Tao Te Ching (Translated by Sam Hamill) - Lao Tzu [10]
don’t know.
Block your passageways.
Shut the gate.
Blunt your pointedness.
Untangle the knot.
Find harmony with the light.
Join the dust.
This is called “profound union.”
It cannot be attained,
and yet it holds us.
It cannot be possessed,
and yet it is inescapable.
It cannot be attained,
and yet we profit by it.
It cannot be gained,
and yet it cannot be lost.
It cannot be possessed,
and yet it is treasured.
It can’t be obtained,
and yet it cannot be degraded.
Thus it is the world’s treasure.
57.
Employ routine to govern a state.
Use surprise to direct a war.
With not-striving, master the world.
How do I know this is so?
Because in this world,
the greater the restrictions and prohibitions,
the more people are impoverished;
the more advanced the weapons of the state,
the darker the nation;
the more artful and crafty the plan,
the stranger the outcome;
The more laws are posted,
the more thieves appear.
Thus the sage says,
“I practice doing nothing,
and people transform themselves;
I welcome tranquility,
and people rectify themselves;
I practice not interfering,
and people prosper;
I practice no desire,
and people naturally grow pure.”
Chih (“Govern”): This character also means “to cure,” “to heal,” or “to distinguish.”
58.
When an administration is muddled and dull,
the people are sincere, honest.
When government pries and intrudes,
people are needy, contentious.
Misery and fortune share a trust.
Happiness hides in misery.
Who knows where it ends?
Without rectitude,
the forthright become deceitful,
the good turn to evil,
the people are deceived,
led astray every day.
Therefore the sage squares without cutting,
points without piercing,
is straightforward without being tactless,
enlightened,
yet not shining.
59.
In governing people and serving nature,
nothing surpasses thrift.
Truly, thrift means responsive planning.
Planning means accumulating virtue.
There is nothing great virtue cannot overcome.
Overcoming means extending one’s knowledge beyond the limit.
Knowing beyond limit, embrace the country,
become its mother, and thereby live long.
This is called deep roots and sturdy trunk,
long life and eternal insight of the Tao.
60.
Govern great nations
like frying small fish.
The world in harmony with Tao,
evils have no power;
not that evils have no power,
but they cannot wound people;
not that their powers cannot wound people—
the sage will not harm them.
Since they do no harm to each other,
virtue flows, returning to them.
61.
A great state should flow down
like a river, the world’s confluence.
The world is feminine,
feminine in constant stillness
overcoming the masculine.
To be still, take the lower position.
Therefore the great state
lowers itself for the smaller.
Small states that are lower
are governed by the great state.
Small states lower themselves
to achieve accord with a great one.
Thus some lower themselves to govern,
others lower themselves to be governed.
A great state mostly wants unity, nurturing people.
A small state wants most to enter the service of the people.
For both to fulfill their wishes,
the greater must become lower.
62.
Tao is the world’s great secret storehouse,
good people’s treasure
and a refuge for those who aren’t.
Beautiful speech can find its market.
Noble deeds can make a name.
Why abandon people lacking dharma?
Thus, when the Son of Heaven is installed,
three ministers appointed,
jade discs for the heart presented,
followed by a team of four horses,
they cannot equal the one who sits,
offering the Tao.
The ancients had reason to treasure the Tao.
Didn’t they say,
“Through Tao the seeker finds,
the guilty are forgiven”?
Therefore it is the world’s treasure.
Wei (“Do”): The radical for this character is a “claw”—“to grasp.” It suggests there is no doing or accomplishing without first grasping.
63.
Act without doing.
Work without laboring.
Savor without tasting.
Big, small, many, few—
respond to malice