41. On hearing of the Way, the best of men will earnestly explore
its length. The mediocre person learns of it and takes it up and sets
it down. But vulgar people, when they hear the news, will laugh out
loud, and if they did not laugh, it would not be the Way.

And so there is a proverb: "When going looks like coming back, the
clearest road is mighty dark." Today, the Way that's plain looks rough,
and lofty virtue like a chasm; the purest innocence like shame, the
broadest power not enough, established goodness knavery, substantial
worth like shifting tides.

Great space has no corners; great powers come late; great music is
soft sound; the great Form no shape.

The Way is obscure and unnamed; it is a skilled investor,
nonetheless, the master of accomplishment.

42. The Way begot one, and the one, two; then the two begot three
and three, all else.

All things bear the shade on their backs and the sun in their arms;
by the blending of breath from the sun and the shade, equilibrium comes
to the world.

Orphaned, or needy, or desolate, these are conditions much feared
and disliked; yet in public address, the king and the nobles account
themselves thus. So a loss sometimes benefits one or a benefit proves
to be loss.

What others have taught I also shall teach; if a violent man does
not come to a violent death, I shall choose him to teach me.
(The beginning of life is fertilization of the egg, that is the one or
mark on the egg. This mark will get two eyes and finally the nostrils,
the ears and mouth. The numbers are one, two and three. Usually the one
is not mentioned and three and two occurs in many Buddhist sutras as
32,00 bikkius etc. In the New Testament, the ten brides are mentioned,
five are smart and five stupid. Also the one talent, two talent and
five talent are referring the same things. The total apertures are
seven and One. Seven is often used in scriptures.) nostrils, the ears
and mouth. The numbers are one, two and three. Usually the one is not
mentioned and three and two occurs in many Buddhist sutras as 32,00
bikkius etc. In the New Testament, the ten brides are mentioned, five
are smart and five stupid. Also the one talent, two talent and five
talent are referring the same things. The total apertures are seven and
One. Seven is often used in scriptures.)

The second is hard to explain but could be referring to meditation
on the sun (nose) with our palms together at the tip of our nose.

The third refers to riches and authority are like orphans and
destitute. This is because they can never cultivate self or Tao. A
simple man with little money has more time to cultivate self.

The last refers to cause and effect. Violence brings violent death,
simple as that.

43. The softest of stuff in the world penetrates quickly the
hardest; insubstantial, it enters where no room is.

By this I know the benefit of something done by quiet being; in all
the world but few can know accomplishment apart from work, instruction
when no words are used.
[Inaction (meditation) is supreme.]

44. Which is dearer, fame or self? Which is worth more, man or
pelf? Which would hurt more, gain or loss?

The mean man pays the highest price; the hoarder takes the greatest
loss; a man content is never shamed, and self-restrained, is not in
danger: he will live forever.

45. Most perfect, yet it seems imperfect, incomplete: its use is
not impaired. Filled up, and yet it seems poured out, an empty void: it
never will run dry.
(Tao is like that.)

The straightest, yet it seems to deviate, to bend; the highest
skill and yet it looks like clumsiness. The utmost eloquence, it sounds
like stammering.
(Wise man is like that.)

As movement overcomes the cold, and stillness, heat, the Wise Man,
pure and still, will rectify the world.
(A man will bring peace to the world.)

46. When the Way rules the world, coach horses fertilize fields;
when the Way does not rule, war horses breed in the parks.
(A strong army is to fight others not for peace, the excuse of most
politicians.)

No sin can exceed incitement to envy; no calamity's worse than to
be discontented; nor is there an omen more dreadful than coveting. But
once be contented, and truly you'll always be so.
(If you are contented, you are at peace.)

47. The world may be known without leaving the house; the Way may
be seen apart from the windows. The further you go, the less you will
know.
(Only The Wise Man has this opportunity. Whatever is happening at home
is reflecting the happening in the world. The Tao is within, so the
further you look for it, you are going astray.)

Accordingly, the Wise Man knows without going, sees without seeing,
does without doing.
(The working of Inaction.)

