Indian stream·Tao Te Ching·Chapter 40 — Returning and Weakness
Returning is the movement of the Tao
Returning (fǎn) is the movement of the Tao; weakness is the function of the Tao. The ten thousand things are born of being; being is born of non-being.
Source context
- Theme
- return to non-being as the generative root of all being; reversal (fan) as the movement of the Tao
- Soul-faculty
- Consciousness Soul
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Vedanta (Nirguna Brahman)The Upanishadic teaching that Brahman without qualities (nirguna) is the unmanifest ground from which all manifestation proceeds shows cross-tradition congruence with Chapter 40's assertion that being arises from non-being.
- Neoplatonism (Plotinus, Enneads)Plotinus's account of the One as beyond being, from which emanation flows and to which return is directed, parallels structurally the Taoist principle that reversal (fan) toward the formless is the fundamental motion of the Tao.
- Kabbalah (Ayin / Ein Sof)The Kabbalistic distinction between Ayin (no-thing) and Yesh (being), in which creation emerges from and returns to Ayin, shows cross-tradition congruence with Chapter 40's polarity of being and non-being as cosmo-generative principles.
Chapter 40
The movement of the Tao By contraries proceeds; And weakness marks the course Of Tao's mighty deeds.
All things under heaven sprang from It as existing (and named); that existence sprang from It as non-existent (and not named).