Tuesday 8 April 2008

Tao Te Ching of Lao-Tzu Chapter 4


Below is the chapter from two excellent sources along with the original Chinese text. The first source is from a translation by D.T. Suzuki & Paul Carus in 1913 followed by a translation by Stephen Mitchell in 1988.

Chapter 4
1. Reason is empty, but its use is inexhaustible. In its profundity, verily, it resembleth the arch-father of the ten thousand things.

2. "It will blunt its own sharpness,
Will its tangles adjust;
It will dim its own radiance
And be one with its dust."

3. Oh, how calm it seems to remain! I know not whose son it is. Apparently even the Lord it precedes.

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The Tao is like a well:
used but never used up.
It is like the eternal void:
filled with infinite possibilities.

It is hidden but always present.
I don't know who gave birth to it.
It is older than God.

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