TAO TE CHING 67

Everyone Under Heaven

Says my Tao is great

And unlike anything else

It is great

Because it is unlike anything else

And beyond description and distinction

If it were like other things

And could be described

How quickly it would vanish

And become small!

I have three treasures

That I cherish and preserve:

One is the love of a mother

That knows no bounds

The second is moderation

The third is not presuming

To be foremost under Heaven

Love empowers one to be fearless

Moderation enables one to be generous

Not presuming to be first in the world

Enables one to be a perfect and lasting vessel

Nowadays, people forsake love

Yet expect to be fearless

Discard moderation

And thus cannot give

Refuse to be humble

And yet demand to lead

Such things are certainly doomed

But if you love deeply

You can fight and overcome anything

Defend through this love

And you will be strength itself

Heaven rescues and saves the people

By using unconditional love to protect them

 

TAO TE CHING 52

All below Heaven has a common origin –

The mother of all below Heaven

Receiving a mother

You know you’re her child

Knowing you’re her child

You return to abide with your mother

When the self disappears

Danger depart

Seal your passages

Shut your gates

To the end of your life

You will be free from trouble

Open your mouth

Interfere with everything

To the end of your life

You will know no freedom

Seeing the small is enlightenment

Maintaining gentleness is strength

Use your inner radiance

To reawaken enlightenment

Refusing to surrender

To the calamity of selfhood:

This is called

Entering the Absolute

The Cultivation of Eternity

The Everlasting Lesson

 

TAO TE CHING 47

Without going beyond your door

Comprehend all below Heaven

Without looking out your window

Behold the Way of Heaven

Going the furthest distance

Your perceptions and knowledge

Completely fall away

Therefore, The sage

Knows without moving

Names without looking

Perfects without doing

Tao Te Ching Teachings: The Supreme Goodness of Water

“Supreme goodness is like water”

Supreme goodness is like water. Here, the word shan refers not just to moral goodness and virtue, but supreme excellence in all its manifestations – excellence in wisdom, excellence in action, excellence in being.

Why do we this say this manifold excellence is like water? Water is fluid, flexible, yielding, and unconquerable. It is immensely powerful because it can adapt to every possible circumstance. If it gets too cold, it simply transforms itself into ice. If it gets too hot, it transforms itself into steam. Nothing can kill it – it just keeps changing form.

The reason water can keep changing its form is because it is essentially formless. Its form is determined by what is around it. Put it in a cup, and it will be cup-shaped. Put it in a ravine, and it will be river-shaped. It needs no form of its own, because it harmonizes with everything around it, taking other beings as its outline, instead of imposing itself upon others.

The sage strives to mirror these qualities. Fluid and flexible too, he adapts to every situation. When faced with untoward events, he simply transforms himself to suit the situation. Because he is selfless, he has no fixed personality, and can take on whatever personality is most appropriate to his needs. If he needs to be wise, he will be wise. If he needs to be silly, he will be silly. If it were better that he remain unseen, he will remain unknown. Like a great actor, he puts on the right mask to fit the mood.

This might sound insincere to some. Isn’t it wrong to pretend to be something you’re not? But, the sage has renounced his identity, so he can have any identity he likes. Knowing that he is part of the eternal, there is nothing he is not. But, in the same way as the celestial design, however he manifests himself, he does not do so out of self-interest, or with personal profit in mind – only with the ideal of helping enlighten other beings. Thus, any act that helps point beings towards the truth is a compassionate act, no matter how strange it may see on the surface.

TAO TE CHING 37

The eternal Tao does not act

Yet there is nothing is does not do

If kings and rulers would abide by it

All beings would evolve of their own accord

As we evolve

All our old habits and desires stir up

We should restrain them

Through the nameless simplicity

Of our natural state

Truly, we should follow freedom from desire;

Freedom from desires and habituation

Is tranquillity itself

 Then All below Heaven

Becomes spontaneously serene

TAO TE CHING 26

Substance and sincerity

Are the roots of lightness

Stillness and serenity

Are the rulers of restlessness

Therefore, The sage

Travels all day

Without abandoning

The vehicle of stability

Though he beholds

Many marvellous spectacles

His manner is calm,

Indifferent,

And at ease

How is it that the Lord of Ten Thousand Chariots

Can treat All Below Heaven as his plaything?

Lightness then loses its root

Restlessness loses its ruler

TAO TE CHING 24

On tiptoes you cannot stand firm

Straddling and divided

You cannot move forward

Perceiving a self

One is not enlightened

Self-righteous

One is not glorious

Self-praising

One has no merit

Self-conceited

One cannot endure

Indeed, in this presence of The Way

This is called wasteful activity and eating to excess

It is apparent that this is loathsome to all beings

Therefore the Taoist abides elsewhere

TAO TE CHING 23

Speak but little

Spontaneously and naturally

In accordance with nature

For this reason,

Violent winds do not

Outlast the morning

Torrential rain does not

Outlast the day

What is productive of these things?

Heaven and Earth

If Heaven and Earth

Do not carry on forever

How much less should humans!

Therefore, cultivate The Way

Through your daily actions

Devoting yourself to The Way

One on the Way

Becomes one with the Way

Those with integrity

Become one with integrity

Those who lose

Become one with loss

Identify with the Way

And The Way will gladly accept you

Indentify with integrity

And integrity will gladly accept you

Identify with loss

And loss will gladly accept you

If you are not sufficiently faithful

Who will have faith in you?

If you are not sufficiently truthful

Who will be true to you?

Tao Te Ching 22

Bend and you preserve it whole

Wrong is made true

Emptiness is fulfilment

Exhaustion is renewal

Having little is beneficial

Having too much is delusion!

Therefore The Sage

Embraces Unity

As the Custodian

Of all Below Heaven

Does not perceive a self

And is therefore enlightened

Is not self-righteous

And is therefore glorious

Is not self-praising

And is therefore meritorious

Is not arrogant

And therefore endures

Precisely because he does not compete

No one below heaven

Can compete with the sage

It was the ancients of old who said:

“Bend and you preserve it whole.”

How could these be useless words?

Perfection and wholeness

Will come to all

Tao Te Ching 21

Integrity’s character

Is vast, all-embracing

Entirely in accordance

With The Way

The actions of Tao’s being:

Utterly intangible

Utterly evasive

Illusory and abstruse

Its centre contains substance

Dark and elusive

Its centre contains things

Impenetrable and obscure

Its heart holds the force of life

This life force is reality

Its centre is the truth

From ancient times

Until now

Its name has been the changeless

Thereby witnessing

The beginning of everything

How do I know the beginning of everything is so?

Through this!