A huge tree begins as a tiny sprout.
A terrace nine storeys high begins as a small pile of dirt.
The giant pine tree grows from a tiny sprout.
A thousand杕ile journey begins with a single step.
Intrude and ruin.
Grasp and lose.
Therefore, the Tao朚aster practices non朼do and so does not ruin;
he is not grasping and so does not lose.
People often fail just when they are about to succeed.
Be as careful at the end as you are at the beginning,
and you will not fail.
Therefore, the Tao朚aster desires no杁esire,
treasures no treasures, studies no studies.
He pays attention to what others have ignored.
He helps all things find their center,
all without ado.
65
The ancient rulers who followed the Tao
did not try to enlighten the people,
but rather aimed at making them dull.
People are hard to govern because they are so clever.
Rulers who seek to enlighten the people
are like bandits who prey upon the land.
Rulers who forget about enlightening the people
are a real blessing to the nation.
Remember these two enduring principles:
they represent the power [Te] of the Tao.
Te goes deep and far.
All things turn back and reach original harmony.
66
Great rivers and seas are kings to hundreds of lesser streams
because they lie lower than the lesser streams.
To stand above, you must speak from below.
To lead, you must follow behind.
This is how the ruler who follows the Tao
stands above and leads the people.
And in this way,
the people are neither overburdened nor oppressed.
The whole nation supports such a ruler.
He contends with no one, and no one contends with him.
67
Many consider my teaching to be nonsense.
But the profound is a lot like nonsense.
If a teaching does not seem nonsensical, then it must be trivial.
I have three treasures to guard and preserve:
The first is compassion.
The second is self杛estraint.
The third is not wanting to be ahead of others.
Compassion breeds fortitude.
Self杛estraint breeds generosity.
Not wanting to be ahead of others breeds leadership.
These days, people want courage without compassion,
generosity without self杛estraint, and
leadership without the willingness to be led.
This is death.
Compassion rules!
On the attack, it wins.
On the defense, it holds the fort.
It is Heaven's means of aid and protection.
68
The best soldier does not rush into battle.
The best fighter does not display his anger.
The best conqueror does not take vengeance on his enemy.
The best leader is the best follower.
This is known as the power [Te] of not contending.
This is known as true leadership.
This is known as following Heaven's lead.
69
There is a saying among military strategists:
"Instead of advancing, I'll be advanced upon;
it is better to retreat a foot than to advance an inch."
This is known as advancing without advancing,
getting ready without showing your muscles,
capturing without attacking,
being well朼rmed without weapons.
There is nothing worse than underestimating your enemy.
That leads to total defeat.
Therefore, when armies clash,
it is the side that does not rejoice in war杕aking that wins.
70
My teachings are very easy to understand
and even easier to put into practice.
And yet, no one understands or practices them.
My teachings are derived from an ancient system of principles.
People who do not realize this do not really know me.
Few know me, but that is my value.
Therefore, the Tao朚aster wears rough clothing,
but has a jewel for a heart.
71
To know that you do not know is strength.
Not knowing that you do not know is a sickness.
The cure begins with the recognition of the sickness.
The Tao朚aster is not sick, but he is sick of sickness.
Thus, he is well.
72
When the people do not fear your power,
then your power has become truly great.
Do not intrude into their homes.
Do not interfere with their work.
If you do not oppress them, then they will not become sick of you.
Thus, the Tao朚aster knows himself, but does not show himself.
He loves himself, but is not arrogant.
Therefore, he lets go of that and chooses this.
73
A man of daring courage will kill or be killed.
A man of cautious courage seeks to save lives.
Each of these may be either beneficial or harmful.
Heaven hates what it hates.
Who knows why?
Even the Tao朚aster can't figure it out.
The Tao does not contend, but it prevails.
It does not speak, but it answers.
It is not called, but it responds.
It has no purpose, but it achieves all of its aims.
Heaven's net is wide; nothing slips through.
74
If people do not fear death,
then you cannot threaten them with it.
If they are afraid of death,
we could make death the penalty for breaking the law.
But do we dare to do so?
Consider the role of the official executioner:
Are you ready to play that role?
When amateurs try to play the master carpenter,
they usually cut and bruise themselves in the process.
75
When taxes are too high, people starve.
When the government is too intrusive,
it makes life no longer worth living, and
the people lose their love of life and their fear of death.
To promote the value of life, do not interfere with it.
76
People are born soft and flexible;
when they are dead, they are hard and stiff.
Living plants are tender and pliant;
when they are dead, they are brittle and dried out.
Therefore, whatever is hard and stiff is a sign of death.
Whatever is soft and flexible is a sign of life.
An army without flexibility never wins.
An unbending tree is easily brought down by the wind.
The hard and stiff fall.
The soft and flexible rise.
77
The Tao is like the bending of a bow.
The top is bent downward; the bottom is bent up.
If the cord is too long, it is shortened;
if it is too short, it is lengthened.
The policy of the Tao is to take from those who have too much
and give to those who have too little.
But that is not the human practice.
We take from those who have too little
and give to those who have too much.
Who is it that has more than enough
and gives his surplus to those in need?
Only the follower of the Tao.
The follower of the Tao acts without hope of gain,
accomplishes but takes no credit,
does not wish to lord it over others.
78
Water is soft and yielding, but
nothing can more effectively dissolve the hard and inflexible.
Weak defeats strong.
Soft defeats hard.
This is well杒nown, but not easy to put into practice.
Therefore, the Tao朚aster says:
He who takes upon himself the dirt of the nation
becomes the master of its sacred soil;
he who takes upon himself the evils of the land
becomes a true king under Heaven.
Straight words seem crooked.
79
Great resentment, even when appeased, does not go away.
How can this be good?
