I walk with the glorious Tao.
I dread straying from its path.
The path of the great Tao is deceptively smooth and the people are liable to take side paths.
Palaces will have excess splendor.
Fields will have excess weeds.
Granaries will be very empty.
People will be dressed in elegant clothes.
People will have excessive food and drink.
They will have a surplus of wealth and possessions.
This is called stealing and exaggeration, not the Tao!
54
If it is well established, it cannot be uprooted.
If you skillfully embrace it, it will not leave.
For generations, yearly offerings to it have not ceased.
Cultivate it in your body.
The action of the soul is then real.
Cultivate it in the family (clans).
The action of the soul is then in surplus.
Cultivate it in the village.
The action of the soul lasts a long time.
Cultivate it in the country.
The action of the soul is in abundance.
Cultivate it in Heaven below (the sacred body).
The action of the soul is universal.
The body recognizes the body.
The family recognizes the family.
The village recognizes the village.
The country recognizes the country.
Heaven below recognizes Heaven below.
How do I perceive Heaven below being so?
I perceive it through this.
55
Embody the action of the soul in its fullness.
Join with it to be as open as a newborn infant.
The bee, scorpion, serpent, and snake, will not bite.
Wild animals will not attack.
Birds of prey will not strike.
Even with weak bones and tender muscles you will be able to stand firm.
It does not know male-female union, yet the whole comes into being.
The life force is at its height!
You can cry all day and you are not hoarse.
Harmony is at its height!
You know that harmony is known as the eternal.
You know that the eternal is called the light.
The increase in your life force is a blessing.
Directing the chi with your mind is violent.
Things overdevelop, which is followed by exhaustion.
This is not the Tao.
What is not the Tao soon ends.
56
One who knows, does not speak.
One who speaks, does not know.
t your mouth.
Close your gates.
Blunt your sharpness.
Unravel your tangles.
Harmonize your brilliance.
Join with your dust.
This is called the mystery of the One (the Source).
You will not be possessed by love.
You will not be possessed by hate.
You will not be possessed by profit.
You will not be possessed by loss.
You will not be possessed by honor.
You will not be possessed by disgrace.
This makes Heaven below (the sacred body) a treasure.
57
Connect Heaven and Earth to govern the country.
Disconnect Heaven and Earth to use your weapons.
By means of not working, you can take hold of Heaven below (the sacred body).
I know this to be so!
In Heaven below, excess restrictions and prohibitions increase poverty.
People have an excess of sharp weapons, the country's families are in great disorder.
If people are more skillful at being cunning, more abnormal things arise.
Law and order become more and more prominent.
Robbers and thieves appear.
Thus the sage speaks:
I practice not doing (wu wei) and the people naturally transform.
I welcome peace and the people naturally create a connection between Heaven and Earth.
I do not interfere and the people are naturally wealthy.
I am without desires and the people are naturally pure like uncarved wood or uncut jade.
58
When the government is dull, dull, the people are pure, pure.
When the government is sharp, sharp, the people are broken, broken.
Bad fortune! There is good fortune to lean on.
Good Fortune! There is bad fortune concealed within it.
Who can know the end?
There is no normal.
The normal, in turn, becomes the abnormal.
The good, in turn, becomes evil.
The people are confused and try many paths.
The sun is strong and enduring.
The sage is square* and the corners do not injure.
They have corners and do not pierce.
They have truth and do not overreach.
They have the light that does not blind.
* The square is the planar form of the cube which is the Platonic Solid that represents the energetic structure of SoulType 4.
59
Heaven governs humanity's affairs and resembles the harvest.
For this reason the master is frugal and is correct to call for morning clothes.
Morning clothes show the importance of accumulating soulful experiences.
The important accumulation of soulful experiences emulates emptiness.
It does not control.
Emptiness that does not control follows no one.
Experiencing this is the highest.
Not experiencing this causes the emergence of rulers, the emergence of kingdoms.
The mother is able to long endure which shows a deep foundation.
The strengthened foundation increases life and brings an enduring recognition of the Tao.
60
Govern a great state as carefully as you would fry a small fish.
The Tao can govern Heaven below (the sacred body).
You are lost in a field without direction when you are not with your soul.
Surely being lost in a field without direction happens when you are not with your soul.
The soul does not enter the people like an arrow.
The soul surely does not enter the people like an arrow.
The sage does not enter the people like an arrow.
Both together will not enter the people like an arrow.
The action of the soul unifies and restores the path, indeed.
61
A great state lies below the river and unites with Heaven below (the sacred body).
Heaven below is female.
The female is eternal and tranquil which sustains the male.
Through peacefulness and acting below, a great country has the means to receive a petty country.
Thus they can govern a petty country.
By means of being below, a great country thus governs itself.
The capacity to be below is the means to govern.
A great country's tendency is to unite and nourish the people.
A petty country's tendency is to penetrate the people's activities.
Above all, they both have a tendency.
For the great it is proper to act below.
62
The ten-thousand things (everything) follow the Tao.
Its mystery is the good person's treasure.
It protects the bad person.
Pleasing words can be used to sell.
Honorable actions bring people together.
Why reject the essence of people who are not good?
The emperor who appoints three ministers to bring precious jade preceded by a team of four horses is not equal to the stillness of advancing the Tao.
We honor the Tao because it came first.
Does it not say that those who seek to attain reality can thus free themselves from wrongdoing?
Thus the act of becoming human is Heaven below's (the sacred body's) treasure.
63
Act without doing (wu wei).
