Indian stream·Tao Te Ching·Chapter 5 — Heaven and Earth Are Not Humane
Treating the ten thousand things as straw dogs
Heaven and earth are impartial; the sage is impartial. Between heaven and earth, the space is like a bellows — empty yet inexhaustible, moved yet ever-producing.
Source context
- Theme
- impartial generativity of Heaven and Earth: the cosmos as bellows, treating all beings without preference
- Soul-faculty
- Sentient Soul
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Advaita VedantaThe Upanishadic concept of Brahman as nirguna — without qualities and beyond partiality — exhibits cross-tradition congruence with the Tao's refusal to favour sages or straw-dogs, both principles generating all things without discrimination.
- Stoic cosmologyThe Stoic pneuma as an active, impersonal breath pervading and animating all matter shows cross-tradition congruence with Chapter 5's image of Heaven and Earth as an inexhaustible bellows producing all things without moral preference.
- Kabbalistic Ein SofThe Kabbalistic Ein Sof, the infinite that emanates without will or purpose directed at any particular creature, exhibits cross-tradition congruence with the Tao's non-preferential generativity described in this chapter.
Chapter 5
Heaven and earth do not act from (the impulse of) any wish to be benevolent; they deal with all things as the dogs of grass are dealt with. The sages do not act from (any wish to be) benevolent; they deal with the people as the dogs of grass are dealt with.
May not the space between heaven and earth be compared to a bellows?
'Tis emptied, yet it loses not its power; 'Tis moved again, and sends forth air the more. Much speech to swift exhaustion lead we see; Your inner being guard, and keep it free.