Today’s Between Master and Disciples – From the Sacred Taoist Texts: Tao Te Ching, Chapters 66-81– will be presented in Chinese with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Thai, Turkish, Urdu and Spanish.

Throughout history, the spirit of enlightened masters has been the everlasting inspiration for artistic and cultural activities in the human world. Lao Tzu, the ancient master of supreme wisdom and boundless virtue is such an example. He lived in China around the sixth century BC. For over two thousand years, his teaching has benefited the land and the people with a very precious spiritual lineage and splendid cultural traditions.

Lao Tzu’s teaching focuses on the Tao, or the amorphous, ever-flowing and ever-circulating power that gave birth to the universe. Tao resides in the bodies of all beings. In the past two thousand years Lao Tzu’s teaching has given rise to Taoism, one of the three most influential spiritual and cultural traditions in China. Lao Tzu’s book, Tao Te Ching, has become a classic in the development of both philosophy and scholarship. Today we present the sage teachings of Lao Tzu through an excerpt from the Tao Te Ching, Chapters 66-81.

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Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

That whereby the rivers and seas are able to receive the homage and tribute of all the valley streams, is their skill in being lower than they; it is thus that they are the kings of them all. So it is that the sage ruler, wishing to be above men, puts himself by his words below them, and, wishing to be before them, places his person behind them. In this way, though he has his place above them, men do not feel his weight, nor though he has his place before them, do they feel it an injury to them. Therefore all in the world delight to exalt him and do not weary of him. Because he does not strive, no one finds it possible to strive with him.

All the world says that, while my Tao is great, it yet appears to be inferior to other systems of teaching. Now it is just its greatness that makes it seem to be inferior. If it were like any other system, for long would its smallness have been known! But I have three precious things which I prize and hold fast. The first is gentleness; the second is economy; and the third is shrinking from taking precedence of others. With that gentleness I can be bold; with that economy I can be liberal; shrinking from taking precedence of others, I can become a vessel of the highest honor. Nowadays they give up gentleness and are all for being bold; economy, and are all for being liberal; the hindmost place, and seek only to be foremost; of all which the end is death. Gentleness is sure to be victorious even in battle, and firmly to maintain its ground. Heaven will save its possessor, by his very gentleness protecting him.

He who fights with most good will To rage makes no resort. He who vanquishes yet still keeps from his foes apart; He whose hests men most fulfill Yet humbly plies his art. Thus we say, 'He never contends, And therein is his might.' Thus we say, 'Men's wills he bends, That they with him unite.' Thus we say, 'Like Heaven's his ends, No sage of old more bright.'

A master of the art of war has said, “I do not dare to be the host to commence the war; I prefer to be the guest to act on the defensive. I do not dare to advance an inch; I prefer to retire a foot.” This is called marshalling the ranks where there are no ranks; baring the arms to fight where there are no arms to bare; grasping the weapon where there is no weapon to grasp; advancing against the enemy where there is no enemy. There is no calamity greater than lightly engaging in war. To do that is near losing the gentleness which is so precious. Thus it is that when opposing weapons are actually crossed, he who deplores the situation conquers.

My words are very easy to know, and very easy to practice; but there is no one in the world who is able to know and able to practice them. There is an originating and all-comprehending principle in my words, and an authoritative law for the things which I enforce. It is because they do not know these, that men do not know me. They who know me are few, and I am on that account the more to be prized. It is thus that the sage wears a poor garb of hair cloth, while he carries his signet of jade in his bosom.

To know and yet think we do not know is the highest attainment; not to know and yet think we do know is a disease. It is simply by being pained at the thought of having this disease that we are preserved from it. The sage has not the disease. He knows the pain that would be inseparable from it, and therefore he does not have it.

When the people do not fear what they ought to fear, that which is their great dread will come on them. Let them not thoughtlessly indulge themselves in their ordinary life; let them not act as if weary of what that life depends on. It is by avoiding such indulgence that such weariness does not arise. Therefore, the sage knows these things of himself, but does not parade his knowledge; loves, but does not appear to set a value on, himself. And thus he puts the latter alternative away and makes choice of the former.

