Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching Read Free Page B

power lead back, the valley where power is contained leads
back—to the forever new, endless, straightforward way. Reversal,
recurrence, are the movement, and yet the movement is onward.

 
29 - Not doing
    Those who think to win the world
by doing something to it ,
I see them come to grief.
For the world is a sacred object.
Nothing is to be done to it.
To do anything to it is to damage it.
To seize it is to lose it.
    Under heaven some things lead, some follow ,
some blow hot, some cold,
some are strong, some weak,
some are fulfilled, some fail.
    So the wise soul keeps away
from the extremes, excess, extravagance.
    ----
    For Lao Tzu, “moderation in all things” isn’t just a bit of
safe, practical advice. To lose the sense of the sacredness of the world is a
mortal loss. To injure our world by excesses of greed and ingenuity is to
endanger our own sacredness.

30 - Not making war
    A Taoist wouldn’t advise a ruler
to use force of arms for conquest ;
that tactic backfires.
    Where the army marched
grow thorns and thistles.
After the war
come the bad harvests.
Good leaders prosper, that’s all ,
not presuming on victory.
They prosper without boasting ,
or domineering, or arrogance,
prosper because they can’t help it,
prosper without violence.
    Things flourish then perish.
Not the Way.
What’s not the Way
soon ends.
    ----
    This first direct statement of Lao Tzu’s pacifism is
connected in thought to the previous poem and leads directly to the next.
    The last verse is enigmatic: “Things flourish then perish”— How can this supremely natural sequence not be the Way? I
offer my understanding of it in the note on the page with chapter 55, where
nearly the same phrase occurs.

31 - Against war
    Even the best weapon
is an unhappy tool ,
hateful to living things.
So the follower of the Way
stays away from it.
    Weapons are unhappy tools ,
not chosen by thoughtful people,
to be used only when there is no choice,
and with a calm, still mind,
without enjoyment.
To enjoy using weapons
is to enjoy killing people ,
and to enjoy killing people
is to lose your share in the common good.
    It is right that the murder of many people
be mourned and lamented.
It is right that a victor in war
be received with funeral ceremonies.

32 - Sacred power
    The way goes on forever nameless.
Uncut wood, nothing important ,
yet nobody under heaven
dare try to carve it.
If rulers and leaders could use it ,
the ten thousand things
would gather in homage,
heaven and earth would drop sweet dew,
and people, without being ordered,
would be fair to one another.
    To order, to govern ,
is to begin naming;
when names proliferate
it’s time to stop.
If you know when to stop
you’re in no danger.
    The Way in the world
is as a stream to a valley ,
a river to the sea.
    ----
    The second verse connects the uncut, the uncarved , the unusable, to the idea of the unnamed presented in
the first chapter: “name’s the mother of the ten thousand things.” You have to
make order, you have to make distinctions, but you also have to know when to
stop before you’ve lost the whole in the multiplicity of parts. The simplicity
or singleness of the Way is that of water, which always rejoins itself.

33 - Kinds of power
    Knowing other people is intelligence ,
knowing yourself is wisdom.
Overcoming others takes strength ,
overcoming yourself takes greatness.
Contentment is wealth.
    Boldly pushing forward takes resolution.
Staying put keeps you in position.
    To live till you die
is to live long enough.

34 - Perfect trust
    The Great Way runs
to left, to right ,
the ten thousand things
depending on it,
living on it,
accepted by it.
    Doing its work ,
it goes unnamed.
Clothing and feeding
the ten thousand things ,
it lays no claim on them
and asks nothing of them.
Call it a small matter.
The ten thousand things
return to it ,
though it lays no claim on them.
Call it great.
    So the wise soul
without great doings
achieves greatness.

35 - Humane power
    Hold