Tao Te Ching (Translated by Sam Hamill) - Lao Tzu [4]
The sage steps back but remains in front,
the outsider always within.
Self is realized through selflessness.
8.
It’s best to be like water,
nurturing the ten thousand things
without competing,
flowing into places people scorn,
very like the Tao.
Make the earth a dwelling place.
Cultivate the heart and mind.
Practice benevolence.
Stand by your word.
Govern with equity.
Serve skillfully.
Act in a timely way,
without contentiousness,
free of blame.
9.
Over-filled, the cupped hands drip.
Better to stop pouring.
One over-sharpens the well-forged blade,
and it won’t last long.
With gold and jade in the hall,
the house isn’t safer.
Wealth and pride
are the authors of error.
When the work is completed,
it’s time to retire.
That is the Tao of heaven.
10.
Can breath and blood, heart and soul,
become at one?
Can you breathe like an infant
or clarify to perfection your own dark vision?
Can you serve with affection
and govern without action?
Can you embody the feminine,
opening or closing the gates of heaven?
Can you bring enlightenment to all four quarters
without trying?
Give birth. Nurture and cultivate.
Produce, but possess nothing.
Make nothing dependent.
Sow well and reap nothing.
This is called Te, mysterious “Dark Virtue.”
Ch’i (“Breath”): Much more than meaning simply “breath,” this character also means “vital force,” “power,” “atmosphere,” or “air.”
11.
Thirty spokes converge at the hub,
but emptiness completes the wheel.
Clay is shaped to make a pot,
and what’s useful is its emptiness.
Carve fine doors and windows,
but the room is useful in its emptiness.
What is
is beneficial, while what is not
also proves useful.
12.
Five colors blind the eyes.
Five tones deafen the ears.
Five flavors dull the palate.
Riding and hunting drive us crazy,
the desire for things leads to wrongs.
That’s why the sage
nourishes the belly, not merely the eye,
choosing one, not the other.
13.
Favor and disgrace are alarming.
Honors and distresses visit the self.
Why are favors and disgraces alarming?
Seeking favor is degrading,
alarming when it’s gotten,
alarming when it’s lost.
Favor and disgrace are alarming.
Why do honors and distresses visit the self?
Only the self embodies distress.
Without a self to embody it,
there could be no distress.
One who respects the body equally with all under heaven
may be entrusted with all under heaven.
One who cherishes the self equally with all under heaven
may be entrusted with the world.
14.
Looking and not seeing it,
we call it invisible;
listening and not hearing it,
we call it inaudible;
reaching and not touching it,
we call it ethereal.
These three aspects of it cannot be grasped,
but contribute to the one.
Its rising brings no dawn,
its setting no darkness;
it goes on and on, unnameable,
returning into nothingness.
Its form is formless.
Its image is invisible.
Meeting it, you cannot see its face.
Following it, you cannot see its back.
Hold to the ancient Tao
to grasp the here-and-now.
Discovering how things have always been
brings one into harmony with the Way.
15.
The ancient Taoist masters
sought the mystery and profundity
penetrating darkness.
Because we cannot know them,
we are left with mere description:
they were careful, as when fording winter rivers;
cautious, respectful of neighbors;
polite like a guest;
yielding like melting ice;
simple as uncarved wood;
open like a valley;
amorphous like muddy water.
But the muddiest water clears
as it’s stilled,
and out of that stillness
life rises.
One who keeps to the Tao
does not wish to be filled,
and not wishing to be full,
need not cover his head.
Hsü (“Emptiness”): The root or radical is the character for “tiger,” suggesting danger and bravery. This character as a whole can also mean “false,” “untrue,” “vacant,” “insubstantial,” or “abstract”—all very dangerous. And yet emptiness is what is.
16.
Achieve emptiness.
Attain tranquility.