It is the way of Heaven not to strive, and yet it skillfully overcomes; not to speak, and yet it is skillful in obtaining a reply; does not call, and yet men come to it of themselves. Its demonstrations are quiet, and yet its plans are skillful and effective. The meshes of the net of Heaven are large; far apart, but letting nothing escape.

The people do not fear death; to what purpose is it to try to frighten them with death? If the people were always in awe of death, and I could always seize those who do wrong, and put them to death, who would dare to do wrong? There is always One who presides over the infliction death. He who would inflict death in the room of him who so presides over it may be described as hewing wood instead of a great carpenter. Seldom is it that he who undertakes the hewing, instead of the great carpenter, does not cut his own hands!

The people suffer from famine because of the multitude of taxes consumed by their superiors. It is through this that they suffer famine. The people are difficult to govern because of the excessive agency of their superiors in governing them. It is through this that they are difficult to govern. The people make light of dying because of the greatness of their labors in seeking for the means of living. It is this which makes them think light of dying. Thus it is that to leave the subject of living altogether out of view is better than to set a high value on it.

Man at his birth is supple and weak; at his death, firm and strong. So it is with all things. Trees and plants, in their early growth, are soft and brittle; at their death, dry and withered. Thus it is that firmness and strength are the concomitants of death; softness and weakness, the concomitants of life. Hence he who relies on the strength of his forces does not conquer. Therefore the place of what is firm and strong is below, and that of what is soft and weak is above.

May not the Way or Tao of Heaven be compared to the method of bending a bow? The part of the bow which was high is brought low, and what was low is raised up. So Heaven diminishes where there is superabundance, and supplements where there is deficiency. It is the Way of Heaven to diminish superabundance, and to supplement deficiency. It is not so with the way of man. He takes away from those who have not enough to add to his own superabundance. Who can take his own superabundance and therewith serve all under heaven? Only he who is in possession of the Tao! Therefore the ruling sage acts without claiming the results as his; he achieves his merit and does not rest arrogantly in it: he does not wish to display his superiority.

There is nothing in the world more soft and weak than water, and yet for attacking things that are firm and strong there is nothing that can take precedence of it; for there is nothing so effectual for which it can be changed. Everyone in the world knows that the soft overcomes the hard, and the weak the strong, but no one is able to carry it out in practice. Therefore a sage has said, 'He who accepts his state's reproach, Is hailed therefore its altars' lord; To him who bears men's direful woes They all the name of King accord.' Words that are strictly true seem to be paradoxical.

When a reconciliation is effected between two parties after a great animosity, there is sure to be a grudge remaining in the mind of the one who was wrong. And how can this be beneficial to the other? Therefore to guard against this, the sage keeps the left-hand portion of the record of the engagement, and does not insist on the speedy fulfillment of it by the other party. So, he who has the attributes of the Tao regards only the conditions of the engagement, while he who has not those attributes regards only the conditions favorable to himself. In the Way of Heaven, there is no partiality of love; it is always on the side of the good man.

In a little state with a small population, I would so order it, that, though there were individuals with the abilities of ten or a hundred men, there should be no employment of them; I would make the people, while looking on death as a grievous thing, yet not remove elsewhere to avoid it. Though they had boats and carriages, they should have no occasion to ride in them; though they had buff coats and sharp weapons, they should have no occasion to don or use them. I would make the people return to the use of knotted cords instead of the written characters. They should think their coarse food sweet; their plain clothes beautiful; their poor dwellings places of rest; and their common simple ways sources of enjoyment. There should be a neighboring state within sight, and the voices of the animals should be heard all the way from it to us, but I would make the people to old age, even to death, not have any intercourse with it.

Sincere words are not fine; fine words are not sincere. Those who are skilled in the Tao do not dispute about it; the disputatious are not skilled in it. Those who know the Tao are not extensively learned; the extensively learned do not know it. The sage does not accumulate for himself. The more that he expends for others, the more does he possess of his own; the more that he gives to others, the more does he have himself. With all the sharpness of the Way of Heaven, it injures not; with all the doing in the way of the sage he does not strive.