Buddhist Perspective on Tao Te Ching Chapter 2: The Ugliest is the Beauty Queen
Wong Weng Hon
天下皆知美之爲美, 斯惡也;
皆知善之爲善, 斯不善已.
故有無相生, 難易相成,
長短相形, 高下相傾,
音聲相和, 先後相隨.
是以聖人處無爲之事,
行不言之教.
Translation:
When the people of the world recognize beauty as beauty,
There arises the recognition of ugliness.
When they know the good as good,
there arises the perception of the evil.
Thereby there arise the discriminations
between existence and non-existence
between difficult and easy
between long and short
between high and low
between music and sound
between beginning and ending
Hence, the saints commit unconditioned actions
and practise the effable truth
Before we examine the wisdom content of the aforementioned stanzas, it is helpful to elucidate the logical paradox apparently mirrored from the title of the chapter two of Tao Te Ching composed by the ancient Chinese Taoist Philosopher, Lao-tzu. To the spiritually non-discerning one or non-knower, the assertion of ‘The Ugliest is the Beauty Queen’ seems to be a logical paradox – an illogical proposition put forwards by the insane. Paradoxically, such a statement of wisdom is uttered by a spiritual or religious saint. All saints speak truthfully. Whoever speaks falsely can not become a saint. Ontologically put, the identity of opposites that affirmation equals negation, in actuality, depicts the absolute Truth of ultimate Reality. This is the reason why sometimes, enlightenment is depicted as a mystical experience of the Seer or Knower of Truth.
Śākyamuni promulgates that the Ultimate Reality is neither absolute existence nor absolute non-existence or it is both absolute existence and absolute non-existence (Kaccāyanagotta-sutta;S2.17). Isn’t this identity of the opposites a logical paradox? The Truth of the identity of the opposites actually mirrors the ultimate Reality of the empirical world. The logical paradox mirriors the ultimate Truth because the eternal Truth is ineffable and therefore is described as the mystical experience. In reality, enlightenment experience is designated as the mystical experience because the intellectual mind can not apprehend it. Only the intuitive mind of the inner Heart can discern it.
Please follow the following exegesis or purport carefully so that one will emerge with the wisdom to comprehend one’s own religion better. Let me captivate you: Tao Te Ching of Lao-tzu is actually a treatise which expounds the truth of Ultimate Reality of all religions – Unity of Being or Existence. Oneness of Being or Existence is the infinite oneness of the universe which can be metaphorically illustrated in terms of borderless Ocean of Unity. The Tao connotes the eternal Truth of Unity or Non-duality – the oneness of the cosmos or the unity of the world. Whoever perceives the One in the many and the many in the One will relinquish the notion of discrimination or dichotomy in the world of multiplicity.
A metaphor will help illustrate the Truth. Let us assume that Miss Rajamani had won the national beauty contest of her country, India. The whole Indian populace extolled and accepted the collective decision of the national contest judges: Miss Rajamani was indeed the most beautiful beauty queen in India currently among the ten finalists. Let us assume again that ten most beautiful and most intelligent actresses from Indian Bodywood were invited to stand before Miss Rajamani to witness and grace the crowning ceremony. All these ten actresses had acted in the world renowned James Bond films. Each of them has co-acted together with James Bond as his intimate lover. These ten actresses instantly captivated the attention of the audience who were visibly mesmerized by their charms and beauties. Intuitively, they concluded within their minds: The Miss India was relatively the ugliest in comparison with the ten Indian actresses standing before her. Likewise, it can also be verified that the ten Indian actresses may not be the most beautiful if we were to fly them over to Hollywood in United States to compare them with popular Hollywood’s stars there. The vindicates that the notion of discrimination or dichotomy is an illusion. Paradoxically, we function with so much dichotomy in our lives.
Therefore, we can comfortably conclude that beauty is relative and impermanent. What are relative and impermanent are merely illusions and unreality. Religious masters unveil this religious Truth to us.
The great Chinese saint, Lao-tze only unveiled the eternal Truth that the conventional designation or label does not mirror the real truth. In truth, we are admonished not only by Lao-tzu, but also by Brahman, Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad not to be deluded by apparent multiplicity and ignorant discrimination. Discriminative knowledge, directed and empowered by self-centric ego, can be damaging physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. It engenders the three poisons of life greed, hatred and delusion.
Greed, hatred and delusion evoke selfish attachment towards the likes and evil aversion towards the dislikes. These two forces of selfish attachment and evil aversion result in human conflict, disputations, tensions, suffering or anguish and so forth. The current clashes of civilizations between the west and east, between the west and west and between the east and east are the results of political, economic, religious and racial discriminations and prejudices. Succinctly put, discriminations and prejudices evoke human fallibilities, vulnerabilities and enmities. Non-discriminative or non-dual wisdom construct bridges between human beings of dissimilar creeds, colours and races. It promotes and fosters the alliances of civilizations in the spirit of one human family in a global village.
