Can you, when concentrating your breath,make it soft like that of an infant?
Strive after less tainted perfection, letit be aided by penetrating insight. So wipe and cleanse your vision ofthe mystery till all is without blur.
Can you love the people and rule the land,yet remain unknown?
Can you in opening and tting the heavenlygates, ever play the feminine part?
Can your mind penetrate every corner of theland, but you yourself never interfere? Can you renounce the grosser mindfor comprehending all inside knowledge?
Produce things and rear well,
but never lay claims to such things -
control them, never lean upon them.
Rely on some innate ability to act well.
Be a sort of master among others, just refrainfrom mismanaging.
Here is found the essence of dao might, itsdeep, mystic virtue.
11
We put thirty spokes together and call ita wheel; but it's on the space where there's nothing that the usefulnessof the wheel depends.
We turn clay to make a vessel; but it's onthe space where there's nothing that the usefulness of the vessel depends.
We pierce and cut out doors and windows tomake a house;
and it's on these spaces where there's nothingthat the usefulness of the house depends.
Take advantage of what is, turn existinginto a great advantage: just make as much as you can out of it here.
Feel free to recognise the possible usefulnessof whats not yet here. Prosper by clever use of something not yet.
12
The five colours tend to confuse the eye,
the five sounds of music can deafen the ear,
the five tastes all dull or spoil the palate.
Excess of hunting and chasing makes a mindgo mad.
Things hard to get, keeps one on one's guard.Valuable things and products quite hard to get, can impede their owner'sprogress.
So the wise man is concerned with his tummybefore his eyes. He can consider the tummy first, not the eye. That is:He disregards the world outside - "that", and he accepts, goes for andin the end grabs the supernormal powers dormant within - his daoist "this".Therefore he rejects the one but accepts the other.
13
Be glad for favour. Still receive favouror disgrace with regular apprehension.
Be cautious not to lose the winning sortof favour. Lower favour and disgrace can cause one dismay;
We can have fears because we have a self.Yet what we value and what we fear are as if within that inner sanctimoniumself."
What does this mean:
"Favour and disgrace can cause one dismay?
Those who receive favour from above are dismayedwhen they receive it.
And should they lose it they turn distraught.
What does this mean:
"What we value and what we fear are as ifwithin our serious self?"
Regard great trouble as seriously as youregard the body. One reason that we suffer hurt is that we have bodies.
When we don't regard that gross body as [mostimportant aspect of self, what have we to fear? [Lao tse.]
And so, the one who values his experiencedworld as part of his exploring inner self, can then be entrusted with ruleof something.
he who loves the all as an aspect of hissensing self -
The all can then be entrusted to his care.
14
Look at it, it can't be seen,
is called the invisible.
Listen to it, it can't be heard,
is called the inaudible.
Grasp at it, it can't be touched,
is called the fine formless..
These three elude all solid inquiries
And merge and become one.
Its rising brings no light;
its sinking, no darkness.
Unceasing, continuous,
it can't be defined,
on the way back to where there's nothing.
It's called shape free from shapes;
forms without form;
the image of nothingness.
That's why it's called the elusive;
Go towards them, and you can see no physicalfront;
go after them, and you see no rear.
Hold on to the dao of old to master the thingsof the present.
Master what once was, at the start,
It's the essence of rarefied, pearl-stringeddao.
15
The best rulers of old had fine natures,mysterious, too deep, they could not be understood.
And because such men could not be fully graspedat once,
they appeared to be
cautious, like wading a stream in winter;
at a loss, like one fearing and having todeal with danger on every side;
reserved, like one who pays a visit;
pliant and yielding, as ice when it beginsto melt;
genuine, like a piece of raw wood;
open-minded like a valley;
and blending freely like a troubled, muddystream of water.
Find repose in a muddy world by lying still;be gradually clear through tranquillity. You can assume such murkiness,to become in the end still and clear. And maintain your calm long in between.
So make yourself inert, to get in the endfull of life and stir.
By such activity come back to life.
Who hugs this dao doesn't want to fill himselfto overflowing.
It's just because he guards against beingover-full, there's no overflowing, and next
he is like a garment that endures all, beyondwearing out and renewal.
16
Attain complete humility towards the void;
hold firm to the basis of quietude.
The myriad things take shape and rise toactivity,
Now, I watch them fall, worked on,
back to their repose and roots
like plants that flourish
but return to the soil and root they grewfrom.
To return to the root is basic repose;
it's quiet and returning to some destiny.
To submit to a destiny is to find the eternalshelter, the always-so, or the eternal dao.
To know the eternal always-so is to be somewhatillumined.
not to know it courts disaster.
He who knows the eternal shelter has roomin him for nearly everything - he is wide as tolerant.
Being much including, there's little prejudice;
to be without blunt prejudice is kingly;
to be kingly is to be well in accord withnature; it's to be of heaven.
To be of heaven in unison with an undauntednature is to be in dao;
This dao is forever, and he that owns it,is hardly destroyed, even though his body ceases.
17
Of the best the people hardly ever know theyexist;
The next best they flock to and praise fornothing.
The next they shrink from;
the next get reviled.
"Not believing people you turn them intoliars" -
such bosses don't command the people's faith.
They lose faith in them and take to oaths!
The wise man is a clever ruler; he valueshis words highly.
It's so hard to get a single word from atany price that when his task is finished, a work well done, everyone says,
"It happened by itself, and we did it."
18
When the great dao declined,
jen and i arose, humanity and righteousness."
Next, when brightness and know-how came invogue,
the great pretence fully started.
When the six family relationships are notin harmony
There's open talk of kind parents" dutifulsons" and deep love to children.
A confused country enmeshed in disorder praisesministers in chaos and misrule.
