Tao Te Ching (Translated by Sam Hamill) - Lao Tzu [7]
Use them only as a last resort.
Calm restraint serves best.
Don’t be seduced by glory.
Those who find glory in arms
rejoice in the slaughter of people.
Those who rejoice in slaughter
never attain their true place in the world.
On auspicious occasions, honor the left;
when mourning, honor the right.
Second in command stands on the left,
and the commander on the right,
speaking as if at a funeral.
With the slaughter of multitudes,
we have grief and sorrow.
Every victory is a funeral.
32.
Eternal Tao has no name.
Although simple and subtle,
no one in the world can master it.
If those who rule could grasp it,
everything in the world would honor them,
heaven and earth would join
to rain sweet dew on the people
without a command being given.
Rule is begun by naming,
but naming can proliferate.
Know when to stop.
Know when reason sets limits
to avoid peril.
Imagine Tao’s presence in the world:
it flows like streams and rivulets
into great rivers and the sea.
33.
Understand others and grow wise.
Understand yourself and become enlightened.
Conquering others requires force.
Conquering yourself takes power.
Knowing sufficiency, find abundance.
Act with the strength of resolution.
Hold your place and endure.
Who dies without perishing lives on.
34.
Great Tao overflows.
It can go left or right.
All things depend on it for life.
None can refuse it.
Its success seeks no recognition,
but clothes and nourishes everything
without aspiring to rule.
Eternally freed of desire,
it may be called subtle,
although all things return to it.
And yet it is not our ruler.
It may be called Great.
By not claiming greatness,
the sage achieves greatness.
35.
Hold up the great image
and the world will follow,
follow without harm,
happy to find health and harmony.
Music and fine foods
detain the passerby.
But Tao, explained,
has no flavor. It’s bland.
Seeing it is not enough to see it.
Listening is not enough to hear.
Using it, it’s inexhaustible.
36.
Wanting to contract, one must surely expand.
Wanting to weaken, one must surely strengthen.
Wanting to raze, one must surely raise.
Wanting to grasp it, one must surely give it.
This is called secret enlightenment:
the tender and weak overcome
the strong, the unyielding.
Fish cannot escape their deep water.
The empire’s most advantageous weapons
are not for the people to see.
Ch’i (“Weapons”): The character for “weapons” originally meant simply “utensils.” It has four “mouths,” with the radical “dog” in the center. Dogs probably helped clean utensils before washing. “Utensils” became “weapons” when a “soldier” character was added in front of it, suggesting the mouths roar.
37.
Tao does nothing,
but leaves nothing undone.
If rulers could grasp this,
all things would transform themselves.
Transformed, old desires would be stilled
by a simplicity without name.
Released from desires, we find peace.
And the world settles itself.
38.
Supreme virtue is not virtuous.
Thus it manifests virtue.
The least virtue does not lose virtue,
but does not possess it.
Supreme virtue takes no action
and needs no action.
Inferior virtue acts on its own.
Supreme compassion acts without forethought.
Supreme justice requires action.
Highest propriety acts,
when people don’t respond,
it excludes them.
Hence, lose Tao, and virtue follows;
lose virtue, and compassion follows;
lose compassion, justice follows;
lose justice, and propriety follows.
Propriety makes a veneer
of loyalty and sincerity,
and discord sets in.
Foreknowledge reveals
the flowering of the Tao
and yet delusions begin.
Therefore the sage inhabits the substantial,
not dwelling in the superficial,
knowing fruit from flower,
discarding the latter, grasping the former.
39.
Since ancient days, these attained oneness:
heaven attained unity and grew clear;
earth attained unity and grew tranquil;
souls attained unity and grew powerful;
valleys attained unity and produced abundance;
all