The Way
When all the world recognizes beauty as beauty,
this in itself is ugliness,
When all the world recognizes good as good, this in itself is
destruction.
Indeed, the hidden and the visible give birth to each other.
Hard and easy balance each other.
Long and short give measure to each other.
High and low set measure to each other.
Voice and sound give wholeness each other.
Back and front follow each other.
Therefore, the complete thinker experiences without abstraction
and accomplishes without visible action;
Yet spreads their teaching by actions.
Accepting the ebb and flow of the many living things.
Raises them,
but makes no claim of them.
Does his work,
but does not brag about it.
Finishing tasks,
and moves on.
And yet it is just because of moving on.
That nobody can take works away.
By not making great the worthy you will cause the people
to stop from having enemies and fighting.
By not giving value to goods hard to get,
you will cause the people to stop from robbing and stealing.
By not showing what people would like to have,
you will cause the people's hearts to remain undisturbed.
Therefore, the Complete Thinker's way of governing begins by;
Emptying the heart of wants,
Filling the belly with food,
Relaxing the ambitions,
Toughening the bones,
In this way will cause the people to remain without strategy and without desire,
and prevent the knowing ones from causing any trouble.
Practice doing things at the proper speed,
and everything will be in order.
The Tao is like an empty bowl.
Which in being used can never be filled up.
So deep it cannot be measured, it is the origin of all things.
It blurs all sharp edges,
It unties all tangles,
It blends all lights,
It unites the world into one whole.
Hidden in the depths,
Yet it seems to exist for ever.
I do not know whose child it is;
It is the common ancestor of all,
the father of all things.
To live by these Laws is to live in harmony with our True Nature.
Heaven-and-Earth is not sentimental;
It treats all things like straw dogs.
The Complete Thinker is not sentimental;
Treats all people as straw dogs
Between Heaven and Earth,
There seems to be a Bellows:
It is empty, yet it can not be emptied;
The more it works, the more comes out of it.
The Complete Thinker draws upon the universal experience thus cannot be exhausted.
Better look for it within you.
The Tao is in all that exists.
The spirit of the valley dies not.
It is called the secret which is filled with womanly qualities.
The gateway of the secret is filled with womanly qualities,
Is called the Womb of Heaven-and-Earth.
Staying like a fog, it has only a hint that it is there;
And yet when you use it, it is always there without end.
Heaven lasts long, and Earth lasts.
What is the secret of their lasting?
Is it not because they do not live for themselves,
That they can live so long?
The complete thinker wants to remain behind,
But is found at the head of others;
Ignores his desires,
But is found content.
Is it not because of selflessness,
That true self is realized?
The highest form of goodness is like water.
Water knows how to benefit all things without contention.
It flows to places others disdain.
It comes near the Tao (the Laws of the Universe).
In choosing your dwelling,
know how to keep the ground.
In cultivating your mind,
know how to dive in the hidden depths.
In dealing with others,
know how to be gentle and kind.
Speak within trust.
In governing,
know how to maintain order.
In transacting business,
know how to be efficient.
In making a move,
know how to choose the right moment.
If you do not contend,
none contend against you.
Fill a cup to its brim, it is easy to spill.
Do not;
Over do the task, close it.
Temper a sword throughout to its hardest,
and it is easily broken.
Fill your house with gold and jade,
it can not be guarded.
Set store by your riches and honor, you easily fall.
This is the Tao.
When your purpose is achieved retire.
In keeping the spirit and the vital soul together,
Are you able to maintain their perfect blending?
Breath gently and become newborn.
Clear your inner vision, and become clear.
In loving your people and governing your state,
Are you able to be impartial?
In opening and shutting of heaven's gate, you become accepted.
Enlightened and seeing far into all directions,
Can you at the same time remain not involved and not interfere?
Raise your people with care!
Feed your people!
Raise them without saying they are your own!
Do your work without setting any value to it!
Be one to be followed, not one who commands!
This is called hidden powers.
This is true harmony.
Thirty spokes converge upon a single hub;
It is on the hole in the center that the use of the cart hinges.
We make a bowl or cup from a lump of clay;
It is the empty space within the vessel that makes it useful.
We make doors and windows for a room;
It is the empty spaces that make the room livable.
Thus, take advantage of what is visible,
By making use of what is not visible.
The five colors blind the eye.
The five tones deafen the ear.
The five flavors stick to the palate.
Racing and hunting make crazy the mind.
Temptations make men do wrong.
The complete thinker takes care of the hunger, not the senses.
