Tao Te Ching

1972. One page introduction, no commentary or endnotes. Much of the book is taken up with black and white artistic photographs.

Verse 47

This verse is basically found in a song of George Harrison called The Inner Light:

Without going out of my door,
I can know all things on earth
without looking out of my window,
I can know the ways of heaven.

The farther one travels
the less one knows
the less one really knows.
Arrive without traveling,
See all without looking,
Do all without doing

Now, Verse 47 from this book (which has a pretty average translation)

Thus the sage knows without traveling
He sees without looking
He works without doing.

Now, for a rather unusually worded translation.

Verse 5

The space between heaven and earth is like a bellows.
The shape changes but not the form;
The more it moves, the more it yields.
More words count less.
Hold fast to the center.

Verse 33

He who knows he has enough is rich.
Perseverance is a sign of will power.
He who stays where is is endures.
To die but not to perish is to be eternally present.

In other words, the really wise person has a solid understanding of what he or she is spiritually. To do this takes a lot of strength, especially to keep working on discovering who you really are.

Verse 53

When the court is arrayed in splendor
The fields are full of weeds,
And the granaries are bare.
Some wear gorgeous clothes,
Carry sharp swords,
And indulge themselves with food and drink;
They have more possessions than they can use.
They are robber barons.
This is certainly not the way of Tao.

This covers two of Lao Tsu's themes. One is that following the Tao, the Way, is the best thing to do, but it is easy to get sidetracked from that task. The second part refers (as a number of his verses do) to the government of the country and how they have a major effect on the status of the people. The government often gets too involved in getting lots of things including money, fine foods, etc. When they do that they overtax the people which leads to the average person starving.

There's another verse that follows this one up.

Verse 75

Why are the people rebellious?
Because the rulers interfere to much.
Therefore they are rebellious.

Why do the people think so little of death?
Because the rulers demand too much of life.
Therefore the people take death lightly.
Having little to live on, one knows better than to value life too much.

The French Rebellion is a good example of this, but there are many, many, many examples of governments that try to order the people around. They overtax the people and use the taxes for favorite projects of their own, including taking money for themselves and their friends. Eventually, the people end up in such a bad shape that they feel the only alternative they have is overthrowing the government.

They are not afraid of dying since their lives are so miserable they have almost nothing to live for anyhow. This should be a lesson to governments and to the ultra-rich who think they can run everything the way they want but somehow neither group seems to learn the lessons of history.

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