Tao Te Ching
Tao Te Ching
Chapter 77Stringing a Bow
Chapter 77
Following the Tao
Is like stringing a bow:
The high are brought down,
The low are lifted up.
Pull yourself down when too high,
Lift yourself up when too down.
Take from what has too much,
Give to what doesn’t have enough,
This is the way of heaven.
The way of confusion though
Takes from those who have not,
Gives to those who already have too much.
And so the wise
Help without taking credit,
Act without expectation,
Do their work without setting any store by it.
They don’t want their goodness to be seen,
They don’t want to look like they’re better than others,
They don’t sell the value of their good deeds for praise,
They won’t trade their treasure for trinkets.
Commentary
“A man brings about real increase by producing in himself the conditions for it that is, through receptivity to and love of the good. Thus the thing for which he strives comes of itself, with the inevitability of natural law.”
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“The smaller the mind, the greater the conceit.”
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“Generosity brings happiness at every stage of its expression. We experience joy in forming the intention to be generous. We experience joy in the actual act of giving something. And we experience joy in remembering the fact that we have given.”
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“Even as a solid rock is unshaken by the wind, so are the wise unshaken by praise or blame.”
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“True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.”
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“The excessive increase of anything causes a reaction in the opposite direction;… dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme form of liberty.”
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“The Way of Heaven is so dark, we need metaphors to understand it
To prepare a bow for use, we string it by pulling down the top and lifting up the bottom.
Likewise, the Way of Heaven is to take from the strong and give to the weak.”
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“Rich are the rewards of the generous; profound are the calamities of the resentful… So, by looking into the source of people’s actions, sages can tell their consequences.”
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“Sages do not let their desires disturb harmony… when they are happy, they do not rejoice too much, and when they are sad, they do not grieve too much.”
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“How slight and insignificant is the thing which casts down or restores a mind greedy for praise.”
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“Seemeth it nothing to you, never to accuse, never to blame either God or Man? to wear ever the same countenance in going forth as in coming in? This was the secret of Socrates: yet he never said that he knew or taught anything…”
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“When soldiers become farmers, wealth naturally distributes and equalizes.”
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“Patch-robed monks roam the world constantly emptying and expanding their minds without the slightest remnant held inside… Do no leave any traces and inside and outside will merge into one totality as leisurely as the sky clearing of rainclouds”
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“Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received – only what you have given.”
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“A new prince, like David should exalt the humble and depress the great, ‘filling the hungry with good things, and sending the rich empty away.’”
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“The Way of Heaven is to give but not to take The Way of Humankind is to take but not to give.”
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“Reticence is the seal of capacity… You must pay ransom to each you tell… What must be done need not be said, what must be said need not be done.”
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“Think of the profit of all as being the real profit and the mind of the whole country as being the real mind.”
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“The objections and reluctances I met with in soliciting the subscriptions, made me soon feel the impropriety of presenting one’s self as the proposer of any useful project.. I therefore put myself as much as I could out of sight and stated it as a scheme of ‘a number of friends.’”
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“Excessive sorrow laughs. Excessive joy weeps.”
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“In my walks, every man I meet is my superior in some way, and in that I learn from him.”
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“You could construe abandoning all hope of results as being to your welfare. For example fame, renown, comfort, and happiness in this life, later happiness among gods or men, even the desire to achieve the transcendence of misery itself.”
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“Slavery has existed in all nations since the beginning of the world. All that modern nations have achieved is to disguise slavery at home and import it.”
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“I do not wish any reward but to know I have done the right thing.”
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“Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”
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“If my devils are to leave me, I am afraid my angels will take flight as well.”
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“If I could put it into a very few words, I should say that our prevalent belief is in moderation. We inculcate the virtue of avoiding excesses of all kinds—even including, if you will pardon the paradox, excess of virtue itself.”
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“The neglect, indeed the rejection, of wisdom has gone so far that most of our intellectuals have not even the faintest idea what the term could mean. As a result, they always tend to try and cure a disease by intensifying its causes. The disease having been caused by allowing cleverness to displace wisdom, no amount of clever research is likely to produce a cure.”
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“Not only the Chinese, but the ancient Greeks and Hindus, the Finns, the Pawnee, and the Arapaho all likened the moon to a bow. Thus the Way of Heaven is like a bow.”
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“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”
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“The most important point is that when you take, you take the worst; and when you give, you give the best… So don’t take any credit – unless you have been blamed.”
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