Prefers the substance within not the illusion.
"Welcome disgrace as a pleasant surprise.
Prize misfortunes as your own body."
Why should we "welcome disgrace as a pleasant surprise"?
Because a lowly state is a boon:
Getting it is a pleasant surprise,
And so is losing it!
That is why we should "welcome disgrace as a pleasant surprise."
Why should we "prize misfortunes as our own body"?
Because our body is the very source of our misfortunes.
If we have no body, what misfortunes can we have?
Only he who is willing to give their body for the sake of the world,
Is fit to be entrusted with the world.
Only they who can do it with love and regard themselves as the world,
Are worthy of being the steward of the world.
This lesson is known by all complete thinkers.
Look at it but you cannot see it!
Its name is Formless.
Listen to it but you cannot hear it!
Its name is Soundless
Try to hold it but you cannot get it!
Its name is Incorporeal.
These three attributes are to deep to measure;
They mix together into one.
Its upper side is not bright:
Its under side is not dim.
Always the Not Namable moves on,
Until it returns beyond the world of things.
We call it the formless Form, the imageless Image.
We call it the not describable and unimaginable.
Confront it and you do not see its face!
Follow it and you do not see its back!
Yet equipped with this timeless Tao,
You can control present realities and deal with the past.
To know the ancient origins is to know the true Tao.
In times past
The complete thinkers of the Tao
Were not obvious about what they did and
Could change to meet the circumstance,
Their minds, strong and widespread,
Were too deep to be measured.
Because their minds are unmeasurable,
One can only describe them unclearly by their appearance.
Slow to start like one crossing thin ice;
Shy as if surrounded by danger on all sides;
Careful and polite like a guest;
Unbouded like ice on the point of melting;
Genuine like an uncarved block;
Hollow like a cave;
Disordered like a muddy pool;
And yet who else could quietly and gradually
Change from the muddy to the clear?
Who else could slowly but steadily
Move from the lifeless to the living?
The who keep the Tao does not want to be full.
But precisely because they are never full,
They can always remain open in thought,
They do not become rigid in thought.
Achieve the utmost Emptiness.
Cling single-heartedly to interior peace.
Become a part of all things,
In this way see the pattern.
Flourish they do,
Each of them will return to its root.
To return to the root is to find peace.
To find peace is to fulfill one's destiny.
To fulfill one's destiny is to be unchanging.
To know the unchanging is called insight.
If one does not know the unchanging,
One runs blindly into disasters.
If one knows the unchanging,
One can understand and embrace all.
If one understands and embraces all,
One is capable of doing justice.
To be just is to be a leader;
To be a leader is to be one with nature;
To be one with nature is to be one with the Tao;
To be one with the Tao is to become immortal.
Such a one will be safe and whole,
Even after the death of body.
The Tao does not decay.
The best type of leader
Is one of whose existence the people are barely aware.
Next comes one whom they love and praise.
Next comes one whom they fear.
Next comes one whom they despise and defy.
When you are lacking in faith,
Others will be unfaithful to you.
The complete thinker is quiet and uses few words.
When tasks have been accomplished
And things have been completed,
All the people say,
"We ourselves have achieved it!"
When the Great Tao was abandoned,
There appeared duty and justice.
When intelligence and jokes arose,
There appeared people who said they were one way but lived the opposite.
When the family lost their compatibility,
There appeared respectful devotion and fatherly kindness.
When darkness and disorder began to control a country,
There appeared the loyal and trustworthy patriots.
Drop wisdom, abandon cleverness,
And the people will be benefited a hundred fold.
Drop humanity, abandon morality,
And the people will return to their natural affections.
Drop cleverness, abandon greed,
And robbers and thieves will cease to be.
These three are a pattern of Tao,
And are not sufficient in themselves they are only symptoms.
They should be subordinated to a higher principle;
People need personal remedies.
See the simple true self and embrace your original nature.
Forget you habits and desires, simplify you life.
Have done with rote learning,
And you will have no more frustration.
How great is the difference between agreement and being the servant?
What is the difference between "construction" and "destruction"?
Must I fear what others fear?
What difficult stupidity this is!
All are joyous and beaming,
As though feasting upon a sacrificial ox,
As though mounting the Spring Garden;
I alone am peaceful and give no sign,
Like a babe which has not yet smiled.
I alone am forgotten as one who has no home to return to.
All have enough and more:
I alone appear to possess nothing.
What a not knowing person I am!
What a confused mind I have!
All are bright, bright:
I alone am dim, dim.
