III.
THE ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY
The Chinese written texts that have been preserved to this day go back to the time of Confucius(2) or a little before. All the great philosophers were in that period, the 5th century B.C. We will speak about the greatest of them: Lao Tzu and Confucius.
First we will look at the book of Lao Tzu, called the Tao Teh Ching. This is a deep philosophy. It is a tiny book which is very profound-so profound you can get lost. The first line of that book begins with the word Tao, which means "Path." Lao Tzu used this as the central part of his philosophy, as in the West they used Logos. The center of the universe is Tao, the path of life.
The book begins by saying:
Tao, which could either mean "path" or the verb "to path";
Kuh, which means "can";
Tao
Fe, which means "not";
Ch'ang, which means constant ;
Tao
This comes out to read: "Tao can Tao no constant Tao." How do you interpret it? It is a baffling thing because you can interpret it all kinds of different ways. We have a basic verb here, kuh ("can"), and the verb "can" must take a verb after it. Therefore the word that comes after kuh, which is tao, must be a verb; and the word that comes before kuh, which is also Tao, must be a noun, the subject of the sentence. Thus the sentence says something like: "The Tao that can be Taoed is not a constant Tao." Usually it is translated: "The Tao that can be travelled on, or the Tao that can be expressed as a Tao, or the Tao that is taoable, is not a constant." Or else: "The Tao (path) upon which you can walk is not a constant path." This is something that you just let yourself go into, and you do not define it.
Here, of course, Lao Tzu is using a paradox. He does this in many other places, such as: "He that knows does not speak; he that speaks does not know," and: "How do I know this? by this!" In another place he writes: "Thirty spokes join in a single hub; it is the center hole that makes the wheel useful." Is it the spokes that make the wheel turn? No, it's the empty place in the middle. Without that there won't be any going-there will be spokes lying on the ground doing nothing. It is due to the empty space that they go. Although some people think Lao Tzu's philosophy is very mystical, I think it is more on a natural level. The language is not vague; it is actually very precise. He deliberately uses these images and appears vague because he wants to convey something that is not a precise, defined teaching. In interpreting texts like the lao Teh Ching, the Chinese say you must first of all go to the commentaries, then you must have a teacher who is supposed to teach you these things. They are very intent on this: you have to have it personally given to you by your teacher. They do not accept the idea of just reading in books; you have books, but only the teacher can give you the teachings in the books.