3 Bestowing no honors
Bones don’t know how to make trouble. It’s the will that creates disorder. When the mind is empty, the will is weak.
4 The Tao is so empty
But the nature of the Tao is to yield. Hence, Lao-tzu does not insist it came before. Thus, he says, ‘it seems.
A person who can adjust their light to that of the crowd and merge with the dust of the world is like a magic mushroom among ordinary plants. You can’t see it, but it makes everything smell better.
5 Heaven and Earth are heartless
When the main path has many side trails, sheep lose their way. When learning leads in many directions, students waste their lives in study
6 The valley spirit that doesn’t die
Thus Confucius said, ‘I don’t create. I only relate’ [Lunyu: 7.1]
The valley is what nourishes. Those able to nourish their spirit do not die. ‘Spirit’ means the spirits of the five organs: the gall bladder, the heart, the kidneys, and the spleen. When these five are injured, the five spirits leave.
7 Heaven is eternal and Earth is immortal
Heaven, Earth, and Humankind share the same origin. Why doesn’t Humankind share their immortality? Because Heaven and Earth are not aware they are Heaven and Earth. Only Humankind is self-aware. And being self-aware, there is nothing humans won’t do to stay alive. But the more they care for their life, the more pained their life becomes. The more they nourish their body, the sicker their body becomes. People who have not thought this out say the followers of Lao-tzu are afraid of death and only interested in immortality. But this is getting it backward.
8 The best are like water
The best are like water bringing help to all without competing choosing what others avoid they thus approach the Tao dwelling with earth thinking with depth helping with kindness speaking with honesty governing with peace working with skill and moving with time and because they don’t compete they aren’t maligned
The Tao does not exist, but water does. Hence, it only approaches the Tao.
10 Can you keep your crescent soul from wandering
The mind knows right and wrong. Breath makes no distinction. If we concentrate our breath and don’t let the mind interfere with it, it remains soft and pure. Who else but a child can do this?
Activity and stillness represent the male and the female. Just as stillness overcomes activity, the female overcomes the male.”
If we don’t obstruct their source, things come into existence on their own. If we don’t suppress their nature, things mature by themselves. Virtue is present, but its owner is unknown. It comes from the mysterious depths. Hence, we call it ‘dark.
11 Thirty spokes converge on a hub
Thirty spokes converge on a hub but it’s the emptiness that makes a wheel work pots are fashioned from clay but it’s the hollow that makes a pot work windows and doors are carved for a house but it’s the spaces that make a house work existence makes a thing useful but nonexistence makes it work
12 The five colors make our eyes blind
The eyes are never satisfied. The stomach knows when it is full.
14 We look but don’t see it
HO-SHANG KUNG entitles this verse “In Praise of the Dark” and says, “About what has no color, sound, or form, mouths can’t speak and books can’t teach. We can only discover it in stillness and search for it with our spirit. We cannot find it through investigation.”
18 When the Great Way disappears
When the realm is at peace, loyalty and honesty are nowhere to be seen. Innocence and virtue appear when the realm is in chaos.
Reason is what the sage uses to order the kingdom. It includes the arts, measurements, and laws. In the High Ages, people were innocent, and these were unknown. In the Middle Ages, people began to indulge their feelings, and rulers responded with reason. And once reason appeared, the people responded with deceit.
When the Great Way flourishes, kindness and justice are at work. But people don’t realize it. Only after the Great Way disappears, do kindness and justice become visible.
When the Great Way disappears we meet kindness and justice when reason appears we meet great deceit when the six relations fail we meet obedience and love when the country is in chaos we meet upright officials
19 Get rid of wisdom and reason
Get rid of sayings, and people will be their own sages.
Get rid of wisdom and reason and people will live a hundred times better get rid of kindness and justice and people once more will love and obey get rid of cleverness and profit and thieves will cease to exist but these three sayings are incomplete hence let these be added display the undyed and preserve the uncarved reduce self-interest and limit desires
20 Get rid of learning and problems will vanish
When we give up the study of phenomena and understand the principle of noninterference, troubles come to an end and distress disappears.
What passes for learning in the world never ends. For every truth found, two are lost. And while what we find brings joy, losses bring sorrow — sorrow that never ends.
22 The incomplete become whole
By exploring one side to its limits, we eventually find all sides. By grasping one thing, we eventually encompass the whole. The caterpillar bends in order to straighten itself. A hollow in the ground fills with water. The renewal of spring depends on the withering of fall. By having less, it’s easy to have more. By having more, it’s easy to become confused.
23 Whispered words are natural
if Heaven and Earth can’t make things last how much less can Humankind
24 Those who tiptoe don’t stand
travelers have a saying too much food and a tiring pace some things are simply bad
26 Heavy is the root of light
Heavy is the root of light still is the master of restless thus a lord might travel all day but never far from his supplies even in a guarded camp his manner is calm and aloof why would the lord of ten thousand chariots treat himself lighter than his kingdom too light he loses his base too restless he loses command
31 Weapons are not auspicious tools
Left’ refers to the east and the power of creation, while ‘right’ refers to the west and the power of destruction.
32 The Tao remains unnamed
If people embrace the simple and work without effort and don’t burden their true nature with material goods or injure their spirit with desires, all things will come to them on their own, and they will discover the Tao by themselves. To discover the Tao, nothing is better than embracing simplicity.
33 Those who know others are perceptive
Wisdom and strength are for dealing with the inside. Simplemindedness and weakness are for dealing with the outside.
