And, well, if your body dies -
there's nothing to be frightened about.
If you keep your mouth t
And stay inside -
Then you'll live a long time.
If you blurt out
What you think to everyone,
Then you won't last long.
Value littleness. This wisdom.
To bend like a reed
in the wind
- that is real strength.
Use your mind, but stay close to thelight
And it will lengthen its glow
right through your life.
53
If all I know is a fraction -
then all my only fear is of losingthe thread . . .
The Great Way is easy
but people are forever being takendown sidetracks.
They look after the palaces,
But ignore the fields!
The granaries are empty
- but they wear wonderful clothes!
They go about with arms
and gorge themselves on find foodand drink.
How rich they are -
and they have stolen it all from thepoor.
They are the robber barons of now -
This is not the real Tao!
54
What is build on rock
cannot be pulled down;
What is held lightly
can never be lost.
Meditate on virtue within yourself,
and you will find the benefit of virtue.
Use it as the ground for the family,
and your virtue will last for generations.
Take it as your guidance for the village,
and the place will blossom for yearsto come.
Use it to guide the nation,
and that nation will create abundance.
Be guided by it for the Whole,
and it will flood its way over theworld.
So, look at someone else as you wouldyourself
And treat other families as you wouldyour own;
See your community in other communities,
Think of all countries as part ofyour being
And treasure the world as the roundcentre of everything.
How can I see the would like this?
Because I have eyes.
55
'Those who have true te
Are like a newborn baby.'
- and if they seem like this, theywill not be stung
by wasps or snakes, or pounced on
by animals in the wild or birds ofprey.
A baby is weak and supple, but hishand can grasp your finger.
He has no desire as yet, and yet hecan be erect -
he can cry day and night without evengetting hoarse
such is the depth of his harmony.
It's stupid to rush around.
When you fight against yourself, itshows in your face.
But if you draw your sap
from your heart
then you will be truly strong.
You will be great.
56
If you know what it is, don't talk itaway:
If you do, then you don't understand.
Hush, keep it in, and your doorwayt -
Steer clear of sharpness and untanglethe knots.
Feel your lightness and let it mergewith others,
This, we say, is our basic oneness.
The sage who does this doesn't haveto worry
about people called 'friends' or 'enemies',
with profit or loss, honour or disgrace-
He is a Master of Life, instead.
57
To rules a nation, use justice
To win a battle - cunning,
But remember: wu-wei is the only trueway.
How do I know this?
I will explain:
The more rules you have, the more unhappypeople are;
And the more weapons there are, theworse things happen.
The more we want luxuries, the morewe abandon simplicity -
And the more laws you pass, the morewe will break them.
So the sage says: I do nothing, andthe people come together;
By leaving them alone I let them beon the path -
By not using my power, they becomerich in themselves.
And if I want to nothing, they willreturn to the essence of their being.
58
'If you govern with a generous hand -
then your people will be good people.
But if your system is too constricting
then your people will outwit you .. .'
Good fortune, we say, can come fromdisaster:
And the reverse is true as well.
Who knows where all this will lead?
Honesty can flip into deceit in a moment,
People trying to be good can fallinto the dark
And it can take them years to getout of it.
So the sage is like a razor, but hedoesn't cut
He is straight as a die, but not pointedlyso -
He is bright, but not blindingly so. . .
59
When ruling the world and serving Heaven,
The sage uses simplicity in everythinghe does.
Simplicity comes from letting go ofwhat you want.
If you've been true to yourself earlierin your life
Then te builds up in you like a wellthat never fails.
Nothing is impossible, then - andnothing can stop you.
And if you have no limits - then youcan hold the State.
If the sage can find the Mother ofa Nation
Then he will govern for a long, longtime.
All this comes form his rootednessin the Tao,
The Tao of Ages, the Mountain of VisionAnd Of Wings.
60
Ruling a big country
Is like cooking a small fish:
You have to handle it with care.
If a sage uses the Tao
Then evil forces have no power:
He doesn't harm people either.
Through te, you see
We have harmony.
61
A great country is like a low-lying estuary-
It is a place where all the lesserstreams mingle and merge.
Everything comes together there . ..
And a woman wins her man: how doesshe do it?
By using the power of her yin likean anchor,
A still deep bowl
into which it all flows.
This is passiveness.
So if a great country takes a low place
It wins over the trust of a smallerstate;
And if a small country shows humility
It wins the trust of a whole nation.
And it's like this: those who wantto win must yield,
And those who are yielding shouldstay where they are.
A great country needs to grow:
A small one needs protection.
That way, everyone gets what they want-
when the greater learns to be below.
62
The Tao
is the source of 'the ten thousandthings',
It is the sage's priceless pearl,
And it redeems
everything.
You know, people like to use nice wordsto impress you.
People act nicely to gain your respect-
but even if a person is bad,
neither the sage nor the Tao willdesert him. They accept him.
And when the Emperor is crowned andthe three ministers appointed,
it's better to stay where you areand be with the Tao
than to hurry off with gifts of jadeand a team of four horses.
The old ones 'knew this gesture',
and by ruling this way they were never
guilty of transgressions or errors.
Nothing under Heaven matters more
than this kind of knowing.
63
The sage does nothing, and so he neverfails -
He holds on to nothing, and so henever loses . . .
Whereas the rest of us always seemto mess up our lives
just at the moment when we seem tobe succeeding!
That's why the sage wants nothing forhimself.
He doesn't want precious things orpossessions.