All are sharp, sharp:
I alone am silent, silent!
Tasteless like the ocean,
Aimless like the drifting wind.
All settle in their paths:
I alone am stubborn and remain outside.
I am most different from others
In knowing to take support from my Eternal Mother!
It lies in the nature of power
To follow the and the Tao alone.
Now what is the Tao?
It is Something slippery and shifty. Shifty and slippery!
And yet it contains within itself a form. Shifty and slippery!
And yet it contains within itself a substance.
Shadowy and dim!
And yet It contains within itself a core of energy.
The core of energy is very real,
It contains within itself an unfailing honesty.
Throughout the ages
Its Name has been preserved
In order to recall the beginning of all things.
How do I know the ways of all things at the beginning?
By what is within me.
Accept and you will be whole.
Bend and you will straighten.
Empty and you will fill.
Grow old and you will be renewed.
Have little and you will gain.
Have much and you will be confused.
The complete thinker embraces the One,
Becomes a pattern to all under Heaven.
Does not make a show,
Then shines;
Does not justify self,
Then becomes known;
Does not brag of ability,
Then gets credit;
Does not show success,
Then lasts;
Does not compete with anyone,
Then no one can compete with the complete thinker.
Indeed, the ancient saying:
"Accept and you will remain whole" is no idle word.
Once whole,
Turn within and concentrate your power.
The world is as your home.
Only simple and quiet words will ripen of themselves.
For a whirlwind does not last a whole morning.
A sudden rain does not last a whole day.
Who is their creator?
Heaven-and-Earth!
Even Heaven-and-Earth
Cannot make such violent things last long;
The same is true of the reckless efforts of humans.
Who helps the Tao
Is one with the Tao;
Who thinks with power
Is one with power;
And who seeks the hand of loss
Is one with loss.
To be one with the Tao
Is to be a welcome addition to the Tao;
To be one with power,
Is to be a welcome addition to power;
To be one with loss,
Is to be a welcome addition to loss.
Failure of faith on your part
Creates faithlessness on the part of others.
One on tip-toe cannot stand solid.
Sitting on a horse you cannot walk.
Who shows off does not shine.
Who brags has no glory.
Who boasts of ability has no merit.
Who parades success will not last.
In Tao these things are called
"unwanted food and extra growths,"
Are rejected by all things.
A person of the Tao does not want them.
They turn away from them.
There was something undefined and complete in itself,
Born before Heaven-and-Earth.
Silent and endless,
Standing alone without change,
Being within all,
It may be thought of as the mother of the world.
I do not know its name;
I write it "Tao";
Without a better word, call it "The Great."
To be great is to go on,
To go on is to go far,
To go far is to return.
Therefore:
"Tao is great,
Heaven is great,
Earth is great,
The leader is great"
Thus the leader is one of the great four in the universe.
Humans follows the ways of the Earth.
Earth follows the ways of Heaven,
Heaven follows the ways of Tao,
Tao follows its own ways.
Heaviness is the root of lightness.
Peace of mind is the master of restlessness.
The complete thinker, traveling all day,
Does not leave the baggage-wagon;
There may be gorgeous sights to see,
But stays peacefully at home.
How can a leader
Have a light hearted position in the world?
To be light hearted is to be separated from one's root;
To be restless is to lose one's self-mastery.
Good walking leaves no track behind it,
But the walking was true;
Good speech leaves no mark to be picked at,
But the speech was true;
Good calculation makes no use of counting-slips,
Yet the counting is true;
Good shutting makes no use of bolt and bar,
And yet nobody can undo it;
Good tying makes no use of rope and knot,
And yet nobody can untie it.
The complete thinker is always good at saving humans,
And nobody is abandoned;
Always good at savings things,
And nothing is wasted.
This is called "following the guidance of the Insight."
Good humans are the teachers of destructive humans,
Destructive humans depend on constructive humans.
Not to honor one's teacher,
Not to value one's dependent,
Is to be on the wrong road,
However intelligent one may be.
This is called the Important Not Obvious.
Know the masculine,
Keep to the feminine,
And be the brook of the world.
To be the brook of the world is
To move unchanging in the path of power
Without swerving from it,
And to return again to infancy.
Know the white,
Keep to the black,
And be the pattern of the world.
To be the pattern of the world is
To move unchanging in the path of power
Without making a single wrong step,
And to return again to the Infinite.
Know the glorious,
Keep to the lowly,
And be the fountain of the world.
To be the fountain of the world is,
To live the life of virutue,
And to return again to the first simplicity.
