Using the Tao

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It is not a Zen story, but still Far East wisdom...

 

These are some of my favorites excerpts from 'The Tao Teh Ching'.

Please, enjoy!

 

 

Lao Tze – ‘The Tao Teh Ching’

(‘Teaching the Way to Wisdom’)

 

17

 

1. ln the highest antiquity, (the people) did not know that there were

(their rulers). In the next age they loved them and praised them. In

the next they feared them; in the next they despised them. Thus it was

that when faith (in the Tao) was deficient (in the rulers) a want of

faith in them ensued (in the people).

 

2. How irresolute did those (earliest rulers) appear; showing (by their

reticence) the importance which they set upon their words! Their work

was done and their undertakings were successful, while the people all

said ‘We are as we are, of ourselves!’

 

 

18

 

1. When the Great Tao (Way or Method) ceased to be observed,

benevolence and righteousness came into vogue. (Then) appeared wisdom

and shrewdness, and there ensued great hypocrisy.

 

2. When harmony no longer prevailed throughout the six kinships, filial

sons found their manifestation; when the states and clans fell into

disorder, loyal ministers appeared.

 

 

19

 

1. If we could renounce our sageness and discard our wisdom, it would

be better for the people a hundredfold. If we could renounce our

benevolence and discard our righteousness, the people would again

become filial and kindly. If we could renounce our artful contrivances

and discard our (scheming for) gain, there would be no thieves nor

robbers.

 

2. Those three methods (of government)

Thought olden ways in elegance did fail

And made these names their want of worth to veil;

But simple views, and courses plain and true

Would selfish ends and many lusts eschew.

 

 

20

 

1. When we renounce learning we have no troubles.

The (ready) ‘yes’, and (flattering) ‘yea’;

Small is the difference they display.

But mark their issues, good and ill;

What space the gulf between shall fill?

 

What all men fear is indeed to be feared; but how wide and without end

is the range of questions (asking to be discussed)!

 

2. The multitude of men look satisfied and pleased; as if enjoying a

full banquet, as if mounted on a tower in spring. I alone seem listless

and still, my desires having as yet given no indication of their

presence. l am like an infant which has not yet smiled. I look dejected

and forlorn, as if l had no home to go to. The multitude of men all

have enough and to spare. I alone seem to have lost everything. My mind

is that of a stupid man; I am in a state of chaos.

 

Ordinary men look bright and intelligent, while l alone seem to be

benighted. They look full of discrimination, while I alone am dull and

confused. I seem to be carried about as on the sea, drifting as if I

had nowhere to rest. All men have their spheres of action, while I

alone seem dull and incapable, like a rude borderer. (Thus) I alone am

different from other men, but l value the nursing-mother (the Tao).

 

 

 

From Lao Tze – ‘The Tao Teh Ching’ (‘Teaching the Way to Wisdom’)

Grange Books, Kent, United Kingdom, 2003

Translated by James Legge

 

 

 

 

 

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