Indian stream·Tao Te Ching·Chapter 20 — Alone, Differing From Others
I alone seem foolish; I alone am nourished by the mother
Between yes and no — how slight the difference. Between good and evil — how much greater. The sage stands apart, drifting like an infant who cannot yet smile, alone in being fed by the Mother.
Source context
- Theme
- radical self-alienation from collective consensus as the price of awakened solitude
- Soul-faculty
- Consciousness Soul
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Advaita VedantaThe figure of the viveka-vairagya sage — one who has renounced conventional valuation and stands apart from the crowd in discriminative detachment — shows cross-tradition congruence with the Taoist sage's self-description in Chapter 20 as alone, drifting, and unlike ordinary people.
- Apophatic mysticism (Meister Eckhart / Rhineland school)Eckhart's teaching on Abgeschiedenheit (detachment from worldly opinion and the herd-mind) shows cross-tradition congruence with the chapter's portrayal of the sage as one who has abandoned learned distinctions and stands in a kind of holy foolishness.
- Buddhist tradition — concept of the pratyekabuddhaThe pratyekabuddha, who achieves awakening in solitude outside collective transmission, shows cross-tradition congruence with the solitariness and apparent incomprehensibility of the sage figure in Chapter 20.
Chapter 20
When we renounce learning we have no troubles. The (ready) 'yes,' and (flattering) 'yea;'-- Small is the difference they display. But mark their issues, good and ill;-- What space the gulf between shall fill?
What all men fear is indeed to be feared; but how wide and without end is the range of questions (asking to be discussed)!
The multitude of men look satisfied and pleased; as if enjoying a full banquet, as if mounted on a tower in spring. I alone seem listless and still, my desires having as yet given no indication of their presence. I am like an infant which has not yet smiled. I look dejected and forlorn, as if I had no home to go to. The multitude of men all have enough and to spare. I alone seem to have lost everything. My mind is that of a stupid man; I am in a state of chaos.
Ordinary men look bright and intelligent, while I alone seem to be benighted. They look full of discrimination, while I alone am dull and confused. I seem to be carried about as on the sea, drifting as if I had nowhere to rest. All men have their spheres of action, while I alone seem dull and incapable, like a rude borderer. (Thus) I alone am different from other men, but I value the nursing-mother (the Tao).