Sacred
29
Do you want to improve the world?
I don’t think it can be done.
The world is sacred.
It can’t be improved.
If you tamper with it, you’ll ruin it.
If you treat it like an object, you’ll lose it.
There is a time for being ahead,
a time for being behind;
a time for being in motion,
a time for being at rest;
a time for being vigorous,
a time for being exhausted;
a time for being safe,
a time for being in danger.
The Master sees things as they are,
without trying to control them.
She lets them go their own way,
and resides at the center of the circle.
Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu, trans by Stephen Mitchell
29
If someone wants to rule the world, and goes about trying to do so,
I foresee that they simply will not succeed.
The world is a sacred vessel,
And is not something that can be ruled.
Those who would rule it ruin it;
Those who would control it lose it.
In the way of things;
Some move ahead while others fall behind;
Some breathe to warm themselves while others breathe to cool
themselves down;
Some are strong while others are disadvantaged;
Some accumulate while others collapse.
It is for this reason the sages eschew the excessive, the superlative,
and the extravagant.
Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu, trans by Roger T. Ames and David L. Hall,
A Philosophical Translation
A friend suggested I offer two different translations. A reader immediately notices
the great variation between translations of the Tao. Some of the factors causing
the latitude of rendering in English are:
- The Tao Te Ching is an old text. What is meant by old, – late 400 BCE. Expressed
differently the translation examples offered above are derived from texts which date
nearly 2,800 years ago. Various texts have been discovered, allowing Sinologist-
translators to decide the most likely authentic version of a word or phrase. - Scholars have suggested the possibility that the written text is a compilation of
generations-long verbally transmitted, received wisdom. The written text
may have been a scholarly effort to codify in written form a developed canon of
received wisdom. - The ancient Chinese in contrast to contemporary English valued written
complexity, alliteration, metaphorical embellishment instead of “short and sweet”
written description, the concise style valued by modern English writers. - A final reflection upon the wide difference between English translation renderings:
Ames writes, the art of translation often challenges hardened and sometimes constricted readings of the text by infusing new insights and perspectives that unblock the flow of interpretation.
2 thoughts on “Sacred”
What is apparent to me is that the Tao is open to wide and very personal interpretation. The text is a reflection of the inner self which is why it works so well. On the other hand stories such as Aesop’s fables have a very specific moral message, which is steeped in western thinking and the dictates in how to approach ethical dilemmas. I see the difference as that between strict codes, such as in the Bible or other western religious doctrines, and those of a mostly Buddhist path that allows for reflection and assessment.
That is my take as well. Lao Tsu offers a counter “argument” to a strict, rule based moral approach. Granted in China traditional Confucian morality was based upon the family, and not on universal principles as is the case in the West. Still the Tao te Ching poses an alternative.