Indian stream·Tao Te Ching·Chapter 42 — Tao Gives Birth to One
One gives birth to two, two to three, three to the ten thousand things
Tao gave birth to One; One to Two; Two to Three; Three to the ten thousand things. The ten thousand things carry yin and embrace yang; through the breath of vital union (chōng qì) they reach harmony.
Source context
- Theme
- emanation of multiplicity from primordial unity, and the generative triad of Tao, One, Two, Three
- Soul-faculty
- Consciousness Soul
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Neoplatonism (Plotinus, Enneads)The procession from the One through Nous to Soul and thence to multiplicity exhibits cross-tradition congruence with Chapter 42's sequence of Tao generating One, Two, Three, and the ten-thousand things.
- Samkhya-Yoga cosmologyThe unfolding of Purusha through Prakriti into the tattvic series shows cross-tradition congruence with the triad-to-multiplicity structure of Chapter 42.
- Kabbalah (Sefirot doctrine)The emanative descent from Ein Sof through the first three Sefirot into the full Tree of Life displays cross-tradition congruence with the numerical emanation sequence in Chapter 42.
Chapter 42
The Tao produced One; One produced Two; Two produced Three; Three produced All things. All things leave behind them the Obscurity (out of which they have come), and go forward to embrace the Brightness (into which they have emerged), while they are harmonised by the Breath of Vacancy.
What men dislike is to be orphans, to have little virtue, to be as carriages without naves; and yet these are the designations which kings and princes use for themselves. So it is that some things are increased by being diminished, and others are diminished by being increased.
What other men (thus) teach, I also teach. The violent and strong do not die their natural death. I will make this the basis of my teaching.