John Braun Jr - Tao Te Ching

Tao Te Ching

By Lao Tzu

Render ed by :

Julian von Bargen

John Braun , Jr.

David Warkentin

Text Copyright 2012 von Bargen, Braun, Warkentin

All Rights Reserved

Tao Te Ching :

The Tao Te Ching is an ancient Chinese text that has long been a source of inspiration and serenity for people around the world.

The very first line of the text warns the reader against valuing the words over what they are meant to convey. The Tao you can speak of and write about is not the actual Tao.

What this means is that the beauty and wisdom that lie at the core of the text can only be hinted at or approximated by words. Even now, many lifetimes after it was first recorded, people are still trying to successfully capture this essence, which is why it is one of the most translated texts on the planet.

The truth is, this essence cannot be captured in one form. The closest anyone can come to succeeding in this goal is to glimpse it for themselves, if only for a second. Only you can understand it. No one else, however brilliant, can understand it for you.

What we are trying to provide is an entry point into the ancient wisdom of the Tao Te Ching , a companion that seeks to help open up the wisdom to you, to help facilitate your own understanding.

Our version is the result of over a year spent poring over a number of different English translations, each one based on the same original Chinese text. We were surprised to find just how idealistically different some of these texts could be, considering their mutual origin. For the purposes of our own growth, we made every attempt to find the one thread that connects them all to the original and recorded this in our own words.

The result of this method, however, might not be most accurately described as a translation of the Tao Te Ching . What we've done is a rendering. Through the juxtaposition of multiple English translations, the cultural and ideological fingerprints of past translators were exposed like decaying flesh on a skeleton. We tried to separate the skeleton -- the basic principles of the Tao Te Ching that themselves precede Lao Tzu -- from its flesh, and reanimate the Tao Te Ching for a contemporary audience.

This, then, is the Tao Te Ching as we have come to understand it, complete with definitions of notoriously problematic words. The process of translating this text has changed our lives for the better. Hopefully, reading it will do the same for you.

The word is not enough.
No name could contain the source of all things.
The eternal mysteries of existe n ce are beyond our petty names,
B ut names are not worthless, for names can connect us to the world we live in.
Only by freeing ourselves from the material world can we catch a fleeting g limpse of the mysteries of Tao.
Only by perceiving the material world can we see and experience Taos manifestations.
Ethereal mystery and concrete experience are simply dif ferent parts of the same thing.
They both share the same mysterious depth.
All secrets are contained within.

There seems a fundamental interconnection between opposites.
There was no ugliness until humanity defined beauty.
There was no bad until humanity defined good.
These labels are human creations and mean nothing to .
From the exis tence of Tao, humanity creat es:

P ositi ve and negative,

Difficult and easy,

Long and short,

High and low,

Sound and silence,

B efore and after.
This is why t he remains non-committed,
W ary of the heaviness of words.
And so the sage is like Tao itself:

A humble vessel for a most important cargo .
It is the source of all t hings yet feels no superiority.
It gives life without trying to possess.
It hel ps without expecting gratitude.
It does all this without claiming to have value.
It is becaus e it never claims to have value
That it is worth so much.

If no person is called great, people will not fight over greatness.
If great intrinsic value is not placed on material things, there will be no theft.
To refrain from displaying the value of things will allow people to be satisfied with what they need.
Therefore, the would rule by not ruling,
B y filling the bellies of their people and keeping their minds at ease,
B y strengthening their bones but giving them no reason to fight.
By guarding against the selfish frame of mind, the sage would create a society where the clever scoundrel is out of place.
Stability born of force is not order.
From order flows a stabilizing force.

is not a thing ,
It is the source of all things,
A finite infinity ,
O f nothing but endless possibility.
Beneath the currents of civilizations,
The rise and fall of empires,
The dialectics of ideologies,
Lies Tao, hidden and steady,
Beneath all this human clutter.
I can think of no thing greater,
F or even c alls it creator.

Heave n and earth feel no attachment.
Th ey do not fear or lament death.
Why would the act any differently?
Is not change the vital breath of all existence?
Breathe in, breathe out:

Life and death are but the same air in different forms.
Endless lament ation hinders proper breathing.
Better to let flow in silence.

The eternal mother rests
A t the edge of time.
She int roduces all things to the world ,
Y et none can remember her touch.
She is the passage
F rom potential to manifestation.

Think of the dirt beneath your feet and the skies above.
Do they give any thought to death?
Of course not.
What one does not have
C annot be taken away.
Therefore the :

P ays no mind to status or rank, and so is always in the perfect position;

I s not drawn off by any one thing, and so remains amongst them all.
True self-fulfillment arises in the absence of the ego.

W ater teaches the wisdom of :

It takes no pride in sustaining life.
Live near the flow.
Let the m ysteries of life wash over you.
Be transparent.
Giv e part of yourself to everyone,
A n d remember every part is whole.
Allo w natural order to lead the way
A nd do what must be done.
Do not fight the current,
A nd your head will remain above water.

Fill ing it too much
W ill cause it to burst.
Sharpening it too much
W ill wear it down to nothing.
Hoarding material possessions
W ill draw thieves to your door.
Placi ng great value on wealth and status
D rains val ue from yourself .
Doing wha t must be done and nothing more
I s the way of .

Can you reconcile you r own being with that which is?
Can you engage in the moment without prec onceived notions, embracing the purity and potent ial of a newborn?
Can any one hold the full and correct view?
Can you culti vate virtue without imposition?
Can you bear the flow of life and death as a gift rather than a burden?
Can you understand the changes of the world around you without claiming to know it?
Plant and nourish.
Create without possessing.
To aid without expectation,
T o guide without force,
This is what looks like.