Tao Te Ching

Tao Te Ching

Eight

The highest good is like water.
Water gives life to the ten thousand things and does not strive.
It flows in places men reject and so it is like the Tao.

In dwelling, be close to the land.
In meditation, go deep in the heart.
In dealing with others, be gentle and kind.
In speech, be true.
In ruling, be just.
In daily life, be competent.
In action, be aware of the time and the season.

No fight: No blame.

From the Tao Te Ching, by LaoTsu, translated by Gia-FuFeng and Jane English

Owl flying at dusk

Tao Te Ching book

The book, Tao Te Ching, is made up of 81 verses. It is an ancient book, written in China at least 2, 500 years ago. Although there is still speculation about the exact author, credit is given to the sage Lao Tzu. Besides the Bible, the Tao Te Ching, has been translated more often than any other book in the world.

This beautiful book has brought me comfort through the years. What is the book about? Here is a little bit from the introduction of one of my copies of the Tao Te Ching:

“The Tao Te Ching deals with what is permanent in us. It speaks of a possible inner greatness and an equally possible inner failure, which are both indelibly written into our very structure as human beings. Under its gaze, we are not “American,” or “Chinese,” or “European.” We are that being, Man, uniquely called to occupy a precise place in the cosmic order, no matter where or in what era we live.”

“What lies behind the ‘ten thousand things’- or to use Western language, behind the appearances in ourselves and in the universe – is not another world, another thing or collection of ‘things.’ ”…What lies behind the ten thousand things is the awareness of the ten thousand things…But this awareness – what is it? We cannot say. Call it Tao.”

–Jacob Needleman’s Introduction in the Tao Te Ching, by LaoTsu, translated by Gia-FuFeng and Jane English. Vintage Books, 1989.