Introduction

This verse examines the relationship between reverence and engagement.

It suggests that awe, when inflated, can create distance, stagnation, and ultimately disengagement. Irreverence, by contrast, deepens our relationship to ourselves and the world in a way that enacts true reverence.

The lines that follow offer structural checks for balance between being and becoming, and point to the quiet integrity that allows one to Weave the Way.

Translation

People’s irreverence
  leads to the greatest reverence.

They do not grow too familiar with
  their abiding.
They do not tire of
  their arising.

Not tiring of things
  is how to stay engaged.

This is why the Wise
  Know themselves and
    do not present themselves.
  Love themselves
    And do not overvalue themselves.

Therefore,
  They discard withdrawal
    And
  Hold This. 

Commentary

People’s irreverence
  leads to the greatest reverence. 

A subtle thing happens when we view something with awe. We set it apart from ourselves. We see that it is special and beyond us. We long to draw near but keep ourselves at a distance. A strange relationship emerges: distant longing and subtle subordination.

The paradoxical result is that awe-filled desire prevents us from giving our most incredible gift: our whole being. 

They do not grow too familiar with
  their abiding.
They do not tire of
  their arising.

A certain amount of irreverence enables a lightness in our experience, allowing us to maintain an open, childlike, and perhaps flippant attitude toward our current station, as well as our origins. This lightness keeps things fresh, as though in an intimate dialogue with our dearest friend. We jest, we poke, we allow ourselves to be vulnerable. We disagree, emote, and clash. We reconcile and do it all again. This is the whole dynamic of being in a relationship.

What is more awe-inspiring than an intimacy that requires no performance?

Many other translators and commentators restrict the meaning of abiding (居，jū) and arising (生, shēng) to hierarchical social contexts, meaning one’s social class by profession and status by birth. Such aspects are included here; however, throughout Weaving the Way, we have been invited to integrate abiding as being (Dao) and arising as becoming (De) into a way of life. In other verses, these terms have indicated abiding and arising, as we do here. 

At this level, the text invites us not to exalt being over becoming, and not to become so lost in becoming that we forget our being. Both benefit from a certain degree of irreverence!