48. The student learns by daily increment. The Way is gained by
daily loss, loss upon loss until at last comes rest.
(Self cultivation is to become pure and be like a baby.)

By letting go, it all gets done; the world is won by those who let
it go! But when you try and try, the world is then beyond the winning.
(Everything goes according to fate. Don't try to go against fate. If
you are the One, you are the One.)

49. The Wise Man's mind is free but tuned to people's need:

"Alike to good and bad I must be good, for Virtue is goodness. To
honest folk and those dishonest ones alike, I proffer faith, for Virtue
is faithful."

The Wise Man, when abroad, impartial to the world, does not divide
or judge. But people everywhere mark well his ears and eyes; for wise
men hear and see as little children do.

50. On leaving life, to enter death: thirteen members form a living
body; a corpse has thirteen, too; thirteen spots by which a man may
pass from life to death. Why so? Because his way of life is much too
gross.

As I have heard, the man who knows on land how best to be at peace
will never meet a tiger or a buffalo; in battle, weapons do not touch
his skin, there is no place the tiger's claws can grip; or with his
horn, the buffalo can jab; or where the soldier can insert his sword.
Why so? In him there is no place of death.
(Once you meditate, the vulnerable points will be blocked. And mark
sealed, when you die, the spirit goes into the mark or void-ness. Most
meditation manuals teach people to pass out through the occipit or top
of skull. They become immortals, but have to be reborn again for the
final sealing.)

51. The Way brings forth, its Virtue fosters them, with matter they
take shape, and circumstance perfects them all: That is why all things
do honor to the Way and venerate its power.

The exaltation of the Way, the veneration of its power, come not by
fate or by decree; but always just because by nature it is so.

So when the Way brings forth, its power fosters all: they grow, are
reared, and fed and housed until they come to ripe maturity. You shall
give life to things but never possess them; your work shall depend on
none; you shall be chief but never lord.

This describes the mystic power.

52. It began with a matrix: the world had a mother whose sons can
be known as ever, by her, but if you know them, you'll keep close to
her as long as you live and suffer no harm.
(Know the son, you know the father.)

Stop up your senses; close up your doors; be not exhausted as long
as you live. Open your senses; be busier still: to the end of your days
there's no help for you.

You are bright, it is said, if you see what is small; a store of
small strengths makes you strong. By the use of its light, make your
eyes again bright from evil to lead you away.

This is called "practicing constancy."

53. When I am walking on the mighty Way, let me but know the very
least I may, and I shall only fear to leave the road. The mighty Way is
easy underfoot, but people still prefer the little paths.

The royal court is dignified, sedate, while farmers' fields are
overgrown with weeds; the granaries are empty and yet they are clad in
rich-embroidered silken gowns. They have sharp swords suspended at
their sides; with glutted wealth, they gorge with food and drink.

It is, the people say, the boastfulness of brigandage, but surely
not the Way!

54. Set firm in the Way: none shall uproot you; cherish it well and
none shall estrange you; your children's children faithful shall serve
your forebears at the altar of your house.
(This is wrong. No altar is better).

Cultivate the Way yourself, and your Virtue will be genuine.
Cultivate it in the home, and its Virtue will overflow. Cultivate it in
the village, and the village will endure. Cultivate it in the realm,
and the realm will flourish. Cultivate it in the world, and Virtue will
be universal.

Accordingly, one will be judged by the Man of the Way; homes will
be viewed through the Home of the Way; and the Village shall measure
the village; and the Realm, for all realms, shall be standard; and the
World, to this world, shall be heaven.

How do I know the world is like this? By this.
(Meditation)

55. Rich in virtue, like an infant, noxious insects will not sting
him; wild beasts will not attack his flesh nor birds of prey sink claws
in him.

His bones are soft, his sinews weak, his grip is nonetheless
robust; of sexual union unaware, his organs all completely formed, his
vital force is at its height. He shouts all day, does not get hoarse:
his person is a harmony.

Harmony experienced is known as constancy; constancy experienced is
called enlightenment; exuberant vitality is ominous, they say; a bent
for vehemence is called aggressiveness.