What is he? A Student OF The Unknowable,
so he doesn't make mistakes like therest of us
but always tries to help us to betrue to who we are
without ever standing in our way.
And so he says: do things wu-wei, bydoing nothing
Achieve without trying to achieveanything -
Savour the taste of what you cannottaste
Make a small thing great, and the fewinto many -
Take on the largest things when they'restill small,
Start the hardest things while they'restill easy.
It's always the person who thinks thingsare easy
that finds them the hardest in theend.
The way he sees it: everything's potentiallytricky,
so he never ends up out of his depth.
64
When everything is peaceful, don't forgetthe danger;
When things are safe, don't lose youredge -
A brittle thing can break
easily
And a small thing fragment.
So 'act before it happens'.
'order things before chaos breaksout'.
A great tree which takes a crowd tospan its base
Started from being a tiny seed;
And a tower nice sections high beganin the ground.
A journey of a thousand miles startswith the first step.
To act as if you know it all is catastrophic:
and if you try to control it
you will stare into your empty hand.
65
In ancient times, the shrewdest rulers
Didn't try to give people too muchknow-how.
What did they do? They kept them livingsimply.
So why are people so difficult togovern now?
Because they know too much in theirso-called freedom.
If a leader works deviously,
He will turn the people against him- look and see.
But if you refuse to use that kindof knowing,
Your people will be blessed and happy.
This is where two streams divide:
And if you rule this way
You will be walking the great pathof Te.
Deep Te - this Virtue is everywhere
drawing us all
into our final destiny:
Oneness Of The Source And The Sea .. .
66
Why is the sea
the king of a hundred tributaries?
Because everything comes down to it-
So it is kingly
By this name.
So a sage that wants to rule the peoplemust be below them.
If he wants to be their leader, hemust be behind them.
If he has no desire to control
then the people will not feel oppressed;
And if he stands before them for theirown sake, and not his
they will not harm him.
Trusted by everyone, no one will tireof him.
What is his secret?
He never competes.
So there is no one else but him.
67
I have three priceless treasures:
The first is Compassion
the second, thrift
And the third is that I never wantto be ahead of you.
If I have compassion, you will diefor me. I know that.
If I waste nothing, I can give myselfto you all -
And if I don't seem perfect, thenyou'll trust me to lead you.
These days people scorn compassion.They try to be tough.
They spend all they have, and yetwant to be generous
They despise humility, and want tobe the best.
I tell you that ways Death's.
If you have loved your people, youwill know it
they will fight tooth and nail foryou in attack or defense.
This is the protection of Heaven, andyour harvest.
68
A canny soldier never provokes anyone,
And is never made to lose his temper.
A good fighter never confronts hisenemy head-on:
And those who know how to handle peopledo it humbly.
This comes from the virtue of not-striving,
and from knowing how to link withother people's energy.
Since time gone in the mists
this has been the way to 'pair up'with Heaven.
69
There is a saying, you know, which soldierhave:
'I never use my force before my enemyuses his.
I'd sooner go back a foot than advancean inch.'
This is called going forward withoutmoving,
Rolling up your sleeve without showingyour arm -
And by not, you defeat him withoutapparently doing anything.
This is like being armed, but no onesees what you have.
Never think your enemy is feeble. That'sdisastrous.
If I do that, I'm bound to lose allI have!
So, you see, when the battle begins
It is the one who seems weakest thatwill win.
70
My words are really very easy to understand
And be with, and walk in . . . butno one can!
My words have roots, my actions haveprecedents
But people don't see this, and sothey don't see me.
So few of you know or understand me
And so the Tao becomes ever more important. . .
The sage goes round like a supertramp,
Hiding the jade, the jewel he carriesin his inmost heart.
71
Those who know seem not to know
And those who don't pretend they do-
This is what it means to be flawed.
If you're sick at this, then you'llwin through.
The sage is. He is sick of all faults-
He is sick of being sick. He is well.
72
When the people lack a sense of awe,
There is bound to be disorder or disaster.
Never oppress them in their own homes,
or interfere with their means of livelihood.
If you don't oppose them,
They won't try to depose you.
So, the sage who really knows himself
never shows himself off to his people-
loves himself, without false pride-
discards the mask, and wears his trueface.
73
A person who's brash and fearless willdie,
A person who is cautious will survive-
These two are right, and they are wrong
Heaven looks down on both
and who know the truth?
So even the sage admits some thingsare beyond him.
The Tao of Heaven
doesn't struggle, but it wins through
It doesn't ask
yet it always hears the answer -
It doesn't demand
yet things come, because they wantto be
It has no desires
and yet everything works out as ifplanned.
And though the Net Of Heaven is wide
Not even the tiniest whisper escapesit.
74
If the people are not afraid,
It is useless to try and scare themwith death.
And if people are afraid of death
And you make a point of hanging everycriminal,
Then who would dare to do anything?
Any killing must be done by an officialexecutioner.
If someone else were to do it,
It would be like trying to copy amaster carpenter -
And if you try to cut like him
you will only bloody your own hands!
75
Why are the people hungry?
Because you crush them with your taxes:
That is why they have nothing.
Why are the people angry?
Because you endlessly impose yourlaws:
That is why they can't take any more.
And why aren't they scared of death?
Because you are voracious and youwant everything.
So what have they got left to lose?
Those who only have a little
really know how to value life.
76
When a body is alive, it is soft and supple
- it is cold and rigid when it dies.
