If you would assist leaders of people
by way of the Tao,
you will oppose the use of armed force to overpower
the world.
Those who use weapons will be harmed by them.
Where troops have camped only thorn bushes grow.
Bad harvests follow in the wake of a great army.
The skillful person strikes the blow and stops,
without taking advantage of [...]
Whoever wishes to take over the world
will not succeed.
The world is a sacred vessel
and nothing should be done to it.
Whoever tries to tamper with it
will mar it.
Whoever tries to grab it
will lose it.
Hence, there is a time to go ahead
and a tirne to stay behind.
There is a time to breathe easy
and a time to breathe [...]
Develop the strength of a man,
but live as gently as a woman.
Become a brook and receive all things under heaven.
If you are such a brook
then Virtue will constantly flow into you
and you will become a simple child again.
Know thew pure
but live the life of the sullied.
Become a fountain to all things under heaven.
If you bccome [...]
A skillful traveler leaves no track.
A skillful speaker makes no slip.
A skillful reckoner needs no counting rod.
A skillfully made door requires no bolts,
yet it cannot be opened.
A skillful binding has no cords or knots,
yet it cannot be untied.
Therefore, the True Person is skillful in assisting people,
and abandons nobody;
In skillful in assisting things,
and abandons nothing.
This is [...]
When solid must be the root of the light.
The still must be the master of thc restless.
Therefore, wise people when traveling all day
do not lose sight of their baggage cart.
Although there are beautiful scenes to see,
they remain quietly in their own place.
Should a lord of ten thousand chariots
appear more frivolous than a simple traveler?
To be [...]
Something formless yet complete,
existing before heaven and earth.
Silent and limitless,
it stands alone and does not change.
Reaching everywhere, it does not tire.
Perhaps it is the Mother of all things under heaven.
I do not know its name
so I call it “Tao.”
When I have to describe it I call it “great.”
Being great it flows.
It flows far away.
Having gone [...]
