TRANSLATIONS
Stephen
Mitchell
Stan
Rosenthal
Charles
Muller
INTERPRETATIONS
Ron Hogan
George
Cronk
Peter
Merel
Headless
Tao
ABOUT TAO TE CHING
Wikipedia
The
Big View
ABOUT TAOISM
Chad Hansen's
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TAO TE
CHING -- by Lao Tzu, As Understood by Roshi
Bob
They say Lao-tzu lived sometime between 551-479
BCE. Nothing more conclusive can be said about this. Little is
known about him, and some scholars even suggest he may have beeen
a composite of chinese writers of the period who's work was collected
under one name. It's all very murky. Translator, Stephen Miller
says, "...all the information that has come down to us is
highly suspect." Lao Tzu left no trace other than this book.
But for someone who may or may not have existed, he's made a
lasting impression. Mitchell even calls his book, "... one
of the wonders of the world." I'm good with that. --R. Bob
CHAPTERS
Last entry 01.07.07
--27 chapters available, more to come
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42
43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63
64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81
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1
If you talk about it, it's not Tao.
If you name it, it's something else.
What can't be named is eternal.
Naming splits the eternal to smithereens.
Not tangled in desire you embrace the unknown.
Tangled in desire you see only what you want.
But the unknown and what you want
have one source. Call it no place.
No place or darkness. |
2
A beautiful thing means
some things are ugly.
A good thing means some things are bad.
To say something is, means something is not.
A short thing makes a long thing long.
A high thing makes a low thing low.
Before and after form an endless loop.
So, a master's doing is doing no thing.
A master's saying is saying no thing.
Things come. She doesn't grab.
Things disappear. She let's them go.
Not grabbing, she has.
Not expecting, she does.
And after work is over she walks away
having done what lasts forever. |
3
If you inflate some to
greatness
others necessarily diminish.
If you covet possession
you'll create a circus for crooks.
The wise lead by hosing-out minds,
refreshing their centers, recalibrating aspiration,
and strengthening resolve.
They help others discard
what they think they know
and stupidly desire.
They create positive confusion
in order to expose false knowledge.
Try going no place to do no thing
and everything you do will mean something. |
4
Tao's a bottomless well:
ever used, never drawn down.
Call it eternal no thing ness;
an infinite no thing filled with all;
a void of countless possibilities.
Tao is hidden in our face
under our nose.
What made Tao is older than God.
What made it, who knows? |
5
Tao has no bias;
it's even-handed with evil and good.
The wise resemble Tao in this way;
they deal with whatever Tao brings.
Tao is infinitely like a bellows
--hollow within, but useful.
The more you empty it, the better it works.
The more you take it apart with talk
the harder it is to know it whole
and make it blow.
Don't wander from its center. |
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6
Tao is the Great Mother:
empty as a seed and infinitely as fertile.
It gives inexhaustible fruit.
It's always within you.
You can use it any way you want. |
7
The Tao is infinite,
eternal.
Eternal because it was never born,
so can't die.
Infinite because it's not in it for itself,
and so is there for all.
The Master keeps behind
because she knows
behind's ahead.
She's detached from each thing
so is one with all things.
She has no self obsession
so is perfectly fulfilled by not self. |
8
The highest good is like
water
flowing down without intent
nourishing all things.
It's content with the low places
people snub, so is like Tao.
In dwelling keep close to the ground.
In thinking keep it unadorned.
In conflict be just.
In governing beware of control.
In work follow your bliss.
In family life be completely there.
When you're content to be
no more than yourself
without comparing or competing
you'll have respect. |
9
If you fill a bowl to the brim it'll spill.
If you keep sharpening a knife it'll disappear.
Chase money and security
and you'll always
have a clenched heart.
.
Seek the approval of others
and you'll be their slave.
Do your work and step aside
is the only way to be serene. |
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10
Coax your mind from its wandering
and regain first oneness.
Is it possible?
