The way you can go

1 TAOING

The way you can go

isn’t the real way.

The name you can say

isnt the real name.

Heaven and earth

begin in the unnamed:

name’s the mother

of the ten thousand things.

So the unwanting soul

sees whats hidden,

and the ever-wanting soul

sees only what it wants.

Two things, one origin,

but different in name, whose identity is mystery.

Mystery of all mysteries!

The door to the hidden

2 SOUL FOOD

Everybody on earth knowing

that beauty is beautiful

makes ugliness

Everybody knowing

that goodness is good makes wickedness.

For Being and nonbeing

arise together;

hard and easy

complete each other;

long and short

shape each other;

high and low

depend on each other;

note and voice

make the music together;

before and after

follow each other.

That’s why the wise soul

does without doing,

teaches without talking.

The things of this world

exist, they are;

you can’t refuse them.

To bear and not to own;

to act and not lay claim;

to do the work and let it go;

for just letting go

is what makes it stay.

3 HUSHING

Not praising the praiseworthy

keeps people uncompetitive.

Not prizing rare treasures

keeps people from stealing.

Not looking at the desirable

keeps the mind quiet.

So the wise soul

governing people

would emty their minds,

fill their bellies,

weaken their wishes,

strengthen their bones,

keep people unkowing, unwanting, keep the ones who do know

from doing anything.

When you do not-doing

nothing is out of order.

4 SOURCELESS

The way is empty,

used, but not used up.

Deep, yes! Ancestral

to the ten thousand things.

Blunting edge,

loosing bond,

dimming light,

the way is the dust of the way.

Quiet,

yes, and likley to endure.

Whose child? born

before the gods.

5 USEFUL EMPTINESS

Heaven and earth aren’t humane.

To them the ten thousand things

are straw dogs.

Wise souls aren’t humane.

To them the hundred families are straw dogs.

Heaven and earth

act as a bellows:

Empty yet structured,

it moves, inexhaustibly giving.

6 WHAT IS COMPLETE

The valley spirit never dies.

Call it the mystery, the women.

The mystery,

the Door of the Women,

is the root

of earth and heaven.

Forever this endures, forever.

And all its uses are easy.

7 DIM BRIGHTNESS

Heaven will last,

earth will endure.

How can they last so long?

They don’t exist for themselves

and so can go on and on.

So wise souls

leaving self behind

move forward,

and setting self aside

stay centered.

Why let the self go?

To keep what the soul needs.

8 EASY BY NATURE

True goodness

is like water.

Water’s good

for everything.

It doesn’t compete.

It goes right to the low loathsome places,

and so finds the way.

For a house,

the good thing is level ground.

In thinking,

depth is good.

The good of giving is magnanimity;

of speaking, honesty;

of government, order.

The good work is skill,

and of action, timing.

No competition,

so no blame.

9 BEING QUIET

Brim-fill the bowl,

it’ll spill over.

Keep sharpening the blade,

You’ll soon blunt it.

Nobody can protect

a house full of gold and jade.

Wealth, status, pride

are their own ruin.

To do good, work well, and lie low

is the way of the blessing.

10 TECHNIQUES

Can you keep your soul in its body,

hold fast to the one,

and so learn to be whole?

Can you center your energy,

be soft and tender

nd so learn to be a baby?

Can you keep the deep water still and clear,

so it reflects without blurring?

Can you love people and run things,

and do so by not doing?

Opening, closing the Gate of Heaven,

Can you be like a bird with her nestlings?

Piercing bright through the cosmos,

can you know by not knowing?

Opening, closing the Gate of Heaven,

can you be like a bird with her nestlings?

Piercing bright through the cosmos,

can you know by not knowing?

To give birth, to nourish,

to bear and not to own,

to act and not lay claim,

to lead and not rule:

this is mysterious power.

11 The Uses of Not

Thirty spokes

meet in the hub.

Where the wheel isn’t

is where it’s useful.

Hollowed out,

clay makes a pot.

Where the pot’s not

is where it’s useful

Cut doors and windows

to make a room.

Where the room isn’t,

there’s room for you.

So the profit in what is

is in the use of what isn’t.

12 Not Wanting

The Five Colors

blind our eyes.

The five notes

deafen our ears.

The five flavors

dull our taste.

Racing, chasing, hunting,

drives people crazy.

Trying to get rich

ties people in knots.

So the wise soul watches withe inner

not the outward eye,

letting go,

keeping this

13 Shameless

To be in favor or disgrace

is to live in fear.

To take the body seriously

is to admit one can suffer.

What does that mean,

to be in favor or disgrace

is to live in fear?

Favor debases:

we fear?

Favor debases:

we fear to lose it,

fear to win it.

So to be in favor or disgrace

is to live in fear.

What does that mean,

to take the body seriously

is to admit one can suffer?

I suffer because I’m a body;

if I weren’t a body,

how could I suffer?

So people who set their bodily good

before the public good

could be entrusted with the commonwealth,

and people who treated the body politic

as gently as their own body

would be worthy to govern the commonwealth.

14 Celebrating Mystery

Look at it: nothing to see.

Call it colorless.

Listen to it: nothing to hear.

Call it soundless.

Reach for it: nothing to hold.

