Daodejing Chapter One revisited

I took another look at chapter 1 of the Daodejing and noticed anew the middle section. It has two lines that have to do with no-desire and desire. Addiss and Lombardo translate it character by character as:

Empty of desire, perceive mystery.
Filled with desire, perceive manifestations.

“Empty of desire” may miss something here. The Chinese is wu-yu “non-desire”, which may mean not the absence of desire, but “objectless” or “non-coercive” desire.

What interests me is that the text seems to value non-coercive desire, and to also value more traditional desire. Both may have a place in the Way. Non-coercive desire allows us to observe the mystery; traditional desire allows us to observe the boundaries (as Ames and Hall translate it.)

This is intriguing and may have implications for our Zen practice. What boundaries is this chapter talking about? How does having the desire (for example: for chocolate cake, or to want to enjoy the pleasure of Tai-chi) allow us to see boundaries? What part does desire play in our practice? Food for thought. I would be interested in your thoughts on this.

First blog post

I've never posted to a blog before, so here goes a new experience. I really enjoyed studying the Dao and look forward to our recap meeting. I'm interested to hear how others have found that this study has informed (or not) their practice as well as their understanding of Zen.

Daodejing chapter 80 (Addiss and Lombardo)

80
Small country, few people -

Hundreds of devices,
But none are used.

People ponder on death
And don't travel far.

They have carriages and boats,
But no one goes on board;
Weapons and armour,
But no one brandishes them.
They use knotted cords for counting.
Sweet is their food,
Beautiful their clothes,
Peaceful their homes,
Delightful their customs.

Neighboring countries are so close
You can hear their chickens and dogs.
But people grow old and die
Without needing to come and go.

Verse of the Han

Completely freed from yes and no;
great emptiness charged within;
no questions, no answers;
like a fish, like a fool.