Non-discriminative Wisdom
Therefore, Lao-tzu admonishes us not to discriminate between good and evil, existence and non-existence, difficult and easy, long and short, high and low, music and sound, beginning and ending and so forth. Likewise, all religious saints expound the communal Truth of Non-discrimination or Unity. Here, may I remind that non-discriminative wisdom is solely exercised to obliterate self-centric ego but not to deny relative or conventional existence or non-existence in the phenomenal world. The underlying agenda is to dwell in the inner Heart of Man known as Tao without rejecting worldliness. Tao is synonymous with Brahman, Buddha, God and Allah. When the Heart in which intuitive mind is applied, non-discriminative wisdom is applied spiritually to annihilate the grasping of self or ego. When the mind or head, which is conceptual or intellectual, is utilize to transact life in the conventional or secular world, the discriminative knowledge of the conventional realities can not be abandoned. The conventional knowledge, such as languages and concepts though illusive and unreal, is necessitated by the daily needs of human intercommunication and social intercourses. The non-discriminative wisdom is then utilized to negative the grasping or clinging which may be evoked by object discrimination. Both the inner Heart and conceptual mind are to be utilized simultaneously with the former predominating over the latter in order to destroy the self-centric ego. The reflected moon in the water and moon in the sky ought to be perceived simultaneously so that we would walk rightly and heedfully in the mundane world of great sensual challenges and tests.
The inner Heart is sought to appease the chatter of the noisy intellectual or conceptual mind. The head or mind is used to recognize the conventional world to facilitate human interactions effectively. This middle path helps strike a happy balance between the conventional truth and ultimate Truth or between the phenomena and the principle. It is evident that secularity does not collide with spirituality. In fact, they are mutually synergizing and reinforcing to produce the highest good called unity, harmony and bliss. Most importantly spiritual wisdom must predominate over intellectual wisdom to reduce or obliterate selfishness, conceit or insanity.
Owing to the implementation of the wisdom of middle path of Tao, the saints are adept at committing all altruistic actions without attachment or aversion. The middle path is philosophical wisdom which produces the wisdom of all actions with equanimity. These unconditioned actions of equanimity are dissimilarly designated. It is called Chan or Zen in Mahāyāna tradition, Advaita (non-dualism) in Hindus’ Vedānta tradition and al-fanā’ (ego destruction) in Islamic Sufi tradition. All these dissimilar designations of the Absolute is called Tao by Lao-tzu. Even Lao-tzu warns us that Tao is ineffable: Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao. A phenomenon that can be designated is not permanent and immutable. Therefore, the beauty of a beauty queen is an impermanent and mutable phenomenon. What is permanent and immutable is Tao which is generally known as God. While we are seeking the eternal Tao, we are admonished by the supreme masters not to neglect what are impermanent and mutable in our mundane life to facilitate intercommulation and social intercourses. What are impermanent and mutable have not only pragmatic value in our mundane life transactions but also they are the expedient devices or skillful means by which the absolute Truth is discerned. Without the self-actualization of Tao, we will not be able to practise the wisdom expounded by the Chinese ancient sages who preach thus: If harmony exists in all enterprises, all enterprises are prosperous (萬和萬事興). When harmony is present, Tao is present (和者道也).
Don’t you see that there are numerous micro-unities everywhere ? Unity is related to success or perfection which is a necessary phenomenon resulted from unity of contigent conditions. Hence, the winning of a soccer match is the ultimate Truth of Unity ; Deer Park publication is the Truth of Unity ; Having three meals a day is also the Truth of Unity and so forth. May I reiterate that attainment is a necessary phenomenon dependently co-arisen from the unity of the contigent conditions. There are countless or myriad beings in the universe. If any of the contingent condition is impaired or eliminated, the Tao is removed. Tao, which is the unity of contigent conditions, is actually the unity of God. Tao is intimately correlated with human wisdom and virtue which effect the energy of Unity. The quest of Tao is the fundamental need of a civilized or cultured man. It is self-rectification (正心) and self-cultivation (修身) by which the knower and practioner harmonize oneself and others (齊家). The world should be perceived as the metaphor of a giant ship conglomerated from the unity of countless contigent parts or components which maybe either human or non-human conditions. A heedless captain of the ship or his crew may not see the tip of the iceberg in the darkness of the night. That unheedfulness or negligence could bring a catastrophe for all passengers on board. The first tragic Titanic Liner in human history is a good lesson for all of us to learn from. |