Let your body become supple
as a newborn's. Is it possible?
Cleanse your inner vision
till you see nothing but light.
Is it possible?
Love people and lead
without forcing your will.
Can you?
Deal with vital matters
without interfering.
Can it be done?
Can you stand clear
of your own mind and so
make sense of things?
Give birth and nourish.
Have but not possess.
Act but don't expect.
Lead but don't control.
Accomplish this and even your virtue
will have virtue. |
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11
We join spokes together
in a wheel,
but it's the vacant hub
that makes it possible
for the cart to move.
We shape a pot to make a void
to hold whatever we want.
We stand up walls to make a house,
but the hollow within
is where living takes place.
Non-being is the vessel of being. |
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12
Colors blind eyes.
Sounds deafen ears.
Flavors numb taste.
Thoughts weaken mind.
Desire withers hearts.
The Master takes the world as
it is
but rests in his inner vision.
He lets things come and go
--heart as open as the sky. |
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13
Success is treacherous
as failure;
hope's as futile as fear.
What does it mean to say "treacherous
success"?
Climbing up or down a ladder you're not on solid ground.
With two feet on the ground you're well balanced.
What does it mean to say "futile
hope"?
Hope, like fear, is insubstantial;
both come from thoughts of self.
Dispell fear by discarding thoughts of self.
Love the world as self, attend to what is,
then fear and hope become wisps. |
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14
It can't be seen when
you look.
It can't be grasped when you reach.
It can't be heard when you turn an ear.
It isn't bright above
nor dark below.
It's seamless and un-namable.
It comes from and returns to no thing.
It's the no form source of forms,
without image, subtle
--it's before conception and beyond.
Trace it back to no beginning.
Follow it to no end.
It can't be known, but only lived
as ease in your own life.
Understand where you're from:
this is the nut of knowledge. |
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15
The Old One's
wisdom is subtle
as the eddies of a summer breeze
and as hard to grasp.
The only sense to be made of them
is how they were:
lithe as dancers feeling their way
across ice-bound streams;
tuned as warriors behind enemy lines
but with the manners of a guest
--cool and smooth as the run-off of melting ice;
receptive as valleys to the gifts of gravity
--transparent as water on glass.
Can you out-wait settling mud until the waters clear?
Can you be still until the right move comes of itself?
There's no fulfillment in a Master's
aim.
Not seeking she doesn't expect.
She is here now, and poised for what comes. |
16
Clear your mind of thoughts
of thought and know peace.
Watch beings in turmoil
but know they'll return.
All beings return to
one source and serenity.
Ignorance of the source is all
stumbling, confusion, and sorrow.
Realizing where you come from
you'll be tolerant, detached, amused,
warm as a wise grandmother,
and dignified as a sage.
Immersed in Tao's wonder
you play-out what life brings
and, when death comes, you say
Let it be. |
17
Most preferred:
the person governing, virtually
disappears.
Next is a leader who's loved.
It's another step down to one who's feared.
And a despised leader is the dregs.
An untrusted people will never be trustworthy.
Instead of talk, a leader acts
--but in such a way that people say,
"We did that ourselves." |
18
Forget Tao, then piety
and goodness appear.
When bright bodies subside
clever knowledge unhides.
When there's no peace in the family
respectful obedience begins.
Where chaos reigns patriots slip in. |
19
To multiply happiness
dump "holy" and "wisdom".
To have morality and justice
discard "morality" and "justice"
To make theives absurd
ditch "labor" and "profit".
If that doesn't do the trick
stand in the center of the circle
and let the world go round. |
20
To end problems, stop
thinking.
What's the difference between yes and no?
What's the difference between failure and success?
Must you mold yourself to the form of others
--say yes to their yes and no to their no?
Ludicrous.
Others are snagged in frivolity
mistaking it for happiness. But
alone and homeless I'm at peace
as a newborn before it's first smile.
Others are content having.
