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About this Episode
https://www.solgoodmedia.com Listen to hundreds of audiobooks, thousands of short stories, and ambient sounds all ad free! "The Daily Philosopher" offers daily bites of wisdom, exploring ideas from ancient wisdom to modern thought leaders. Dive into deep philosophical discussions and learn to apply philosophical concepts to everyday life. Whether you're a seasoned philosopher or just getting started, this podcast promises to enlighten and inspire.
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Hi, this is Alex Cantrowitz. I'm the host of Big Technology Podcast, a longtime reporter and an on-air contributor to CNBC.
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Read and recorded by Eric Espiotrowski, F-B-E-S-P-D-R-G, Madison, Wisconsin, USA, 13th of January, 2006.
The Tao Dei King, or the Tao and its characteristics, by Lao Tse, translated by James Lega.
Part 1.
Chapters 10-18
Chapter 10. Part 1.
When the intelligent and animal souls are held together in one embrace, they can be kept from separating.
When one gives undivided attention to the vital breath, and brings it to the utmost degree of pliancy, he can become as a tender babe.
When he has cleansed away the most mysterious sights of his imagination, he can become without a flaw.
Chapter 10. Section 2
In loving the people and ruling the state, cannot he proceed without any purpose of action?
In the opening and shutting of his gates of heaven, can he not do so as a female bird?
While his intelligence reaches in every direction, cannot he appear to be without knowledge?
Chapter 10. Section 3
The Tao produces all things and nourishes them.
It produces them and does not claim them as its own. It does all, and yet does not boast of it.
It presides over all, and yet does not control them.
This is what is called the mysterious quality of the Tao.
Chapter 11.
The thirty spokes unite in the one nave, but it is on the empty space for the axle that the use of the wheel depends.
Clay is fashioned into vessels, but it is on their empty hollowness that their use depends.
The door and windows are cut out from the walls to form an apartment, but it is on the empty space within that it's used depends.
Therefore, what has a positive existence serves for profitable adaptation, and what has not that for actual usefulness.
Chapter 12. Section 1
Colors five hues from the eyes their sight will take. Music's five notes the ears as deaf can make.
The flavors five deprive the mouth of taste. The chariot course and the wild hunting waste make mad the mind.
And objects rare and strange, sought for, men's conduct will to evil change.
Chapter 12. Section 2
Therefore, the sage seeks to satisfy the craving of the belly and not the insatiable longing of the eyes.
He puts from him the latter and prefers to seek the former.
Chapter 13. Section 1
Favor and disgrace would seem equally to be feared. Honor and great calamity to be regarded as personal conditions of the same kind.
Chapter 13. Section 2
What is meant by speaking thus of favor and disgrace? Disgrace is being in a low position after the enjoyment of favor.
The getting that favor leads to the apprehension of losing it, and the losing it leads to the fear of still greater calamity.
This is what is meant by saying that favor and disgrace would seem equally to be feared.
And what is meant by saying that honor and great calamity are to be similarly regarded as personal conditions.
What makes me liable to great calamity is my having the body which I call myself. If I had not the body, what great calamity could come to me?
Chapter 13. Section 3
Therefore, he who would administer the kingdom, honoring it as he honors his own person, may be employed to govern it, and he who would administer it with the love which he bears to his own person, may be entrusted with it.
Chapter 14. Section 1
We look at it, and we do not see it, and we name it the equal bull.
We listen to it, and we do not hear it, and we name it the inaudible.
We try to grasp it, and do not get hold of it, and we name it the subtle.
With these three qualities, it cannot be made the subject of description, and hence we blend them together and obtain the one.
Chapter 14. Section 2
Its upper part is not bright, and its lower part is not obscure. Seaseless in its action, it yet cannot be named, and then it again returns and becomes nothing.
This is called the form of the formless, and the semblance of the invisible. This is called the fleeting and indeterminable.
Chapter 14. Section 3
We meet it, and do not see its front. We follow it, and do not see its back.
When we can lay hold of the Tao of old to direct the things of the present day, and are able to know it as it was of old in the beginning, this is called unwinding the clue of Tao.
Chapter 15. Section 1
The skillful masters of the Tao in old times, with a subtle and exquisite penetration, comprehended its mysteries, and were deep also so as to elude men's knowledge.
As they were thus beyond men's knowledge, I will make an effort to describe of what sort they appeared to be.
Chapter 15. Section 2
Shrinking looked they like those who wade through a stream in winter. Irresolute like those who are afraid of all around them. Grave like a guest in all of his host.
Evanescent like ice that is melting away. Unpretentious like wood that has not been fashioned into anything. Vacant like a valley. And dull like muddy water.
Chapter 15. Section 3
Who can make the muddy water clear? Let it be still, and it will gradually become clear. Who can secure the condition of rest? Let movement go on, and the condition of rest will gradually arise.
Chapter 15. Section 4
They who preserve this method of the Tao do not wish to be full of themselves. It is through they are not being full of themselves that they can afford to seem worn and not appear new and complete.
Chapter 16. Section 1
The state of vacancy should be brought to the utmost degree, and that of stillness guarded with unwirying vigor. All things alike go through their processes of activity, and then we see them return to their original state.
When things in the vegetable world have displayed their luxuriant growth, we see each of them return to its root.
This returning to their root is what we call the state of stillness, and that stillness may be called a reporting that they have fulfilled their appointed end.
Chapter 16. Section 2
The report of that fulfillment is the regular unchanging rule. To know that unchanging rule is to be intelligent, not to know it leads to wild movements and evil issues.
The knowledge of that unchanging rule produces a grand capacity and forbearance, and that capacity and forbearance lead to a community of feeling with all things.
From this community of feeling comes the kingliness of character, and he who is king-like goes on to be heaven-like.
In that likeness to heaven he possesses the Tao.
Possessed of the Tao he endures long, and to the end of his bodily life is exempt from all danger of decay.
Chapter 17. Section 1
In the highest antiquity the people did not know that there were their rulers. In the next age they loved them and praised them.
In the next they feared them. In the next they despised them.
Thus it was that when faith in the Tao was deficient in the rulers, a want of faith in them ensued in the people.
Chapter 17. Section 2
How it resolute did those earliest rulers appear, showing by their reticence the importance which they set upon their words.
Their work was done, and their undertakings were successful, while the people all said, we are as we are of ourselves.
Chapter 18. Section 1
When the great Tao, way or method ceased to be observed, benevolence and righteousness came into vogue.
Then appeared wisdom and shrewdness, and there ensued great hypocrisy.
Chapter 18. Section 2
When harmony no longer prevailed throughout the six kinships, filial sons found their manifestation.
When the states and clans fell into disorder, loyal ministers appeared.
End of Chapter 18