The strength of those who conquer themselves is of ten kinds: the strength of faith, the strength of charity, the strength of morality, the strength of devotion, the strength of meditation, the strength of concentration, the strength of illumination, the strength of wisdom, the strength of the Way, and the strength of Virtue.” (Note the similarity of this list to Buddhism’s paramitas, or perfections)
37 The Tao makes no effort at all
The ancients ruled the world by doing nothing. This is the Virtue of Heaven. Heaven moves without moving
When people first change and begin to cultivate the Tao, they think about reaching a goal. Once this desire arises, it must be stilled with the Tao’s nameless simplicity.
41 When superior people hear of the Way
To hear of the Tao in the morning is to die content by nightfall
When superior people hear of the Way they follow it with devotion when average people hear of the Way they wonder if it exists when inferior people hear of the Way they laugh out loud if they didn’t laugh it wouldn’t be the Way hence these sayings arose the brightest path seems dark the path leading forward seems backward the smoothest path seems rough the highest virtue low the whitest white pitch-black the greatest virtue wanting the staunchest virtue timid the truest truth uncertain the perfect square without corners the perfect tool without uses the perfect sound hushed the perfect image without form for the Tao is hidden and nameless but because it’s the Tao
45 Perfectly complete it seems deficient
This is the meaning of Lao-tzu’s entire book: opposites complement each other.
47 Without going out your door
Without going out your door you can know the whole world without looking out your window you can know the Way of Heaven the farther people go the less they know sages therefore know without traveling name without seeing and succeed without trying
“‘Without traveling’ means to know without depending on previous or external experience. ‘Without seeing’ means to know that everything is empty and that there is nothing to see. ‘Without trying’ means to focus the spirit on the tranquillity that excels at making things happen.”
If we wait to see before we become aware and wait to become aware before we know, we can see ten thousand different views and still be blind to the reason that binds them all together.
Those who are sages understand other individuals by understanding themselves. They understand other families by understanding their own family. Thus, they understand the whole world.
48 Those who seek learning gain every day
Those who seek the Tao don’t use their ears or eyes. They look within, not without. They obey their natures, not their desires. They don’t value knowledge. They consider gaining as losing and losing as gaining.
Those who seek learning gain every day those who seek the Way lose every day they lose and they lose until they find nothing to do nothing to do means nothing not done those who rule the world aren’t busy those who are busy can’t rule the world
Introduction
The Taoteching is at heart a simple book. Written at the end of the sixth century B.C. by a man called Lao-tzu, it’s a vision of what our lives would be like if we were more like the dark, new moon. Lao-tzu teaches us that the dark can always become light and contains within itself the potential for growth and long life, while the light can only become dark and brings with it decay and early death. Lao-tzu chose long life. Thus, he chose the dark.
These are the two poles around which the Taoteching turns: the Tao, the dark, the body, the essence, the Way; and Te, the light, the function, the spirit, Virtue. In terms of origin, the Tao comes first. In terms of practice, Te comes first. The dark gives the light a place to shine.
60 Ruling a great state
If you cook a small fish, don’t remove its entrails, don’t scrape off its scales, and don’t stir it. If you do, it will turn to mush. Likewise, too much government makes those below rebel. And too much cultivation makes one’s vitality wither.
Commenting on the Taoteching is also like cooking a small fish. Better to have left it in the sea.
62 The Tao is creation’s sanctuary
The Tao is in us all. Though good and bad might differ, our nature is the same. How, then, can we abandon anyone?
63 Act without acting
If we repay wrongs with kindness, we put an end to revenge. If we repay wrongs with wrongs, revenge never ends.
65 The ancient masters of the Way
When the knowledge of bows and arrows arose, the birds above were troubled. When the knowledge of hooks and nets proliferated, the fish below were disturbed. When the knowledge of snares and traps spread, the creatures of the wild were bewildered. When the knowledge of argument and disputation multiplied, the people were confused. Thus are the world’s troubles due to the love of knowledge
What the sage values is virtue. What others value is knowledge. Virtue and knowledge are opposites. Knowledge is seldom harmonious, while virtue is always harmonious.
66 The reason the sea can govern a hundred rivers
Rivers don’t flow toward the sea because of its reputation or its power but because it does nothing and seeks nothing.
67 The world calls me great
The world honors daring, exalts ostentation, and emphasizes progress. What the sage treasures is patience, frugality, and humility, all of which the world considers useless.
70 My words are easy to understand
The Tao is easy to understand and easy to put into practice. It is also hard to understand and hard to put into practice. It is easy because there is no Tao to discuss, no knowledge to learn, no effort to make, no deeds to perform. And it is hard because the Tao cannot be discussed, because all words are wrong, because it cannot be learned, and because the mind only leads us astray. Effortless stillness is not necessarily right, and actionless activity is not necessarily wrong. This is why it is hard.
1 The way that becomes a way
During Lao-tzu’s day, philosophers were concerned with the correspondence, or lack of it, between name and reality. The things we distinguish as real change, while their names do not. How then can reality be known through names?
From the infinitesimal all things develop. From nothing all things are born. When we are free of desire, we can see the infinitesimal where things begin. When we are subject to desire, we can see where things end.
Sages don’t reveal the Way because they keep it secret, but because it can’t be revealed. Thus their words are like footsteps that leave no tracks.
80 Imagine a small state with a small population
They are satisfied with their food because they taste the Tao. They are pleased with their clothing because they are adorned with virtue. They are content with their homes because they are content wherever they are. And they are happy with their customs because they soften the glare of the world.
People who are satisfied with their food and pleased with their clothes cherish their lives and don’t tempt death. People who are content with their homes and happy with their customs don’t move far away. They grow old and die where they were born.
2 All the world knows beauty
When one is present, both are present. When one is absent, both are absent.
Sages are not interested in deeds or words. They simply follow the natural pattern of things. Things rise, develop, and reach perfection. This is their order.