nothing exceeds economy.
Through economy,
one pursues the Way anew.
Following from the start
means ever more integrity.
With a reservoir of integrity,
no challenge is too great.
When nothing blocks the way,
one knows no limits.
A man without limit
is fit to lead all.
As a font for all,
he long endures.
Such is rooting deeply and growing firm,
the Way of long life and lasting vision.
60
The people, like crystal:
handle with care.
When leaders express integrity,
dark forces find no potency.
Not that darkness has no power,
but it will do no harm.
Not that it can do no harm,
but no one's left in harm's way.
Neither harms the other:
integrity on both accounts.
61
A great land is a basin
towards which all rivers flow,
a receiver of all here below,
the female spirit of the world.
The receiver ever claims dominion through her stillness.
Still, she has reached the lowest place.
Lying low before a smaller land,
a greater land may win it over.
Lying low before a greater land,
a smaller land may win it over.
Each wins the other by being lower.
A great land is greater still when serving ever more.
A small land is better served when serving what is great.
Each benefits the other,
by which the greater land may see its lowly role.
62
The Way holds sanctuary for all creatures,
a treasure for the true, a refuge for the erring.
Deft words earn favor,
fine works reward.
Let inept works and inapt words earn no less.
When leaders are installed or ministers appointed,
in pomp are reins of power bestowed.
Wiser to withdraw and without ceremony
bestow the Way upon the land.
The ancients said:
"Seek and you shall find."
"Err and be free from fault."
Thus all may value the Way.
63
Work without doing.
Manage without interfering.
Relish the mundane.
Respect the small as great.
Regard the few as many.
Repair insult with integrity.
With difficult tasks, attend to the easy.
With daunting feats, attend to the small.
All big problems were once easy to solve.
All great deeds were once small to begin.
The person of integrity, never anxious for greatness,
achieves the monumental without effort.
Who is quick to promise
can't meet all his commitments.
Who imagines all things easy
finds difficulty at every turn.
A wise man respects the challenge in every act,
thus nothing ever gets the better of him.
64
What is secure is easily held.
What's not yet sure is easily quelled.
What is brittle is easily shattered.
What is little is easily scattered.
Dissolve a problem before it comes near.
Establish order lest chaos appear.
A tree that fills a man's embrace
begins as a seedling at its base.
A nine-layered terrace finds its birth
in modest basketfuls of earth.
A journey to a distant land
begins with a step from where you stand.
Who acts may rue it.
Who grasps may lose it.
A wise man never acts, has naught to rue.
He never grasps, has naught to lose.
How often one fails on the verge of success.
Be ever mindful in the urge to progress.
A wise man aims to be free of want
and never values rarities.
Forsaking what is taught as true,
he does what others never do.
He guides all creatures to their natures each
and never grasps beyond his reach.
65
The ancient adepts of the Way
did not teach the people everything,
freeing them from confusion.
People are hard to govern
when they have too much learning.
Who governs academically
deprives the people.
Who governs sympathically
enriches the people.
Between these two is set a measure,
To respect it always,
such is the wonder of integrity.
How deep, how far-reaching!
It receives all things
and leads them to great oneness.
66
Why is the ocean great?
It lies below all waters.
It calls a million streams its own.
To receive high honor,
posture yourself below others.
To lead others,
posture yourself behind them.
The person of integrity
comes before others without offending,
stands above others without oppressing.
All under heaven ever yield to him.
Because he contends with no one,
no one can contend with him.
67
How great the Way,
like nothing else!
If it were not beyond compare,
how common it would be.
These treasures three--
empathy,
economy,
humility--
cherish them and hold them close.
Now,
through empathy, one conquers fear.
Through economy, one gives forth.
Through humility, one stewards all.
But courage absent empathy,
generosity absent economy,
leadership absent humility,
invites death within.
Through empathy one wins a war.
Through empathy secure a land.
What heaven brings forth,
compassion sustains.
68
Who battles well
is free of aggression.
Who fights well
is free of anger.
Who conquers his enemy
is free of encounter.
Who wins over others
is free of arrogance.
Such is integrity with no contention.
Such is finding advantage in others.
Such is meeting with heaven,
long since the ultimate.
69
Strategists say:
"Rather play the guest than dare to host."
"Rather retreat a foot than advance an inch."
Advance without armies.
Ward off without arms.
Cast out without confronting.
Pursue without weapons.
No misfortune is greater
than mistaking a worthy opponent.
Not thinking your opponent worthy,
you sacrifice your touchstone.
When well matched forces meet,
who sees the loss will win.
70
These words?br> How easily understood!
How easily put in practice!
Yet no one understands them.
No one puts them to good use.
Words have history,
works authority.
Who know the Way, how few.
Who follow, how esteemed.
Who has integrity,
on his shoulders find coarse fabric,
in his bosom a precious gem.
71
Know well what you know not.
Unlearn what ill you know.
Wellness here, defect there.
A wise man frees himself from defects
by regarding defects as defects.
72
When no one fears the awesome,
then how great it will appear.
Set no limit on their homes.
Lay no burden on their work.
Without duress, they never weary of you.
The person of integrity
knows himself, yet does not show himself.
He fills himself, yet is not full of himself.
He releases what is without
for what is within.
73
Who dares and fears not, encounters death.
Who fears and dares not, is bound with life.
In each a deficit, in each an asset.
What heaven decries,
who knows why?
The Way of heaven
contends not yet conquers well,
speaks not yet evokes response,
summons not yet draws all near,
bustles not yet meets its purpose.