When the first simplicity splits apart,
It becomes useful tools,
Then in the hands of a complete thinker,
Make them leaders.
"A great tailor does little cutting."
Does anyone want to take the world
And do what he wants with it?
I do not see how they can succeed.
The world is a sacred vessel,
Which must not be tampered with or grabbed after.
To tamper with it is to spoil it,
And to grasp is to lose it.
For all things there is a time for going ahead,
And a time for following behind;
A time for slow-breathing and a time for fast-breathing;
A time to grow in strength and a time to decay;
Time to be up and a time to be down.
The complete thinker avoids all extremes, excesses and luxuries.
Travels the middle path.
Who knows how to guide a leader in the path of Tao,
Does not try to conquer the world with military force.
It is in the nature of a military force to turn against its user.
Wherever armies are stationed, thorny bushes grow.
After a great war, bad years always follow.
Protect efficiently your own state,
But not to aim at selfishness.
After you have attained your purpose,
You must not show off your success,
You must not brag of your ability,
You must not feel proud,
You must rather regret that you had not been able to prevent the war.
You must never think of taking control of others by force.
To be over-developed is to quicken decay,
And this is against Tao,
And what is against Tao will soon end.
Soldiers of war predict destruction.
And are for use against Life.
A person of Tao does not set his heart upon them.
In ordinary life,
A gentle person regards the left side as the place of honour:
In war, the right side is the place of honour.
As soldiers are tools of destruction,
They are not properly a gentle person's tools;
On necessity will they will use them,
With calm control.
Even winning is no cause for rejoicing.
To rejoice over a war won,
Is to rejoice over the slaughter of humans!
So a person who rejoices over the slaughter of humans
Cannot expect to do well in the world of humans.
On happy occasions the left side is preferred:
On sad occasions the right side .
In the army, the Lieutenant Commander stands on the left,
While the Commander-in-Chief stands on the right.
This means that war is treated as equal to a funeral service
.
Because many people have been killed,
It is only correct that living should be sad at the loss of them.
Hence, even in a victory is a funeral.
Tao is always nameless.
Small as it is in its first simplicity,
It is less than nothing in the world.
If only a leader could stick to it,
Everything will give respect to them.
Heaven and Earth will be harmonized
And send down sweet dew.
Peace and order will reign among the people
Without any command from above.
When once the primal simplicity broke up,
Different names appeared.
Are there not enough names now?
Is this not the time to stop?
To know where to stop is to preserve ourselves from danger.
The Tao is to the world,
What a great river or an ocean is to the streams and brooks.
The Tao is manifest into a shape,
But then the shape is lost.
Do not be rigid about shapes,
But only about ability to change.
Who knows people is clever;
Who knows self has enlightenment.
Who conquers a people has force;
Who conquers self is truly strong.
Who knows when they have enough are rich,
And who follows carefully the path of Tao is a person of steady purpose.
Who stays where they have found their true home lasts long,
And who dies but is not forgotten enjoys real longevity.
The Great Tao is universal like a flood.
How can it be turned to the right or to the left?
All creatures depend on it,
And it denies nothing to anyone.
It does its work,
But it makes no claims for itself.
It clothes and feeds all,
But it does not rule them :
Thus, it may be called "the Little."
All things return to it as to their home,
But it does not rule them:
It may be called "the Great."
It is just because it does not wish to be great
That its greatness is fully realized.
The complete thinker would not control the world;
They are in harmony with the world.
Who holds to the Great Pattern will attract all things to them.
They go to them and receive no harm,
In them they find peace, security and happiness.
Music and snacks can only make a passing guest pause.
The words of Tao have lasting effects,
They are mild and flavourless,
We look and see nothing.
We listen and hear nothing.
But if we use it,
It is without end.
What is in the end to be shrunken,
Begins by being first stretched out.
What is in the end to be weakened,
Begins by being first made strong.
What is in the end to be thrown down,
Begins by being first set on high.
What is in the end to be raped,
Begins by being first given riches.
Herein is the hidden wisdom of life:
The soft and weak overcomes the hard and strong.
Just as the fish must not leave the deeps,
The words of agression should not be used.
Tao never makes any showiness,
And yet it does everything.
If a ruler can stick to it,
All things will grow of themselves.
When they have grown and tend to make an excitement,
It is time to keep them in their place by the aid of the nameless first simplicity.
Which alone can control the desires of people.
When the desires of people are limited, there will be peace,
And the world will settle down of its own agreement.
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