Indian stream·Tao Te Ching·Chapter 36 — Subtle Light
To shrink something, first expand it
What is to be shrunk must first be expanded; what is to be weakened must first be strengthened. This is called subtle illumination (wēi míng). The soft and weak overcome the hard and strong.
Source context
- Theme
- strategic yielding as the mechanism by which the weak overcomes the strong
- Soul-faculty
- Consciousness Soul
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Daoist principle of wu-weiChapter 36 crystallizes the Daoist paradox that contraction precedes expansion and softness overcomes hardness, a structural corollary to the broader wu-wei doctrine running through the Tao Te Ching.
- Aristotelian potency and actThe chapter's logic that a thing must be drawn toward its limit before reversal occurs shows cross-tradition congruence with Aristotle's account of how potency is actualized through its apparent opposite.
- Kabbalistic principle of tzimtzumThe image of voluntary withdrawal enabling subsequent manifestation exhibits cross-tradition congruence with the Lurianic Kabbalistic doctrine of divine self-contraction as the precondition for creative emanation.
Chapter 36
When one is about to take an inspiration, he is sure to make a (previous) expiration; when he is going to weaken another, he will first strengthen him; when he is going to overthrow another, he will first have raised him up; when he is going to despoil another, he will first have made gifts to him:--this is called 'Hiding the light (of his procedure).'
The soft overcomes the hard; and the weak the strong.
Fishes should not be taken from the deep; instruments for the profit of a state should not be shown to the people.