No Knowledge, No Desires

老子

八

~What does Lao Tzu mean by “no knowledge, no desires’”? Is this realisable and desirable for humans?

~What role does such an ideal play in the philosophy of Lao Tzu?

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Tao Te Ching, 71

To know that you do not know is the best.

To pretend to know when you do not know is a disease.

The Apology, 21e

“…the fact that neither of us knows anything beautiful and good, but he thinks he does know when he doesn’t, and I don’t know and don’t think I do: so I am wiser than he is by only this trifle, that what I do not know I don’t think I do.”

Away from the mundane and seemingly important life of the most, a self-realised man, like an infant, is unattached. He is aware of his predicament and so he refuses to bother himself with what is materially external to him. He lets it be and accept things as they come his way. He walks with no direction but he moves when it is time to move and rests when it is time to do so. A self-realised man is one who does not let material possession and egoistic virtues fulfil him but he is one who lets nature nurture and feed him. Because he takes no part does not imply that he is indifferent. It just means that he has no read-between-the-lines self-interest and because of this, he can see the clear picture from where he is. Involved but not quite, just grounded. 

A self-realised person is one who knows without going. He does not need to be out there to gain and accumulate things that will never make sense. As a person makes the Tao as his home and his ground, walking away to seek material knowledge will only blunder and dull the mind. And so he stays there, within the Tao, because he knows better than to reach for something that is against the Tao; because he knows better and his knowledge comes with experience and maturity. The knowledge is given to him by nature itself. Non-action is key. Therefore go back on what is knowledge for you. Go back and see what value you put upon that knowledge that you are trying to reach. Because if it is not the way of the Tao, one step forward is three steps backward. 

A self-realised person is one who is honest towards both the honest and the dishonest. He is one who tells the emperor that he has no clothes. He treats the liar with honestly because he does not discriminate between the black and the white. He sees people as they are and treat them consistently. And because he makes no distinction between the kind and the unkind he is true to anything and everything. Therefore there is true honestly and kindness in his actions: be the samaritan! 

And as the Tao is within me I do not court Death: And yet silence will soon descend on all these noisy, living, life-thirsty people (The Gay Science, Nietzsche, 1974, pg. 225). I do not collar my neck to life for it only calls upon Death, the tighter I tie myself to it. People who know better and value life with respect to the Tao accepts life and allows Time to unfold it as it is. Without provoking death nor clinging to life, a self-realised person knows that he is but a visitor in this world and that he too, shall pass. He is a child when he is a child. He is a man when he is a man. He does not interfere with nature and does not find ways to maintain his youth. He does not interfere with nature and does not find ways to fast-forward his life to the brink of death. Therefore, do not do things that are contrary to nature. Do not wallow in desire when you have no use for it in your life, and do remain humble: To know Tao and say you do not it is the best (He Shang Kung, Chan, 1963). 

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Nietzsche, 1961

“You look up when you desire to be exalted. And I look down, because I am exalted.”

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