Indian stream·Tao Te Ching·Chapter 38 — Higher Virtue
Higher virtue is not virtuous, and therefore has virtue
Opens the Te (Virtue) book. Higher virtue does not aim at virtue and so has virtue. Lower virtue never lets go of virtue and so has none. When the Tao is lost, virtue arises; then humaneness; then righteousness; then ritual — the husk of faith and the beginning of disorder.
Source context
- Theme
- decline from virtue through the stages of Te, benevolence, righteousness, and ritual propriety — the descending hierarchy of ethical action as distance from the Tao increases
- Soul-faculty
- Consciousness Soul
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Aristotelian ethicsAristotle's hierarchy from contemplative virtue down to habituated moral action parallels the chapter's descent from spontaneous Te through deliberate benevolence and righteousness to the compulsory enforcement of ritual propriety.
- Advaita VedantaThe Vedantic distinction between para-bhakti (non-dual absorption) and the descending grades of sadhana mirrors the chapter's structure: proximity to the Tao corresponds to effortless action (wu-wei), while distance requires increasingly prescribed conduct.
- Kabbalistic four-world schemaThe four-world hierarchy of Atziluth, Beriah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah exhibits cross-tradition congruence with Chapter 38's four-stage descent from undivided virtue to ritual enforcement, each level representing a further mediation of divine presence.
Chapter 38
(Those who) possessed in highest degree the attributes (of the Tao) did not (seek) to show them, and therefore they possessed them (in fullest measure). (Those who) possessed in a lower degree those attributes (sought how) not to lose them, and therefore they did not possess them (in fullest measure).
(Those who) possessed in the highest degree those attributes did nothing (with a purpose), and had no need to do anything. (Those who) possessed them in a lower degree were (always) doing, and had need to be so doing.
(Those who) possessed the highest benevolence were (always seeking) to carry it out, and had no need to be doing so. (Those who) possessed the highest righteousness were (always seeking) to carry it out, and had need to be so doing.
(Those who) possessed the highest (sense of) propriety were (always seeking) to show it, and when men did not respond to it, they bared the arm and marched up to them.
Thus it was that when the Tao was lost, its attributes appeared; when its attributes were lost, benevolence appeared; when benevolence was lost, righteousness appeared; and when righteousness was lost, the proprieties appeared.
Now propriety is the attenuated form of leal-heartedness and good faith, and is also the commencement of disorder; swift apprehension is (only) a flower of the Tao, and is the beginning of stupidity.
Thus it is that the Great man abides by what is solid, and eschews what is flimsy; dwells with the fruit and not with the flower. It is thus that he puts away the one and makes choice of the other.