Lao Tzu And The Untangled Knots
“Blunt the sharpness, untangle the knots, soften the glare …”
What did Lao Tzu mean by the phrase “Untangle the knots”?
The purpose of a knot is generally to secure something, tie something down or hold something in place. In psychological terms therefore, it could be argued that a “knot” is a mental construct which we use to cling to things such as possessions, identity, opinions or ideas. One of the most common kinds of mental knots can be found in religious communities where certain dogmas are highly prized and adherence to them even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contradiction of these dogmas is perceived as an honorable and holy pursuit. The same kinds of knots can be found in the minds of those who claim to be “spiritual but not religious” and insist with great fervor that all religions and faiths are equal in value and validity in spite of their mutually contradictory contents.
Having considered this, it can be said the process of untangling our mental knots involves voluntarily releasing our desire to be “right” or “correct” in the case of such things as deeply held religious beliefs and also relinquishing the desire be more “tolerant” or “respectful” of other faiths than other people because both of these activities a form of “religious one- upmanship”, in other words a method of trying to be superior to others either by being aggressive or passive aggressive. Both of these attitudes constitute various kinds of mental knots that are used to cling to the illusion of our own personal goodness or righteousness, something that the atheist Bible scholar Dr Robert M Price once referred to as “Salvation by cognitive works”.
If we use the model of religious beliefs as a template of what a mental knot looks like we can then take that template and use it to examine mental knots in other areas of our lives, for example during various kinds of confrontations. During a confrontation our egos may generate a desire to “win” the battle of interpersonal conflict and this is another clear example of a mental knot which is used to cling to the goal of personal victory over our adversary. In this hypothetical scenario this knot is holding our mind away from the low position of the Dao and causing the mind to be stiff, unmoving and unchanging like a dead carcass. Only when the knot is untangled and the mind returns to the watercourse way of the Dao do we “Resurrect” into a lifelike state in which we can flow unhindered by our mental knots. I believe that this is the underlying principle behind Jesus’ instruction to “Turn the other cheek” which is a method consciously preventing a mental knot from forming on occasions when it is safe to do so and you are not literally being assaulted (it’s worth considering that Jesus might have been indulging in the Jewish tradition of deliberate exaggeration to make a teaching point).

