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02 - Tao Te Ching - Laozi · Logic Library

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  dot org. Read and recorded by Eric S. Pietrowski FBESP dot org,
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  Madison, Wisconsin, USA, thirteenth of January two thousand and six. The
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  Tao de King or the Tao and Its Characteristics by Laotsey, translated by James
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  Lega, Part one, Chapters ten through eighteen. Chapter ten, Part one.
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  When the intelligent and animal souls are held together in one embrace, they
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  can be kept from separating. When one gives undivided attention to the vital breath
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  and brings it to the utmost degree of pliancy, he can become as a
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  tender babe. When he has cleansed away the most mistake serious sights of his
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  imagination, he can become without a flaw. Chapter ten, Section two.
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  In loving the people and ruling the state? Cannot he proceed without any purpose
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  of action in the opening and shutting of his gates of heaven? Can he
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  not do so as a female bird? While his intelligence reaches in every direction?
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  Cannot he appear to be without knowledge? Chapter ten, Section three.
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  The Tao produces all things and nourishes them. It produces them and does not
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  claim them as its own. It does all, and yet does not boast
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  of it. It presides over all, and yet does not control them.
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  This is what is called the mysterious quality of the Tao. Chapter eleven.
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  The thirty spokes unite in the one knave. But it is on the empty
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  space for the axel that the use of the wheel depends. Clay is fashioned
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  into vessels, but it is on their empty hollowness that their use depends.
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  The door and windows are cut out from the walls to form an apartment,
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  but it is on the empty space within that its use depends. Therefore,
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  what has a positive existence serves for profitable adaptation, and what has not that
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  for actual usefulness. Chapter twelve, Section one. Colors five hues from the
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  eyes their sight will take music's five notes the ears as death can make,
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  the flavors five deprive the mouth of taste. The chariot course and the wild
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  hunting waste make mad the mind, and objects rare and strange sought for man's
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  conduct will to evil change. Chapter twelve, Section two. Therefore, the
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  sage seeks to satisfy the craving of the belly and not the insatiable longing of
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  the eyes. He puts from him the latter, and prefers to seek the
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  former. Chapter thirteen, Section one. Favor and disgrace would seem equally to
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  be feared, Honor and great calamity to be regarded as personal conditions of the
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  same kind. Chapter thirteen, Section two. What is meant by speaking thus
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  of favor and disgrace? Disgrace is being in a low position after the enjoyment
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  of favor. The getting that favor leads to the apprehension of losing it,
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  and the losing it leads to the fear of still greater calamity. This is
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  what is meant by saying that favor and disgrace would seem equally to be feared,
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  And what is meant by saying that honor and great calamity are to be
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  similarly regarded as personal conditions. What makes me liable to great calamity is my
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  having the body which I call myself. If I had not the body,
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  what great calamity could come to me? Chapter thirteen, Section three. Therefore,
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  he who would administer the kingdom honoring it as he honors his own person
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  may be employed to govern it. And he who would administer it with the
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  love which he bears to his own person may be entrusted with it. Chapter
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  fourteen, Section one. We look at it and we do not see it,
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  and we name it the equable. We listen to it, and we
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  do not hear it, and we name it the inaudible. We try to
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  grasp it and do not get hold of it, and we name it the
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  subtle. With these three qualities, it cannot be made the subject of description,
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  and hence we blend them together and obtain the one. Chapter fourteen,
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  Section two. Its upper part is not bright, and its lower part is
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  not obscure, ceaseless in its action. It yet cannot be named. And
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  then it again returns and becomes nothing. This is called the form of the
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  formless, and the semblance of the invisible. This is called the fleeting and
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  indeterminable. Chapter fourteen, Section three. We meet it and do not see
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  its front. We follow it and do not see its back. When we
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  can lay hold of the Tao of old to direct the things of the present
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  day, and are able to know it as it was of old in the
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  beginning, This is called unwinding the clue of Tao. Chapter fifteen, Section
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  one. The skillful masters of the To in old times, with a subtle
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  and exquisite penetration, comprehended its mysteries, and were deep also so as to
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  elude men's knowledge. As they were thus beyond men's knowledge, I will make
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  an effort to describe of what sort they appeared to be. Chapter fifteen,
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  Section two. Shrinking looked They like those who wade through a stream in winter,
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  irresolute, like those who are afraid of all around them, Grave,
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  like a guest in awe of his host, Evanescent, like ice that is
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  melting away, unpretentious, like wood that has not been fashioned into anything,
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  vacant like a valley, and dull like muddy water. Chapter fifteen, Section
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  three. Who can make the muddy water clear? Let it be still,
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  and it will gradually become clear? Who can secure the condition of rest?
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  Let movement go on, and the condition of rest will gradually arise. Chapter
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  fifteen, Section four. They who preserve this method of the Tao do not
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  wish to be full of themselves. It is through their not being full of
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  themselves that they can afford to seem worn and not appear new and complete.
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  Chapter sixteen, Section one. The state of vacancy should be brought to the
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  utmost degree, and that of stillness guarded with unwearying vigor. All things alike
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  go through their processes of activity, and then we see them return to their
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  original state. When things in the vegetable world have displayed their luxuriant growth,
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  we see each of them return to its root. This returning to their root
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  is what we call the state of stillness, and that stillness may be called
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  a reporting that they have fulfilled their appointment. End Chapter sixteen, Section two.
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  The report of that fulfillment is the regular unchanging rule. To know that
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  unchanging rule is to be intelligent. Not to know it leads to wild movements
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  and evil issues. The knowledge of that unchanging rule produces a grand capacity and
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  forbearance, and that capacity and forbearance lead to a community of feeling with all
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  things. From this community of feeling comes the kingliness of character, and he
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  who is king like goes on to be heaven like. In that likeness to
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  Heaven, he possesses the Tao. Possessed of the Tao, he endures long
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  and to the end of his bodily life is exempt from all danger of decay.
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  Chapter seventeen, Section one. In the highest antiquity, the people did
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  not know that there were their rulers. In the next age, they loved
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  them and praised them. In the next they feared them, In the next
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  they despised them. Thus it was that, when faith in the Tao was
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  deficient in the rulers, a want of faith in them ensued in the people.
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  Chapter seventeen, Section two. How irresolute did those earliest rulers appear,
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  showing by their reticence the importance which they set upon their words. Their work
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  was done, and their undertakings were successful, while the people all said,
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  we are as we are of ourselves. Chapter eighteen, Section one. When
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  the great Tao way or method ceased to be observed, benevolence and righteousness came
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  into vogue. Then appeared wisdom and shrewdness, and there ensued great hypocrisy.
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  Eighteen Section two. When harmony no longer prevailed throughout the six kinships, filial
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  sons found their manifestation. When the states and clans fell into disorder, Loyal
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  ministers appeared. End of chapter eighteen