Heaven casts
a net that's vast,
and though its mesh is far from fine,
nothing is ever left behind.
74
When none fear death,
you cannot threaten them with dying.
When all fear death,
none dare transgress under pain of death.
As long as men fear death,
executioners can make a living.
Only one is positioned to take life.
Who is not a master and tries to hew wood
rarely escapes injuring his hands.
75
Humans hunger
when heavily taxed.
Citizens are unruly
when governors misrule.
People treat death lightly
when nothing's left to live for.
Only one indifferent toward life
is wiser than one ever valuing life.
76
All living plants, each man alive,
live pliant and will yield.
A plant once dead, a man that's died,
are dry and stiff and hard.
Rigid persons side with death.
Yielding persons side with life.
Armies that cannot yield will lose.
Trees that cannot bend will snap.
The strong and rigid all will fail.
The pliant and yielding will prevail.
77
How the Way is like stringing a bow!
The upper end is brought down.
The lower end is lifted.
All excess is reduced.
All deficit is restored.
With all parts in balance, it is fit for use.
In nature, any surplus flows
to those without from those with more.
Men instead reverse the flow
from those without to those with more.
Only one with integrity has abundance
and shares it with the world.
The person of integrity
works, expecting no return,
completes his task, not dwelling on it,
and rests, content unto himself.
78
Nothing in the world
is as weak or yielding as water.
Yet nothing works as well
to triumph over hard and strong.
To the fluid and the yielding,
the hard and strong give way.
Many persons know this
yet none put it to good use.
The wise men said:
"Who would suffer all insult, let him rule the land."
"Who would shoulder misfortune, let him care for the world."
79
To what end compromise,
if resentment still survives?
A wise man thus accepts a debt,
and never claims what's due.
The person of integrity
minds what he owes others,
while one without integrity
minds what's due by others.
Judging is not the Way,
yet justice ever wins the day.
80
Imagine a land, modest in size.
Imagine a people, few in number.
Everyone lives aware of death
and no one thinks to leave.
With all the means to travel far,
no one rides away.
With weapons and armor stored away,
no one is defensive.
Now,
give them rope, they reckon with knots.
Give them simple food, they savor it;
simple clothes, they dress handsomely;
simple dwellings, they feel secure; simple customs, they find delight.
The nearby land in plain view lies?br> and one can hear their roosters crow!?
still no one ventures forth,
even unto the day they die.
81
Honest words are not pretty.
Pretty words are not honest.
Ones who know are not learned.
Learned ones do not know.
Who has integrity does not cross words.
Who crosses words has not integrity.
The person of integrity
reserves nothing for himself.
The more he does for others,
the fuller his own self.
The more he gives to others,
the richer he becomes.
The Way of heaven is
to give and forgive not.
The Way of wise men is
to tend and contend not.
English_Anonymous_TTK
Das Tao Te King von Lao Tse
Dutch - English by
Anonymous
Vorwort/Foreword
About Lao Tzu and the Tao Te Ching
People assume that the Tao Te Ching dates back to the 6th century before Christ and also that the writer is unknown. Lao Tzu namely means 揟he Old Sage?and it抯 obvious that it is a collection of wisdom passed on verbally for centuries and written down somewhere in history. Right there lies the treacherousness of the written word. For only the elite, the schooled, the learned, the clergy and the rulers mastered script/writing. They have mastered the Tao Te Ching and changed the contents intentionally, possibly unconsciously, so that it suited their objectives. What was supposed to be a pearl of clarity, they have consequently made into a complicated and most incomprehensible story to justify their interests, their status and positions. The bizarre thing is that it is the learned, about whom Lao Tzu says "they are not wise", who reflect their interpretations of the Tao Te Ching, colored by their follies, and so they make up their minds without understanding the true meaning. 揟raduttore Traditore? is an old Italian saying, which means that one can only translate a writing correctly by understanding the aim of the writer and therefore one must be committing treason to this moral if he doesn抰. That is to say, everybody who translates a script, translates it through his own point of view and so adds something to the writing which he thinks the writer must have meant. And because everybody抯 view is colored by his or her interests, prejudices and convictions, there are as many possible translations and interpretations as there are people, and none of those translations are able to reflect what Lao Tzu really meant. It抯 obvious that no scientist dares to read therein that he is a fool himself; no leader, that he is an upgraded ignoramus, and no philosopher that he is telling but nonsense/bullshit.
What did Lao Tzu mean to convey in the Tao Te Ching?
In essence Lao Tzu is a ringer. He is someone who first asked himself what he was really doing. He turned himself away from the world and as an outsider he suddenly saw that all his fellow men are occupied by their daydreams. Caught up in their own head-trips they follow leaders, which don抰 know as well as they themselves do, stuck in many silly traditions and habits, talking about nothing, ruled by fear, not knowing who they are, anxious about everything and nothing. They are slaughtering each other, attached to their possessions, locked up in their houses, villages, cities, states; involved in labor and day-to-day routines, and last but not least, they accept all this. He incites them to free themselves from those chains, to stop the nonsense with which they weary themselves, not to trust flattery from others anymore, not to follow their leaders anymore and to just enjoy life. Men, dare to live!
What抯 the weak spot in the Tao Te Ching?
The Tao Te Ching continues as an unfortunate mixture of wisdom sayings and inadequate descriptions about experiencing reality and the way Creation comes to expression; in other words, about the creating process. And that抯 exactly what cannot be said in words, and every attempt at it ends in mystical abracadabra. Wittgenstein writes about this in his Tractatus Logico-philosophicus: 揥hereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent?
