Tao Te Ching (Translated by Sam Hamill) - Lao Tzu [9]
isn’t fit to govern the world.
Sheng jen (“Sage”): Master K’ung (Confucius) said, “The sage is divinely inspired and intuitively wise.” The character for “holy” is presented, followed by the two-stroke character for “person”—the sage is literally a holy man.
49.
The sage has no fixed heart and mind.
Therefore the hearts and minds
of ordinary people
become his.
To good people, he is good;
to those lacking goodness,
he is also good.
Virtue is good.
Truthful people, he trusts.
Those lacking honesty, he also trusts.
Virtue is honest.
In this world the sage
brings harmony to harmony,
universalizing
the hearts and minds of people.
People fix their eyes and ears.
The sage regards them as children.
50.
Emerge into life. Enter death.
Three of ten are life’s companions;
three of ten are death’s good friend;
three of ten, living their lives,
pass through death’s realm.
How can this be so?
Because life lived provides
too much abundance.
One hears of those who excel at grasping life.
Out walking, they don’t flee from wild animals,
and in battle, don’t need armor.
Rhinos have no place to horn them,
tigers find no place for claws,
soldiers no place for the points of their swords.
How, truly, can this be so?
Because they make no place for dying.
51.
Tao gives them life.
Virtue nourishes them.
The world shapes them.
Circumstances complete them.
Therefore there’s nothing in the world
that does not honor the Tao
and the power of virtue.
Tao is worthy.
Virtue is worthy.
Truly, no one can command it,
and yet it’s constant and spontaneous.
Therefore:
Tao gives them life;
virtue nourishes and nurtures them,
rears and shelters and protects them.
Tao gives life without possessing,
helps without expectation,
fosters without controlling.
This is called “dark mysterious virtue.”
52.
The world has a feminine origin
that may be called the world’s mother.
To know one’s mother
is to know her child.
Having known her children,
return to keep her safe.
Life ends without peril.
Close your mouth.
Bolt the gate.
Live a life without toil.
Open your mouth
and meddle in affairs
and in all your life
there’s no salvation.
Seeing the small illuminates.
Holding tenderness is called strength.
Use this light to return to enlightenment
and save yourself misfortune.
This is called eternal practice.
53.
If leaders possess some small knowledge
walking the Great Way,
they fear straying.
The Great Way is very smooth,
and yet people prefer back roads.
The palace is indeed splendid.
The fields are overgrown.
The granaries are empty.
The privileged wear cultured clothes
and carry the finest weapons.
Gorged on edibles and imbibables,
they treasure far too much.
This is called thieves extravagance,
the opposite of Tao.
54.
The well planted cannot be uprooted.
The well embraced cannot be taken.
Generations honor generations endlessly.
Cultivated in the self, virtue is realized;
cultivated in the family, virtue overflows;
cultivated in the community, virtue increases;
cultivated in the state, virtue abounds;
cultivated in the world, virtue prevails.
Thus, through self, see self;
through family, see family;
through the state, see the state;
through the world, see the world.
How do we come to realize the world?
Through this.
55.
One who is filled with virtue
is like a baby:
bees, scorpions, serpents, and snakes
won’t sting him;
wild animals won’t attack him;
birds will not strike him.
Bones weak, muscules soft,
yet his grasp is firm.
He has not known female and male in union,
and yet his penis stirs,
his essence growing.
All day he wails
without growing hoarse,
his harmony perfected.
Knowing harmony is called eternal.
Knowing the everlasting is called enlightenment.
Increasing one’s vitality is called a blessing.
Heart and mind directing one’s vitality
is called strength.
But the strong soon grow old.
Call this not-Tao.
Not-Tao doesn’t last.
56.
Those who know
don’t speak.
Those who