Tao Te Ching
Tao Te Ching
Chapter 62Basic Goodness
Chapter 62
The Tao is the hidden center of all things.
Treasured by the good, it brings refuge to the bad.
Beautiful words can buy honor,
Good deeds can buy respect -
Even the most foolish can claim these.
Basic goodness though has no price and is here for all.
Though people stray far from this path,
It will never abandon them.
Therefore when a leader is empowered,
Don’t bother with material gifts or fine words.
Offer instead stillness and uncontrived awareness.
This is why the Tao is revered now and since ancient times:
When looked for, it appears;
When lost, mistaken, and confused;
It begins again fresh and pure.
Commentary
“No intelligent man believes that anybody ever willing errs or willingly does base and evil deeds.”
Comments: Click to comment
“All things are good and acceptable. That is why all things – a blade of grass or a hundred-foot pine, a leper or a legendary beauty, a national hero or a traitor – are equal in the Tao.”
Comments: Click to comment
“Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig.”
Comments: Click to comment
“‘Good’ refers to our original nature before our parents were born. Before anything develops within us, we possess this goodness. ‘Good’ means natural.”
Comments: Click to comment
“There is nothing that is not the Tao. When good people seek it, they are able to find it. When bad people seek it, they are able to avoid punishment.”
Comments: Click to comment
“The Word is living, being, spirit, all verdant greening, all creativity. This Word manifests itself in every creature.”
Comments: Click to comment
“Better than disks of jade followed by teams of horses would be one good word or one good deed to keep the people from losing sight of the good.”
Comments: Click to comment
“Could there ever be a more wonderful story than your own?”
Comments: Click to comment
“The Tao is in us all. Though good and bad might differ, our nature is the same. How then, can we abandon anyone?”
Comments: Click to comment
“Wisdom has its root in goodness, not goodness its root in wisdom.”
Comments: Click to comment
“We find not much in ourselves to admire, we are always privately wanting to be like somebody else. If everybody was satisfied with himself, there would be no heroes.”
Comments: Click to comment
“It's a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test.”
Comments: Click to comment
“she still had that something which fires the imagination… that somehow revealed the meaning in common things… to make you feel the goodness of planting and tending and harvesting at last… It was no wonder that her sons stood tall and straight. She was a rich mine of life, like the founders of early races.”
Comments: Click to comment
“When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”
Comments: Click to comment
“Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.”
Comments: Click to comment
“The ‘speakers of fine words’… were the itinerant sophists and sages who at that time went round from capital to capital, selling their services to the ruler who offered them the highest inducements.”
Comments: Click to comment
“In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.”
Comments: Click to comment
“I think the line of thought throughout the poem has to do with true reward as opposed to dishonorable gain, true giving as opposed to fake goods.”
Comments: Click to comment
“The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.”
Comments: Click to comment
“The result of letting go is that you discover a bank of self-existing energy that is always available to you – beyond any circumstance. It actually comes from nowhere, but is always there. It is the energy of basic goodness.”
Comments: Click to comment
“They did not tell us that we were born as whole, and that no-one in our lives deserve to carry on his back such responsibility of completing what is missing on us: we grow through life by ourselves. If we have a good company it’s just more pleasant.”
Comments: Click to comment
Comments (0)
Log in to comment.