That things with age decline in strength, you well may say, suits
not the Way; and not to suit the Way is early death.

56. Those who know do not talk and talkers do not know.

Stop your senses, close the doors; let sharp things be blunted,
tangles resolved, the light tempered and turmoil subdued; for this is
mystic unity in which the Wise Man is moved neither by affection nor
yet by estrangement or profit or loss or honor or shame. Accordingly,
by all the world, He is held highest.

57. "Govern the realm by the right, and battles by stratagem."

The world is won by refraining. How do I know this is so? By this:

As taboos increase, people grow poorer; when weapons abound, the
state grows chaotic; where skills multiply, novelties flourish; as
statutes increase, more criminals start.

So the Wise Man will say: As I refrain, the people will reform;
since I like quiet, they will keep order; when I forebear, the people
will prosper; when I want nothing, they will be honest.

58. Listlessly govern: happy your people; govern exactingly:
restless your people.

"Bad fortune will promote the good; good fortune too, give rise to
bad."

But who can know to what that leads? For it is wrong and would
assign to right the strangest derivations and would mean that goodness
is produced by magic means! Has man thus been so long astray?

Accordingly, the Wise Man is square but not sharp, honest but not
malign, straight but not severe, bright but not dazzling.

59. "For ruling men or serving God, there's nothing else like
stores saved up."

By "stores saved up" is meant forehandedness, accumulated Virtue,
such that nothing can resist it and its limit none can guess: such
infinite resource allows the jurisdiction of the king; whose kingdom
then will long endure if it provides the Mother an abode. Indeed it is
the deeply rooted base, the firm foundation of the Way to immortality
of self and name.

60. Rule a large country as small fish are cooked.
(Less stirring the better)

The evil spirits of the world lose sanction as divinities when
government proceeds accordingly to the Way; but even if they do not
lose their ghostly countenance and right, the people take no harm from
them; and if the spirits cannot hurt the folk, the Wise Man surely does
no hurt to them.

Since then the Wise Man and the people harm each other not at all,
their several virtues should converge.

61. The great land is a place to which the streams descend; it is
the concourse and the female of the world: quiescent, underneath, it
overcomes the male.
[Garden of Eden underneath rivers flow. (The Koran)]

By quietness and by humility the great land then puts down the
small and gets it for its own; but small lands too absorb the great by
their subservience. Thus some lie low, designing conquest's ends; while
others lowly are, by nature bent to conquer all the rest.

The great land's foremost need is to increase the number of its
folk; the small land needs above all else to find its folk more room to
work. That both be served and each attain its goal the great land
should attempt humility.

62. Like the gods of the shrine in the home, so the Way and its
mystery waits in the world of material things: the good man's treasure,
the bad man's refuge.
(This mention of household gods is out of context. That means the
writer was not 100%% spiritual enlightened. This tradition of
worshipping degrades prosperity and power of China for so many years.
The Christians are rich and powerful because they have no household
gods. This simple fact all must know, especially the Chinese and the
Indians. There are spirits in these gods of deity. If you offended
them, they cause you trouble. The best is not to have them in the
house. Those who want to get rid of them, can do my meditation for a
month and then remove the idols to temples. In this manner, you are not
harmed. Once you meditate, they will fear you.)

Fair wordage is ever for sale; fair manners are worn like a cloak;
but why should there be such a waste of the badness in men?

On the day of the emperor's crowning, when the three noble dukes
are appointed, better than chaplets of jade drawn by a team of four
horses, bring the Way as your tribute.

How used the ancients to honor the Way? Didn't they say that the
seeker may find it, and that sinners who find are forgiven? So did they
lift up the Way and its Virtue above everything else in the world.

63. Act in repose; be at rest when you work; relish unflavored
things. Great or small, frequent or rare, requite anger with virtue.

Take hard jobs in hand while they are easy; and great affairs too
while they are small. The troubles of the world cannot be solved except
before they grow too hard. The business of the world cannot be done
except while relatively small. The Wise Man, then, throughout his life
does nothing great and yet achieves a greatness of his own.

