Indian stream·Tao Te Ching·Chapter 22 — Yielding to Be Whole
Bent and so straight; empty and so full
Yield and remain whole; bend and remain straight; empty and become full; wear out and be renewed. The sage embraces the One and becomes a model for the world.
Source context
- Theme
- yielding and self-emptying as the condition for wholeness and renewal
- Soul-faculty
- Consciousness Soul
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Vedanta (kenosis of ego)The Advaita principle of neti-neti — negating all partial self-assertions to arrive at the undivided Atman — shows cross-tradition congruence with the Taoist counsel that bending, yielding, and emptying are the path to completeness.
- Christian mysticism (Meister Eckhart, Gelassenheit)Eckhart's teaching of Abgeschiedenheit (detachment) and the soul's self-emptying before the divine ground exhibits cross-tradition congruence with Chapter 22's axiom that the one who does not contend is preserved intact.
- Kabbalah (tzimtzum)The Lurianic concept of tzimtzum — divine self-contraction as the precondition for creation and fullness — shows cross-tradition congruence with the structural logic of yielding-to-become-whole articulated in this chapter.
Chapter 22
The partial becomes complete; the crooked, straight; the empty, full; the worn out, new. He whose (desires) are few gets them; he whose (desires) are many goes astray.
Therefore the sage holds in his embrace the one thing (of humility), and manifests it to all the world. He is free from self- display, and therefore he shines; from self-assertion, and therefore he is distinguished; from self-boasting, and therefore his merit is acknowledged; from self-complacency, and therefore he acquires superiority. It is because he is thus free from striving that therefore no one in the world is able to strive with him.
That saying of the ancients that 'the partial becomes complete' was not vainly spoken:--all real completion is comprehended under it.