the named; the origin of Heaven and Earth and the mother of all living--is the "mystery of mysteries, the door to all wonders." That's Tao Te Ching speak for the Mormon term "eternal marriage." In the temple you have the opportunity to be sealed to your spouse for time and all eternity, creating a unity of both masculine and feminine essences that holds the key to all creation.

I love how it explains that the "two emerge together but differ in name," before explaining that their "unity is said to be a mystery/the mystery of mysteries, door to all wonders." This nine-line chapter can be interpreted so easily as a creation text, referring to God or to Adam and Eve. 

Fascinatingly, as Adam and Eve, yang and yin, or masculine and feminine, have differing names--but, in unity, they share the same name. Genesis 5:2 and Moses 6:9 both state that "Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam" (emphasis mine). This unity is said to be a mystery.

Parallel Structure

The chapter starts with a beautiful example of parallel structure: 

A: The Tao that can be spoken  

B: is not the eternal Tao  

A: The name that can be named 

B: is not the eternal name

This two-line introduction serves to explain the idea that the Tao, the way of the universe, is ineffable--too great to be described in words. Additionally, the "name that can be named is not the eternal name." Later on in the chapter, names are brought up--as Christians and Mormons in particular, we know that names are very important! The Tao Te Ching teaches that there is only so much we as mortals can understand about the nature of the universal force (Tao) or the "name," which I interpret as being the feminine aspect of the universal force. I make this assumption based on the next few lines, which refer to the nameless being the origin of the universe and the named as the mother of all things.

"The Tao is the way." Image here.

Chiastic Presence

One of the great testimonies of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon is the presence of chiastic structure throughout the text. (This Wikipedia page has a good example of the chiasmus in Mosiah 3:18, but the Book of Mormon includes gigantic chiasms and chiasms within chiasms--for example, the entirety of 3 Nephi 21 is a chiasm.) 
There are multiple chiastic structures within this brief chapter. The most important one, to me, is made up of lines 3, 4, 5, and 6: 

A: The nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth

B: The named is the mother of myriad things
B: Thus, constantly without desire, one observes its essence

A: Constantly with desire, one observes its manifestations

The one constantly without desire, whose essence we observe, is the mother of myriad things. Yin. The one constantly with desire, whose manifestations we observe, is the origin of Heaven and Earth. Yang.
Lines 8-9 also contain a chiasm:

A: The unity 

B: is said to be the mystery
B: Mystery of mysteries, 

A: the door to all wonders

"The mystery, mystery of mysteries," is the center part of this chiasm. The center of a chiasm is its focal point. From the chiastic structure here, we can understand that the unity [of masculine and feminine, yang and yin] is the door to wall wonders, as well as the mystery of mysteries.

Notably, read this about the English word "mystery" (emphasis mine):

English “mystery,” on the other hand, comes, via Latin, from Greek mysterion — a secret religious ceremony attended only by initiates. Mysterion, in turn, derives from mystes, the officiating priest at such a ceremony, and is related to the verb mnein, to seal one’s eyes or lips — that is, not to reveal the contents of the mysterion to others.

Now, obviously I haven't read the TTC in its original language. So I don't know if the word "mystery" here is an accurate translation of the literal meaning of the word in English. But if it is, it would indicate that the unity here is accomplished through sacred rites.

Temple sealing, anyone?

Implications for Yang and Yin

I mentioned earlier that God led me to this text while I was in the throes of a "gender crisis," basically hating everything feminine. As I read this, it broke my heart that the feminine is about essence while the masculine is about manifestation. At the time, I very much prized doing over being.

Later I realized that, as C. S. Lewis wrote,

Yin and yang. Public domain.

we are dealing with male and female not merely as facts of nature but as the live and awful shadows of realities utterly beyond our control and largely beyond our direct knowledge. Or rather, we are not dealing with them but (as we shall soon learn if we meddle) they are dealing with us.

Gender is a reality outside of our own minds. The Proclamation to the World on the Family really points this out. I realized that I could fight the fact that I am yin, feminine, by nature, and attempt to "do" instead of "be," to "manifest" instead of have an essence, but I would only fail. In the long term, as Lewis writes, we do not deal with male and female--they deal with us.

For me, realizing this meant I had to alter my worldview from one that was achievement-based to essence-based. Instead of "what have I done?" or "what will I do?" or "what am I doing?," I have had to learn to ask, "what am I?" and "who am I?"

Astoundingly, as I have made the shift from a yang-based view to a yin-based view of my own life, I have been rewarded with an increase in my spiritual gifts, an increase in my understanding of and testimony of the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ, an increase in the peace and order of my home, an increase in the love of my husband and children, and in increase of joy in my heart. When I first made the shift, or first thought of making the shift, I wasn't sure what there would be in it for me. I was so focused on doing, finding joy in being seemed impossible.

It isn't.

Conclusion

The way of the universe is ineffable. Gender is eternal. The door to all wonders is the mystery of the unity of the genders: temple sealing?