But I have no thing. I'm adrift
as windbourn dust, homeless.
I'm an idiot with an empty mind.
Empty as a bellows.
Others shine, but I'm in the dark.
Others are keen, but I'm as dull
as a man without purpose.
I admit it. I don't know.
Have you seen a leaf on a breeze?
That's me.
Between me and ordinary is a canyon.
My sustainence is the mother of all. |
21
There's just one sure
harmony: follow the Way.
But how will you know the Way?
It has no quality or form.
It hides in implication.
It expresses nature to its smallest point.
It inhabits all motion.
The Way is a fountain of sense and memory.
The Way is the source of everything known,
without exception.
There's only one way to understand the source:
accept it. |
22
Accept to be whole. Bend
to be straight.
Empty to be full. Die to be new.
To become confused: first want,
then acquire so as to be fulfilled.
A smart man accepts the world
as the world accepts the Way.
Not being flamboyant he seems unique.
Not needing justification, he's justified.
Seeking no credit, he's credited.
Discarding pride he's true.
Never contentious, no one contends with him.
Accept to be whole.
A whole man knows the world is home. |
23
Spare speech is natural.
Gales last less than a morning,
and rain too always ends.
There's a pace to the things of nature.
If even the things of nature
are imperfectly discontinous,
what do you expect of ordinary people?
And so, we may align our actions with the Way.
Tuned to the Way we become the Way.
Tuned to virtue, we become virtuous.
Tuned to loss, loss is what we possess.
This is OK with the Way.
This is fine with virtue.
And as far as loss is concerned
--loss that's fully possessed
is the antidote for loss--
and that's about as good
as it gets.
To be trusted be worthy of trust.
Be true. |
24
A loss of equilibrium
is a recipe for disaster.
To over-reach is to offend your center of gravity
which leads to toppling. Likewise,
to go for speed is to sacrifice pace.
There's no enlightenment in a boast.
The true ones lose respect for the self-righteous.
There's nothing good to be gained from self-righteousness
so it's always rightly scorned.
To strive, boast, or to be self-righteous
is to head off on a wild goose chase.
All are undesireable excesses
useless to a sage. |
25
The inner and outer worlds
are unified by creation
Creation is independent of time and space
and makes the ideas"still" and "in motion"
meaningless
Out of this nameless existence all things come
We call it the creative absolute
It ebbs and flows continually
as far as the mind can see and
infinitely further
For want of a better word
we think of Tao as being great
we also call the universe great
we say that nature is great
and, of course, we imagine man is great
Man's laws and natural laws should be in sync
since nature is the mother of physical laws
and physical laws are universal
because they come from Tao
To be out of sync with nature
is to be out of sync with Tao |
26
Motion dances upon no
motion.
The source of light is mass.
Therefore the wisest travel by day
always carrying their baggage
But on the road past gorgeous vistas,
the wise are not carried away by scenery.
Drinking it in, they savor beauty.
Without rootlessness they
move naturally within and through it
and are at all times serene.
Why should anyone who
participates in the creation of what she sees
get carried away by it?
Being carried away means
to loose your foundation.
To be knocked off-center
(to be moved --especially to distraction)
has loss of self control written all over it.
A leader of the people is not off-center,
purposeless, restless, or rootless.
If he is, nothing good will come of his leadership. |
27
The wise among us follow
the natural way of stealth
like a tracker who leaves no hint of having been there;
or, like a good speaker who is never obscure
and is an open book--except when prudence says otherwise.
These living books are secure in their binding.
They are not reduced to classification.
They teach what's needed.
What the wise understand is that virtue is void without example.
Because they know that virtue unfolds from example
the wise among us teach by example.
They position themselves to teach others
regardless of their ignorance.
They reject no one who seeks their teaching.
From the lives of the wise all gain and grow healthy.
Between teacher and pupil there can be nothing but respect.
The alternative is confusion, and nobody wise wants that. |
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