Again, a promise lightly made inspires little confidence; or often
trivial, sure that man will often come to grief. Choosing hardship,
then, the Wise Man never meets with hardship all his life.
(Lead a simple life.)

64. A thing that is still is easy to hold. Given no omen, it is
easy to plan. Soft things are easy to melt. Small particles scatter
easily. The time to take care is before it is done. Establish order
before confusion sets in. Tree trunks around which you can reach with
your arms were at first only minuscule sprouts. A nine-storied terrace
began with a clod. A thousand-mile journey began with a foot put down.

Doing spoils it, grabbing misses it; so the Wise Man refrains from
doing and doesn't spoil anything; he grabs at nothing and so never
misses.

People are constantly spoiling a project when it lacks only a step
to completion. To avoid making a mess of it, be as careful of the end
as you were of the beginning.

So the Wise Man wants the unwanted; he sets no high value on
anything because it is hard to get. He studies what others neglect and
restores to the world what multitudes have passed by. His object is to
restore everything to its natural course, but he dares take no steps to
that end.

65. Those ancients who were skilled in the Way did not enlighten
people by their rule but had them ever held in ignorance; the more the
folk know what is going on the harder it becomes to govern them.

For public knowledge of the government is such a thief that it will
spoil the realm; but when good fortune brings good times to all, the
land is ruled without publicity. To know the difference between these
two involves a standard to be sought and found.

To know that standard always, everywhere, is mystic Virtue, justly
known as such; which Virtue is so deep and reaching far, it causes a
return, things going back to that prime concord which at first all
shared.

66. How could the rivers and the seas became like kings to valleys?
Because of skill in lowliness they have become the valleys' lords.

So then to be above the folk, you speak as if you were beneath; and
if you wish to be out front, then act as if you were behind.

The Wise Man so is up above but is no burden to the folk; his
station is ahead of them, to see they do not come to harm.

The world will gladly help along the Wise Man and will bear no
grudge. Since he contends not for his own the world will not contend
with him.

67. Everywhere, they say the Way, our doctrine, is so very like
detested folly; but greatness of its own alone explains why it should
be thus held beyond the pale. If it were only orthodox, long since it
would have seemed a small and petty thing!

I have to keep three treasures well secured: the first, compassion;
next, frugality; and third, I say that never would I once presume that
I should be the whole world's chief.

Given compassion, I can take courage; given frugality, I can
abound; if I can be the world's most humble man, then I can be its
highest instrument.

Bravery today knows no compassion; abundance is, without frugality,
and eminence without humility: this is the death indeed of all our
hope.

In battle, 'tis compassion wins the day; defending, 'tis compassion
that is firm: compassion arms the people God would save!

68. A skillful soldier is not violent; an able fighter does not
rage; a mighty conqueror does not give battle; a great commander is a
humble man.

You may call this pacific virtue; or say that it is mastery of men;
or that it is rising to the measure of God, or to the stature of the
ancients.

69. The strategists have a saying: "If I cannot be host, then let
me be guest. But if I dare not advance even an inch, then let me retire
a foot."

This is what they call a campaign without a march, sleeves up but
no bare arms, shooting but no enemies, or arming without weapons.

Than helpless enemies, nothing is worse: to them I lose my
treasures. When opposing enemies meet, the compassionate man is the
winner!

70. My words are easy just to understand: to live by them is very
easy too; yet it appears that none in all the world can understand or
make them come to life.

My words have ancestors, my works a prince; since none know this,
unknown I too remain. But honor comes to me when least I'm known: The
Wise Man, with a jewel in his breast, goes clad in garments made of
shoddy stuff.

71. To know that you are ignorant is best; to know what you do not,
is a disease; but if you recognize the malady of mind for what it is,
then that is health.

The Wise Man has indeed a healthy mind; he sees an aberration as it
is and for that reason never will be ill.

72. If people do not dread your majesty, a greater dread will yet
descend on them. See then you do not cramp their dwelling place, or
immolate their children or their stock, nor anger them by your own
angry ways.

