Tao Te Ching
Tao Te Ching
Chapter 7Lose Yourself, Gain Your Soul
Chapter 7
Heaven is eternal and earth will endure
Because they don’t live for themselves
Or nurture an independent self.
In this way the wise put themselves in the background
And end up in front
Put themselves outside
And find themselves safe and centered.
Because they don’t strive for personal goals,
They find fulfillment.
Commentary
“Life and death are nothing to the true people of Tao, nothing can touch them.”
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“The sage has no goal and people are transformed. He doesn’t talk but people are taught, doesn’t act but everything is done, speaks without intention and even beggars in the street benefit.”
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“I am striving to give back the Divine in myself to the Divine in the All.”
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“Those who live for themselves fight with others. Those who don’t live for themselves are the refuge of others.”
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“When happiness is liked by me and others equally, what is so special about me that I should strive after happiness only for myself?”
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“discard all you have acquired as being no better than a bed spread for you when you were sick.”
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“experience the absence of conditioned mind and observe that all phenomena are like dreams… enter into the uncontrived, uncluttered ocean of true nature.”
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“I’m looking for the face I had before the world was made.”
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“A sound man... by never being an end in himself... endlessly becomes himself.”
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“We are so obsessed with doing that we have no time and no imagination left for being. As a result, men are valued not for what they are but for what they do or what they have - for their usefulness.”
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“the result of anything aimed at enriching the ego is destruction, complete confusion, perpetual confusion.”
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“The first will be last and the last will be first; the times they are a changin’.”
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Comments (3)
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Shan Dao
6 years ago
In this chapter, our translation most closely follows Henricks’ Ma-wang tui text but their last line, “he is therefor able to realize his self-interest” seems at best too easily misunderstood as the exact opposite of Lao Tzu’s meaning. While Le Guin version (“why let the self go? To keep what the soul needs”) may be the most compelling, Bynner may again be furthest from the words, closest to the sense: “He endlessly becomes himself.”
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4 years ago
The original letters almostSeem to say that they aresome kind of mythologicalBear like creature
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4 years ago
Totally thought my formatting would carry over.
Log in to comment.That the sage is like an old bearOr better still, A mythologicalBear like creatureWho knows how to fend for themselves.Without evil personal flaws, They are able to just Do what they need toPick berries, catch a nice salmon,Just wander around Being some kind of bear like, Mythological creature.