Call it tangible.

Triply undifferentited,

it merges into oneness,

not bright above,

not dark below

Never, oh! never

can it be named.

It reverts, it returns

to unbeing.

Call it the form of the unformed,

the image of no image.

Call it unthinkable thought.

Face it: no face.

Follow it: no end.

Holding fast to the old Way,

we can live in the present.

Mindful of the ancient beginnings,

we hold the thread of the Tao.

15 People of Power

Once upon a time

people who knew the Way

were subtle, spiritual, mysterious, penetrating,

unfathomable.

Since they’re inexplicable

I can only say what they seemed like:

Cautions, oh yes, as if wading through a winter river.

Alert, as if afraid of the neighbors.

Polite and quiet, like house guests.

Elusive, like melting ice.

Blank, like uncut wood.

Empty, like valleys.

Mysterious, oh yes, they were like troubled water.

Who can by stillness, little by little

make what is troubled grow clear?

Who can by movement, little by little

make what is troubled grow clear?

Who can by movement, little by little

make what is still grow quick?

To follow the Way

is not to need fulfillment.

Unfulfilled, one may live on

needing no renewal.

16 Returning to the Root

Be completely empty.

Be perfectly serene.

The ten thousand things arise together;

in their arising is thier return.

Now they flower,

and flowering

sink homeward,

returning to the root.

The return to the root

is peace.

Peace: to accept what must be,

to know what endures.

In that knowledge is wisdom.

Without it, ruin, disorder.

To know what endures

is to be open hearted,

magnanimous,

regal,

blessed, following the Tao,

the way that endures forever.

The body comes to its ending,

but there is nothing to fear.

17 Acting Simply

True leaders

are hardly known to their followers.

Next after them are the leaders

the people know and admire;

after them, those they fear;

after them, those they despise.

To give no trust

is to get no trust.

When the work’s done right,

with no fuss or boasting,

ordinary people say,

Oh, we did it.

18 Second Bests

In the degradation of the great way

comes benevolence and righteousness.

With the exaltation of learning and prudence

comes immense hypocrisy

The disordered family

is full of dutiful children and parents.

The disordered society

is full of loyal patriots.

19 Raw Silk and Uncut Wood

Stop being holy, forget about being prudent,

it’ll be a hundred times better for everyone.

Stop being altruistic, forget about being righteous,

people will remember what family feeling is.

Stop planning, forget making a profit,

there won’t be any thieves and robbers.

But even these three rules

needn’t be fallowed; what works reliably

is to know the raw silk,

hold the uncut wood.

Need little,

want less.

Forget the rules.

Be untroubled.

20 Being Different

How much difference between yes and no?

What difference between good and bad?

What the people fear

must be feared.

O desolation!

Not yet, not yet has it reached its limit!

Everbody’s cheerful,

cheerful as if at a party,

or climbing a tower in springtime.

And here I sit unmoved,

clueless, like a child,

a baby too young to smile.

Forlorn, forlorn.

Like a homeless person.

Most people have plenty.

I’m the one that’s poor,

a fool right through

Ignorant, ignorant

Most people are so bright.

I’m the one that’s dull.

Most people are so keen.

I don’t have the answers.

Oh, I’m desolate, at sea,

adrift without harbor.

Everybody has something to do.

I’m the clumsy one, out of place.

I’m the different one,

for my food

is the milk of the mother

21 The Empty Heart

The greatest power is the gift

of following the Way alone.

How the Way does things

is hard to grasp, elusive.

Elusive, yes, hard to grasp

yet there are thoughts in it.

Hard to grasp, yes, elusive,

yet there are things in it.

Hard to make out, yes, and obscure,

yet there is spirit in it,

veritable spirit.

There is certainty in it.

From long, long ago till now

it has kept its name.

So it saw

the beginning of everything.

How do I know

anything about the beginning

By this.

22 Growing Downward

Be broken to be whole.

Twist to be straight. Be empty to be full.

Wear out to be renewed.

Have little and gain much

Have much and get confused.

So wise souls hold to the one,

and test all things against it.

Not showing themselves,

they shine forth.

not justifying themselves,

they’re self-evident.

Not praising themselves,

they’re accomplished.

Not competing,

they have all the world no competitor.

What they used to say in the old days,

“Be broken to be whole,”

Truly, to be whole,

is to return.

64 Mindful of Little Things

It’s easy to keep hold of what hasn’t stirred,

easy to plan what hasn’t occurred.

It’s easy to shatter delicate things,

easy to scatter little things.

Do things before they happen.

Get them straight before they get mixed up.

The Tree you can’t reach your arms around

grew from a tiny seedling.

The nine-story tower rises

from a heap of clay.

The ten-thousand-mile journey

begins beneath your foot.

Do, and do wrong;

Hold on, and lose.

Not doing, the wise soul

doesn’t do it wrong,

and not holding on,

doesn’t lose it.

(In all their undertakings, it’s just as they’re almost finished that people go wrong.

Mind the end as the beginning, then it won’t go wrong.)

That’s why the wise

want not to want,

care nothing for hard won treasures,

learn not to be learned,

turn back on what people overlooked.

They go along with things as they are, but don’t presume to act.