19
Banish wisdom, discard knowledge,
Then the people will benefit a hundred times.
Banish human love, just dump righteous, moraljustice,
and then the people will be dutiful and recoverdeep love of their kin.
Banish cunning and skill, dispel profit;dismiss utility,"
then thieves and robbers will disappear.
These three things are not enough; externalsare somehow
decorations, purpose's not enough; they tendto rob life and make it too little complicated.
Therefore let people hold well on to keepingaccessories;
keeping simplicity to look at.
Go on and shield their internal soul's nature
as some ritual, raw block to hold,
their private, secret means and foster lessardent desires.
20
Abandon learning and there will be no sorrow.
Between Yes, sir," and Of course not", howmuch difference is there?
Between good" and bad", how much differenceis there?
That which men fear is indeed to be feared;
alas confused, and the end isn't yet.
All men are wreathed in smiles, ever merry-making,
as if feasting after the great sacrifice,like ascending a tower in spring.
I alone am inert, like a child that has notyet given sign;
Like a new-born child that can't smile yet.
I seem to be without a home, droop and drift,as though I belonged nowhere, completely unattached.
All men have enough and to spare;
I alone seem to have lost everything; I amlike one left out.
Mine is indeed the mind of a very idiot,my heart must be that of a fool,
dull as I seem - muddled, nebulous!
The world is full of knowing people that shine;
I alone am dull, confused.
I seem to be in the dark.
They look lively and clear-cut self-assured;
I appear alone, depressed, or patient asthe sea,
blown adrift, seemingly aimless, never broughtto a stop.
All men can be put to some use; as worldlingshave a purpose.
I alone am intractable and boorish, appearingrustic, stubborn and uncouth, differing from most people,
But I differ most from others in that I prizeno sustenance that doesn't come from the breast of mama mia.
21
The marks of great virtue follow alone fromthe (one) dao.
What's called one dao seems impalpable andvague, not to be measured at all.
Dao is an elusive, virtually incommensurableform, but eluding, elusive it contains sub-forms.
Within it lie idea-images of coming things,within it are some shadowy entities or some dormant, vibrant life forceof the firstborn, dim essence - even of objects, somehow, but much rarefied- latent in the essence is the life-force.
The life-force is real and to be trusted.
It's true, and can be set to operate.
and latent in it are evidences.
From the days of old till now
its chunks havent departed or ceased,
By its chunks we can view some origin ofall descended units.
How do I know a father of a thing? How toknow how some origin of a manifestation is formed?
By much developed intuition, possibly.
22
"To remain whole, yield somewhat or seemcurved and bent if you may."
To become straight, let yourself look bent.
To become full, seem hollow.
Seem tattered now, that you can be renewed.
Those that have little, can get more,
To have plenty is to be confused..
Therefore the wise man clasps the primalunity, testing by it everything under heaven by himself - it.
He doesn't show himself much, he is thereforeluminous and clear.
He doesn't define himself, therefore he isdistinct.
He doesn't boast, therefore people give himcredit: he succeeds by that.
He's never outright proud of his work, andtherefore it endures.
Because he doesn't contend, none in the worldcan contend with him.
So the old saying To remain whole, seem twisted!"was no idle word;
for true wholeness can only be won by returnto dao.
23
To be always talking goes against nature.
For the same reason a good whirlwind neverlasts the whole morning, nor a swell rainstorm the whole day.
The wind and rain emerge from nature. Andif even nature can't blow, last or pour for long, how much less shouldman-given tenets?
So, he who takes to or follows (one) dao,becomes merged with (this) dao. Or if one uses dao as one's instrument,the results will be like dao.
Who follows virtue, is soaked by it. If oneuses the power" as one's instrument, the results will be like the power.
If one uses whats the reverse of the power",
the results will be the reverse of the power".
Who is dao identified, could be glad as well.For to those who have conformed themselves to dao, dao readily lends itspower.
To those who have conformed themselves tothe power, the power readily lends more power.
While to those who conform themselves toinefficacy, inefficacy readily lends its ineffectiveness.
Who has not enough faith will not be ableto get faith. Or:
"By not believing in people you turn theminto liars."
24
Who stands on tiptoe, doesn't stand steady;
He who takes the longest strides, doesn'twalk.."
He who does his own looking sees little,and he who shows or reveals himself is hardly luminous
He who justifies and defines himself isn'tsubsequently distinct.
He who boasts of what he will do succeedsin nothing;
Who brags doesn't endure for long. Who isproud of his work, achieves nothing well lasting.
Such people are like remnants of food andtumours of action from the dao point of view. Good braggarts could be dregs.So it's said
"Pass round superfluous dishes to those thathave already had enough,
Such things of disgust all are likely todetest and reject in disgust."
So the man of dao spurns them. The man thathas dao doesn't stay to bray and show off.
25
Before heaven and earth here was somethingnebulous, formless yet complete;
without sound, without substance, isolated,free from all form;
standing alone and depending on nothing,unchanging, operating everywhere, all pervading, revolving and withoutfail.
One can think of it as the mother of all
I don't know its true name. I call it dao.
"Way" is the by-name.
If forced to give it a name I can call itgreat (ta) .
Now such greatness implies reaching out inspace, and also means functioning everywhere, or passing on;
Space-yielding or functioning everywheresignifies far-reaching. And passing on means going far away,
To go really far is to return to the originalpoint. To reach far is a return. To go far away means to return.
So dao is great and far-reaching, and sois heaven, earth and the king.
For just as dao, earth and heaven each hasits subtle greatness, so does the ruler.
There are four great things in the universe,and the king is one of them. So within the realm there are four portionsof greatness", and one belongs to the king.
The ways of men are conditioned by thoseof earth.
The ways of earth, by those of heaven.
