74. On Punishment (3) The people are not afraid of death; Why threaten them with death? Supposing that the people are afraid of death, And we can seize and...
75. Punishment (4) When people are hungry, It is because their rulers eat too much tax-grain. Therefore the unruliness of hungry people Is due to the...
Book VII. Aphorisms 76. Hard and Soft When man is born, he is tender and weak; At death, he is hard and stiff. When the things and plants are alive, they are...
77. Bending the Bow The Tao (way) of Heaven, Is it not like the bending of a bow? The top comes down and the bottom-end goes up, The extra (length) is...
78. Nothing Weaker than Water There is nothing weaker than water But none is superior to it in overcoming the hard, For which there is no substitute. That...
79. Peace Settlements Patching up a great hatred is sure to leave some hatred behind. How can this be regarded as satisfactory? Therefore the Sage holds the...
80. The Small Utopia (Let there be) a small country with a small population, Where the supply of goods are tenfold or hundredfold, more than they can use. Let...
81. The Way of Heaven True words are not fine-sounding; Fine-sounding words are not true. A good man does not argue; He who argues is not a good man. The wise...
Greetings, DailyDao Members. Your faithful (but busy) moderator, now brings you something a 'tad' different. Tomorrow's post will begin a new TaoTeChing, but...
Very interesting, thank you for sending it. I might add for those who feel compelled to do their own translation, but don't know Chinese- Jonathan Star has a...
Tao Te Ching: An English-Language Interpolation Part 1 1. The Way The Way that can be experienced is not true; The world that can be constructed is not real. ...
You're welcome, Ina. I have heard of the book by Jonathan Starr; in fact, I have a catalog with it as one of the issues. But I'm hesitant to spend the $20....
From: "Guy Stewart" <guy@...> Petra, great idea. As I've read through some of the passages over the past several weeks, I've had questions about how...
I bought it, and do not regret it at all.. Can't say as I have even attempted to create my own translation, but it is nice knowing that I could if I really...
thank you so much for sending this to us all. it is a beautiful rendition. i wonder about lines 5 and 6. could someone clarify what is being said here please....
I would suggest "abstraction" equals in meaning "thought" . To experience the world without thought is to experience it without preconceived notions of how...
2. Abstraction When beauty is abstracted Then ugliness has been implied; When good is abstracted Then evil has been implied. So alive and dead are abstracted...
3. Without Action Not praising the worthy prevents contention, Not esteeming the valuable prevents theft, Not displaying the beautiful prevents desire. In this...
Responding to Carol's question of whether the sage is asking us to give up our minds, I would say that it appears to me that he is asking us to release the...
I agree, if you mean that this is 'most difficult' to accept in our society. I can only think that the chapter refers to political knowledge and aspirations of...
4. Limitless The Way is a limitless vessel; Used by the self, it is not filled by the world; It cannot be cut, knotted, dimmed or stilled; Its depths are...
My personal take of this is that it is similiar to the buddhist "middle path". The high and the low exist because of one another. The high creates the low,...
5. Nature Nature is not kind; It treats all things impartially. The Sage is not kind, And treats all people impartially. Nature is like a bellows, Empty, yet...
It is not necessary to know everything. Know enough to get where you are going, it is not necessary to understand WHY things happen the way they do, just that...
6. Experience Experience is a riverbed, Its source hidden, forever flowing: Its entrance, the root of the world, The Way moves within it: Draw upon it; it will...
7. Complete Nature is complete because it does not serve itself. The sage places himself after and finds himself before, Ignores his desire and finds himself...
8. Water The best of man is like water, Which benefits all things, and does not contend with them, Which flows in places that others disdain, Where it is in...
9. Retire Fill a cup to its brim and it is easily spilled; Temper a sword to its hardest and it is easily broken; Amass the greatest treasure and it is easily...