Therefore, the Tao朚aster keeps his promises,
but he does not look into whether others are keeping theirs.
The man of virtue (Te) monitors himself;
The man without virtue monitors others.
The Tao of Heaven plays no favorites,
but it is always manifest in the good man.
80
Imagine a small country with a small population.
They have lots of technology, but they use none of it.
They take the prospect of death seriously
and thus do not travel far from home.
They have boats and carriages, but no one takes them out.
They have weapons and armor,
but no one takes them out of the armory.
Instead of writing, they have gone back
to the old system of cord杒notting.
They enjoy their plain but good food,
their simple but fine clothing,
their humble but secure homes.
They are happy with their way of life.
The next country is so close that the crowing of the cocks and
the barking of the dogs over there can be easily heard over here;
and yet the people over here grow old and die
without ever having been over there.
81
True words aren't pretty; pretty words aren't true.
The good do not contend; those who contend aren't good.
The wise are not learned; the learned are not wise.
The Tao朚aster is not greedy.
The more he does for others, the more he has.
The more he gives to others, the richer he becomes.
The Tao sharpens without cutting.
The Tao朚aster acts with non朼do.
English_Crowley_TTK
Das Tao Te King von Lao Tse
Chinese - English by
Aleister Crowley, 1923
1
THE NATURE OF THE TAO
The Tao-Path is not the All-Tao.
The Name is not the Thing named.
Unmanifested, it is the Secret Father of
To understand this Mystery, one must be fulfilling one's will,
and if one is not thus free, one will but gain a smattering of it.
The Tao is one, and the Teh but a phase thereof. The abyss of this
Mystery is the Portal of Serpent-Wonder.
The Tao
The Teh, The Tao,
source of the Mother source of the Father
2
THE ENERGY - SOURCE OF THE SELF
All men know that beauty and ugliness are correlatives, as are skilland
clumsiness; one implies and suggests the other.
So also existence and non-existence pose the one the other;
so also is it with ease and difficulty, length and shortness; heightand
lowness. Also Musick exists through harmony of opposites;
time and space depend upon contraposition.
By the use of this method, the sage can fulfil his will without action,
and utter his word without speech.
All things arise without diffidence; they grow, and none interferes;they
change according to their natural order, without lust of result. The
work is accomplished; yet continueth in its orbit, without goal. This
work is done unconsciously; this is why its energy is indefatigable.
3
QUIETING FOLK
To reward merit is to stir up emulation; to prize rarities is to
encourage robbery; to display desirable things is to excite the disorder
of covetousness.
Therefore, the sage governeth men by keeping their minds and their bodies
at rest, contenting the one by emptiness, the other by fullness. He
satisfieth their desires, thus fulfilling their wills, and making them
frictionless; and he maketh them strong in body, to a similar end.
He delivereth them from the restlessness of knowledge and the cravingsof
discontent. As to those who have knowledge already, he teacheth themthe
way of non-action. This being assured, there is no disorder in the
world.
4
THE SPRING WITHOUT SOURCE
The Tao resembleth the emptiness of Space; to employ it, we must avoid
creating ganglia. Oh Tao, how vast art Thou, the Abyss of Abysses,thou
Holy and Secret Father of all Fatherhoods of Things!
Let us make our sharpness blunt; let us loosen our complexes; let us
tone down our brightness to the general obscurity. Oh Tao, how stillart
thou, how pure, continuous One beyond Heaven!
This Tao hath no Father; it is beyond all other conceptions, higherthan
the highest.
5
THE FORMULA OF THE VACUUM
Heaven and earth proceed without motive, but casually in their orderof
nature, dealing with all things carelessly, like used talismans. Soalso
the sages deal with their people, not exercising benevolence, but
allowing the nature of all to move without friction.
The Space between heaven and earth is their breathing apparatus:
Exhalation is not exhaustion, but the complement of Inhalation, andthis
equally of that. Speech exhausteth; guard thyself, therefore, maintaining
the perfect freedom of thy nature.
6
THE PERFECTING OF FORM
The Teh is the immortal enemy of the Tao, its feminine aspect. Heaven
and Earth issued from her Gate; this Gate is the Root of their World-
Sycamore. Its operation is of pure Joy and Love, and faileth never.
7
THE CONCEALMENT OF THE LIGHT
Heaven and Earth are mighty in continuance, because their work is
delivered from the lust of result.
Thus also the sage, seeking not any goal, attaineth all things; he doth
not interfere in the affairs of his body, and so that body acteth without
friction. It is because he meddleth not with personal aims that these
come to pass with simplicity.
8
THE NATURE OF PEACE
Admire thou the High Way of Water! Is not Water the soul of the lifeof
things, whereby they change? Yet it seeketh its level, and abideth
content in obscurity. So also it resembleth the Tao, in this Way
thereof!
The virtue of a house is to be well-placed; of the mind, to be at easein
silence as of Space; of societies, to be well-disposed; of governments,
to maintain quietude; of work, to be skillfully performed; and of all
motion, to be made at the right time.
Also it is the virtue of a man to abide in his place without discontent;
thus offendeth he no man.
9
THE WAY OF RETICENCE
Fill not a vessel, lest it spill in carrying. Meddle not with a
sharpened point by feeling it constantly, or it will soon become
blunted.
Gold and jade endanger the house of their possessor. Wealth and honors
lead to arrogance and envy, and bring ruin. Is thy way famous and thy
name becoming distinguished? Withdraw, thy work once done, into
obscurity; this is the way of Heaven.
10
THINGS ATTAINABLE
When soul and body are in the bond of love, they can be kept together.
By concentration on the breath it is brought to perfect elasticity,and one
becomes as a babe. By purifying oneself from Samadhi one becomes whole
In his dealing with individuals and with society, let him move without
