Information about our new rendition of the Tao Te Ching
SAMPLES of OUR RENDERING of THE TAO TE CHING
1.
The Tao proclaimed as dogma is not the Tao. Words cannot contain the infinite word. An inexpressible reality is the source of the heavens and the earth. The cosmos we label gives birth to the ten thousand things.
Now, if you release resentment and longing, you can breathe deep, resting in the sublime. Meanwhile, through desire, the material world arises and begins to dance. Though the sublime and the dance have different names, they share a common source. Grasping this mystery of mysteries clears the way toward profound insight.
8.
To discover the greatest good, flow like water. Water pours life into all creatures without striving. It pools in places most disdain. This is how it’s like the Tao. So make your home in low places. Draw from the deep well of the heart. Offer kindness to others. Let your words be sincere. Lead with integrity. Let your work be your art. Remain present with everyone you encounter. Live without striving and folks won’t try to pull you down.
15.
The ancient Tao surfers were keen, deep and inexpressibly artful. There is no way to fathom their wisdom. All we can really do is describe how they moved. They were careful, as when crossing an icy stream. Conscientious, as if always being seen. They were respectful as trekkers, hiking through private land. They were elegant and yielding, like a melting icicle in the morning sun. They were natural, like unfinished wood. They were wide open, like a valley which lets muddy floodwaters tousle its landscape, then lets the silt settle in clarified streams. Then it stirs up still pools once again, reawakening life. Tao surfers don’t overindulge. Since they don’t overindulge, they mature peacefully, feeling younger than they’ve ever been.
18.
When people lose touch with the Tao, they focus on legalism and charitable giving. This leads to scheming; then great hypocrisy ensues. When genuine love breaks down in a family; then relatives start to insist on family obligations. When the country falls into chaos; then people insist on partisan loyalty.
19.
Lay down philosophy and theology, so everyone can be blessed a hundredfold. Lay down virtue signaling and legalism so everyone can recover genuine compassion and begin to sincerely care for one another. Lay down business and profit, and there’ll be no more thieves. Want to go even deeper? Be authentic. Embrace naturalness. Lay your whole self down, and then you’ll calm your restless heart.
32.
The Tao is ever nameless. Though it's a million billion billion times smaller than a single atom, nothing in heaven and earth can contain its natural energy. If the powers that be could harness it, they wouldn’t try to conquer the universe. They would joyfully become one with it. Heaven and earth would join together to lavish blessings on every sentient being. Likewise, allpeople would naturally receive what they need. They'd be content with it, and rejoice in the surplus. We order the world by assigning names to natural things. We find joy in mastering the names of the things we experience. But let that be the extent of our attempted mastery. Knowing how to stop trying to control everything is the key to averting disaster. The Tao works throughout the world like this: water melts into valley streams, then spills into rivers, then sinks into the depths of the oceans.
36.
If you want to exhale, first take a deep breath. If you want to relax, first tense your muscles. If you want to clear your mind first notice your frantic thoughts. If you want to receive, first give. This is how to perceive the light that’s hidden amid the shadows. Flexibility overcomes rigidity and gentleness conquers force. So, don’t try to pull Leviathan from the sea with a fishhook. In leadership, remember to play your cards close to your vest.
38.
Great Te doesn’t virtue signal, so it’s true virtue. Cheap virtue merely virtue signals, so it isn’t virtue after all. Great Te is spontaneous, so it isn’t transactional. Cheap virtue is contrived and is transactional. Great charity is contrived yet isn’t transactional. Self-righteousness is both contrived and also transactional. Propriety is contrived, and when it doesn’t get its way, it flexes its muscles and resorts to coercion. So, when we lose the Tao we lose Great Te. When we lose Great Te, we turn to acts of charity. When we lose charity we turn to self-righteousness. When we don’t even care about righteousness anymore, we're left with propriety. When we turn to propriety we have a cheap imitation of faithfulness and sincerity. It’s a sure sign that society is breaking down. When we turn to divination we have a cheap imitation of the Tao. It’s a sure sign that society is giving into superstition. Therefore, a great individual abides in substance rather than externals, in fruit rather than flower, cherishing the former while disregarding the latter.
56.
The wise aren’t preachy. The preachy aren’t wise. Sit in silence. Practice temperance. Smooth jagged edges. Release entanglements. Soften your gaze. Embrace oneness with earth. This is called mystical union. You can neither move closer nor farther from it. You can neither add to it nor detract from it. You can neither magnify it nor dishonor it. So, there is nothing more valuable in the whole world.
71.
To know apart from dogmatism is the height of mental health. Clinging to dogmas when you don’t know is the depth of unhealthy thinking. Only when you recognize that your unhealthy thinking is unhealthy, can your mind finally enjoy health. A sage acknowledges unhealthy thinking as unhealthy. So they keep their wits about them.
74.
Folks aren’t naturally afraid of death. So why would anyone use death to threaten them? It seems like authorities teach folks to fear death so that they can use the threats of arrest and execution to keep people obedient to their laws. But what sort of humans would dare do this? Since the dawn of civilization, there have been state agents who oversaw executions. To act in this role is to act as the Great Carpenter. Those who try to play this part rarely avoid cutting off their own hands.
80.
The ideal society is a modest country with small, close-knit villages. It stores up sufficient weapons, but only for self-defense. It respects life and death. So even though it has vehicles and boats, it doesn’t use them for foreign invasions. Though it's well armed, it doesn’t have to put its armies on display. Instead, it celebrates and records the simple joys of communal life. Their food is delightful. Their clothes are artful. Their dwellings are tranquil. Their customs are mirthful. They can see other villages in the distance. They can hear neighboring roosters crowing and dogs barking; yet, throughout the course of their lives, they never go over to complain or quarrel.