It is the Wise Man's way to know himself, and never to reveal his
inward thoughts; he loves himself but so, is not set up; he chooses
this in preference to that.

73. A brave man who dares to, will kill; a brave man who dares not,
spares life; and from them both come good and ill. "God hates some
folks, but who knows why?" The Wise Man hesitates there too: God's Way
is bound to conquer all but not by strife does it proceed.

Not by words does God get answers: He calls them not and all things
come. Master plans unfold but slowly, like God's wide net enclosing
all: its mesh is coarse but none are lost.
(All will return to God.)

74. The people do not fear at all to die; what's gained therefore
by threatening them with death? If you could always make them fear
decrease, as if it were a strange event and rare, who then would dare
to take and slaughter them? The executioner is always set to slay, but
those who substitute for him are like the would-be master carpenters
who try to chop as that skilled craft-man does and nearly always mangle
their own hands!

75. The people starve because of those above them, who consume by
tax in grain and kind more than their right. For this, the people are
in want.

The people are so hard to rule because of those who are above them,
whose interference makes distress. For this, they are hard to rule.

The people do not fear to die; they too demand to live secure: for
this, they do not fear to die. So they, without the means to live, in
virtue rise above those men who value life above its worth.

76. Alive, a man is supple, soft; in death, unbending, rigorous.
All creatures, grass and trees, alive are plastic but are pliant too,
and dead, are friable and dry.

Unbending rigor is the mate of death, and yielding softness,
company of life: unbending soldiers get no victories; the stiffest tree
is readiest for the axe. The strong and mighty topple from their place;
the soft and yielding rise above them all.

77. Is not God's Way much like a bow well bent? (eyebrow) The upper
part has been disturbed, pressed down; the lower part is raised up from
its place; the slack is taken up; the slender width is broader drawn;
for thus the Way of God cuts people down when they have had too much,
and fills the bowls of those who are in want. But not the way of man
will work like this: the people who have not enough are spoiled for
tribute to the rich and surfeited.

Who can benefit the world from stored abundance of his own? He
alone who has the Way, the Wise Man who can act apart and not depend on
others' whims; but not because of his high rank will he succeed; he
does not wish to flaunt superiority.

78. Nothing is weaker than water, but when it attacks something
hard or resistant, then nothing withstands it, and nothing will alter
its way.

Everyone knows this, that weakness prevails over strength and that
gentleness conquers the adamant hindrance of men, but that nobody
demonstrates how it is so.

Because of this the Wise Man says that only one who bears the
nation's shame is fit to be its hallowed lord; that only one who takes
upon himself the evils of the world may be its king.

This is paradox.

79. How can you think it is good to settle a grievance too great to
ignore, when the settlement surely evokes other piques?

The Wise Man therefore will select the left-hand part of contract
tallies; he will not put the debt on other men. This virtuous man
promotes agreement; the vicious man allots the blame.

"Impartial though the Way of God may be, it always favors good
men."

80. The ideal land is small, its people very few, where tools
abound ten times or yet a hundred-fold beyond their use; where people
die and die again but never emigrate; have boats and carts which no one
rides. Weapons have they and armor too, but none displayed. The folk
returns to use again the knotted cords. Their meat is sweet; their
clothes adorned, their homes at peace, their customs charm.
(Elaboration on the mark.)

And neighbor lands are juxtaposed, so each may hear the barking
dogs, the crowing cocks across the way; where folks grow old and folks
will die and never exchange a call.
(Also in Chuang Tzu book.)

81. As honest words may not sound fine, fine words may not be
honest ones; a good man does not argue, and an arguer may not be good!
The knowers are not learned men (common folk) and learned men may never
know.
(professors and doctors etc. Only simple contented mind can understand
Tao.)

The wise Man does not hoard his things; hard-pressed, from serving
other men, he has enough and some to spare; but having given all he
had, he then is very rich indeed.

God's Way is gain that works no harm; The Wise Man's way , to do
his work without contending for a crown.
(For others only. I need the crown to achieve world peace.)

Edited on 2nd July 2005

http://www.geocities.com/alex_kew/chinese/taoteching.html .