Tao Te King (Dao h Ching) | Page 4

(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. I
am like an infant which has not yet smiled. I look dejected and forlorn,
as if I 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 I 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 I value the nursing-mother (the Tao).
21. The grandest forms of active force
From Tao come, their only source.
Who can of Tao the nature tell?
Our sight it flies, our touch as well.
Eluding sight, eluding touch,
The forms of things all in it crouch;
Eluding touch, eluding sight,
There are their semblances, all right.
Profound it is, dark and obscure;

Things' essences all there endure.
Those essences the truth enfold
Of what, when seen, shall then be told.
Now it is so; 'twas so of old.
Its name--what passes not away;
So, in their beautiful array,
Things form and never know decay.
How know I that it is so with all the beauties of existing things? By this
(nature of the Tao).
22. 1. The partial becomes complete; the crooked, straight; the empty,
full; the worn out, new. He whose (desires) are few gets them; he
whose (desires) are many goes astray.
2. Therefore the sage holds in his embrace the one thing (of humility),
and manifests it to all the world. He is free from self- display, and
therefore he shines; from self-assertion, and therefore he is
distinguished; from self-boasting, and therefore his merit is
acknowledged; from self-complacency, and therefore he acquires
superiority. It is because he is thus free from striving that therefore no
one in the world is able to strive with him.
3. That saying of the ancients that 'the partial becomes complete' was
not vainly spoken:--all real completion is comprehended under it.
23. 1. Abstaining from speech marks him who is obeying the
spontaneity of his nature. A violent wind does not last for a whole
morning; a sudden rain does not last for the whole day. To whom is it
that these (two) things are owing? To Heaven and Earth. If Heaven and
Earth cannot make such (spasmodic) actings last long, how much less
can man!

2. Therefore when one is making the Tao his business, those who are
also pursuing it, agree with him in it, and those who are making the
manifestation of its course their object agree with him in that; while
even those who are failing in both these things agree with him where
they fail.
3. Hence, those with whom he agrees as to the Tao have the happiness
of attaining to it; those with whom he agrees as to its manifestation
have the happiness of attaining to it; and those with whom he agrees in
their failure have also the happiness of attaining (to the Tao). (But)
when there is not faith sufficient (on his part), a want of faith (in him)
ensues (on the part of the others).
24. He who stands on his tiptoes does not stand firm; he who stretches
his legs does not walk (easily). (So), he who displays himself does not
shine; he who asserts his own views is not distinguished; he who vaunts
himself does not find his merit acknowledged; he who is self- conceited
has no superiority allowed to him. Such conditions, viewed from the
standpoint of the Tao, are like remnants of food, or a tumour on the
body, which all dislike. Hence those who pursue (the course) of the Tao
do not adopt and allow them.
25. 1. There was something undefined and complete, coming into
existence before Heaven and Earth. How still it was and formless,
standing alone, and undergoing no change, reaching everywhere and in
no danger (of being exhausted)! It may be regarded as the Mother of all
things.
2. I do