Tao Te Ching – Verse 6
The Tao is called the Great Mother:
empty yet inexhaustible,
it gives birth to infinite worlds.
It is always present within you.
You can use it any way you want.
Laozi. Tao Te Ching. Translated by Stephen Mitchell. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006.
We are sharing the 81 verses of the Tao Te Ching across 81 weeks starting in March 2025. Here is our introductory post if you’d like to learn more about this project.
Tao Te Ching – Verse 5
The Tao doesn't take sides;
it gives birth to both good and evil.
The Master doesn't take sides;
she welcomes both saints and sinners.
The Tao is like a bellows:
it is empty yet infinitely capable.
The more you use it, the more it produces;
the more you talk of it, the less you understand.
Hold on to the center.
Laozi. Tao Te Ching. Translated by Stephen Mitchell. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006.
We are sharing the 81 verses of the Tao Te Ching across 81 weeks starting in March 2025. Here is our introductory post if you’d like to learn more about this project.
Tao Te Ching – Verse 4
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.
Laozi. Tao Te Ching. Translated by Stephen Mitchell. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006.
We are sharing the 81 verses of the Tao Te Ching across 81 weeks starting in March 2025. Here is our introductory post if you’d like to learn more about this project.
Tao Te Ching – Verse 3
If you overesteem great men,
people become powerless.
If you overvalue possessions,
people begin to steal.
The Master leads
by emptying people's minds
and filling their cores,
by weakening their ambition
and toughening their resolve.
He helps people lose everything
they know, everything they desire,
and creates confusion
in those who think that they know.
Practice not-doing,
and everything will fall into place.
Laozi. Tao Te Ching. Translated by Stephen Mitchell. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006.
We are sharing the 81 verses of the Tao Te Ching across 81 weeks starting in March 2025. Here is our introductory post if you’d like to learn more about this project.
Tao Te Ching – Verse 2
When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.
Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.
Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn't possess,
acts but doesn't expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.
Laozi. Tao Te Ching. Translated by Stephen Mitchell. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006.
We are sharing the 81 verses of the Tao Te Ching across 81 weeks starting in March 2025. Here is our introductory post if you’d like to learn more about this project.
Tao Te Ching – Verse 1
The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.
The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.
Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.
Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.
Laozi. Tao Te Ching. Translated by Stephen Mitchell. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006.
We are sharing the 81 verses of the Tao Te Ching across 81 weeks starting in March 2025. Here is our introductory post if you’d like to learn more about this project.