Work without working.
Taste without tasting.
Great is small, more is less.
Respond to hatred with the action of your soul.
Deal with the difficult by becoming one (with the source).
Easily become great through the exquisite.
The difficult endeavors of Heaven below (the sacred body) flourish through ease.
Heaven below抯 great endeavors arise from the exquisite.
Until their last day, the sage does not act great, hence can accomplish great things.
To condemn the inarticulate diminishes trust.
Changing places (becoming one with) becomes very difficult.
By means of resembling the difficulty, the sage is free of difficulty until the end of their days.
64
That which is content is easy to hold.
That which does not manifest easily is a scheme.
That which is delicate is easy to dissolve.
That which is mysterious is easy to disperse.
Practice and do not possess.
Govern through not creating discord.
Join and embrace a tree as it grows from a tiny seedling.
A tower of nine stories rises from the Earth.
A thousand li* journey begins when you are sufficiently connected to the Earth.
Those who do, destroy.
Those who seize, lose.
The sages practice not doing (wu wei) and do not destroy.
They do not seize and they do not lose.
The people pursue their worldly affairs, and are often near success, and yet they fail.
When they are as careful to the end as they are in the beginning they will not fail in their worldly affairs.
The sages desires are not deep-seated desires.
They do not value difficult-to-obtain treasures.
They study not studying.
They can help ten-thousand things (everything) naturally and do not venture to act.
* Li=1/3 mile
65
The ancients were excellent in the practice of the Tao.
It was surely not only because they were of the light, but because they were able to receive the people's folly.
People are difficult to govern because of their extreme cunning.
Therefore cunning governs the rulers of the country.
They are thieves.
When cunning does not govern the rulers of the country, there is good fortune.
Recognize both of these.
Always pay attention to the way the master speaks of the mysterious action of the soul.
The mysterious action of the soul is deep! Distant!
Join with its substance and return!
After this great harmony is at its height.
66
Great rivers and seas can rule the hundred valleys because they are positioned below to receive the water.
In this way, they rule the hundred valleys.
The people are positive that their deep-seated desires are of the highest nature and justify them with inferior speech.
Deep-seated desires began for people when the body was put second.
There is a reason the sages do not engage with or give weight to the people's deep-seated desires.
They stop in front of the deep-seated desires and the people do not suffer (from their own deep-seated desires).
This is because Heaven below (the sacred body) is joyfully supported and not beyond its limits.
Accordingly it does not compete.
Therefore, Heaven below is without the ability to join with the deep-seated desires and compete.
67
All people of Heaven below (the sacred body) call the Tao great because it does not resemble anything.
The masters are great because they do not resemble anything.
The Tao is barely visible.
It endures!
It is exquisite!
The master says, "I have three treasures. I hold and protect them."
One is called compassion.
Two is called moderation.
Three is known as not presuming to venture ahead of Heaven below.
Compassion gives you the power to be courageous.
Moderation gives you the power to be generous.
Not presuming to venture ahead of Heaven below gives you the power to succeed in expanding your vessel (body).
Nowadays people:
- forsake compassion to be daring.
- forsake moderation to be abundant.
- forsake, postpone, and soon die!
Through compassion the master can fight to overcome.
By holding firm to this, heaven takes them in hand and takes care of them.
Compassion protects them.
68
The good actions of the masters* are not warlike or aggressive.
A skillful battle does not include anger.
To skillfully defeat an enemy, do not join them in their anger.
Employ people well by staying below them.
The action of the soul is called employing people抯 strengths.
This is called complying with Heaven抯 ancient perfection.
* The person who knows all from 1-10.
69
From using force a saying emerges: I dare not act like a ruler, but instead I must act like a guest.
Do not venture an inch when you can withdraw a foot.
This is called progress without progressing.
Seize without seizing.
Apply force to no opponent.
Manage without weapons.
There is no greater calamity than disregarding the enemy.
Disregarding your enemy brings you close to the death of what you treasure.
When two armies meet and inspect each other, grieve for the winner!
70
Their sayings are very easy to know and very easy to practice in Heaven below (the sacred body).
Without the power to perceive, without the power to progress;
Speech arises from your past.
Deeds are exalted.
For this exact reason the master knows emptiness.
This is the reason they are not recognized.
Know their soundlessness.
Emulate them.
Treasure the sage who wears coarse clothes and hides their jewels.
71
Know not knowing.
Those above do not know knowing.
For this reason they are sick.
Sickness, use your sickness as the means to get well.
The sage is not sick, because they use the one.
Sickness, use your sickness as the means to get well.
72
When people are not afraid of the power of the Tao then the great power will be at its height.
The vessel (body) will not be restricted.
Inhabit a vessel free of restrictions.
It gives life.
For this exact reason the masters do not go beyond their limits.
They do not go beyond their limits.
The sage naturally perceives and does not have opinions.
They naturally express humanity in their actions and do not give preference to themselves.
They are able to discard giving preference to themselves and take hold of expressing humanity in their actions.
73
Being rash in your courage is like killing.
Not being rash in your courage supports life.
Of these two, one supports Heaven, the other does not.
People who are in an ugly-hearted place, what do they know?
The sages are correct to watch for this difficulty.Heaven抯 Tao:
- does not compete and excels at overcoming.
- does not use words and has good answers.
- does not summon yet spontaneously attracts.
- has a patient manner, yet is good at laying plans.
Heaven抯 net is vast, wide, and open, and nothing is lost.
74
If people are not afraid to die, why would you use death to threaten them?
