I'm reading Ursula le Guin's translation of Tao Te Ching. I quite like this book, it's accessible and at the same time very interesting. I will record its content here.
Book One
1
The way you can go isn't the real way. The name you can say isn't the real name. Heaven and earth begin in the unnamed: name's the mother of the ten thousand things. So the unwanted soul sees what's hidden, and the ever-wanting soul sees only what it wants. Two things, one origin, but different in name, whose identity is a myster. Mystery of all mysteries! The door to the hidden.
2
Everybody on earth knowing that beauty is beautiful makes ugliness. Everybody knowing that goodness is good makes wickedness. For being and nonbeing arise together; hard and easy complete each other; long and short shape each other; high and low depend on each other; note and voice make the music together; before and after follow each other. That's why the wise soul does without doing, teaches without talking. The things of this world exist, they are; you can't refuse them. To bear and not to own; to act and not lay claim; to do the work and let it go: for just letting it go is what makes it stay.
3
Not praising the praiseworthy keeps people uncompetitive. Not prizing rare treasures keeps people from stealing. Not looking at the desirable keeps the mind quiet. So the wise soul governing people would empty their minds, fill their bellies, weaken their wishes, strengthen their bones, keep people unknowing, unwanting, keep the ones who do know from doing anything. When you do not-doing, nothing's out of order.
4
The way is empty, used, but not used up. Deep, yes! Ancestral to the ten thousand things. Blunting edge, lossing bond, dimming light, the way is the dust of the way. Quiet, yes, and likely to endure. Whose child? Born before the gods.
5
Heaven and earth aren't humane. To them the ten thousand things are straw dogs. Wise souls aren't humane. To them the hundred families are straw dogs. Heaven and earth act as a bellows: Empty yet structured, it moves, inexhaustibly giving.
6
The valley spirit never dies. Call it the mystery, the woman. The mystery, the Door of the Woman, is the root of earth and heaven. Forever this endures, forever. And all its uses are easy.
7
Heaven will last, earth will endure. How can they last so long? They don't exist for themselves and so can go on and on. So wise souls leaving self behind move forward, and setting self aside stay centered. Why let the self go? To keep what the soul needs.
8
True goodness is like water. Water's good for everything. It doesn't compete. It goes right to the low loathsome places, and so finds the way. For a house, the good thing is level ground. In thinking, depth is good. The good of giving is magnanimity; of speaking, honesty; of government, order. The good of work is skill, and of action, timing. No competition, so no blame.
9
Brim-fill the bowl, it'll spill over. Keep sharpening the blade, you'll soon blunt it. Nobody can protect a house full of gold and jade. Wealth, status, pride, are their own ruin. To do good, work well, and lie low is the way of the blessing.
10
Can you keep your soul in its body, hold fast to the one, and so learn to be whole? Can you center your energy, be soft, tender, and so learn to be a baby? Can you keep the deep water still and clear, so it reflects without blurring? Can you love people and run things, and do so by not doing? Opening, closing the Gate of Heaven, can you be like a bird with her nestlings? Piercing bright through the cosmos, can you know by not knowing? To give birth, to nourish, to bear and not to own, to act and not lay claim, to lead and not to rule: this is mysterious power.
11
Thirty spokes meet in the hub. Where the wheel isn't is where it's useful. Hollowed out, clay makes a pot. Where the pot's not is where it's useful. Cut doors and windows to make a room. Where the room isn't, there's room for you. So the profit in what is is in the use of what isn't.
12
The five colors blind our eyes. The five notes deafen our ears. The five flavors dull our taste. Racing, chasing, hunting, drives people crazy. Trying to get rich ties people in knots. So the wise soul watches with the inner not the outward eye, letting that go, keeping this.
13
To be in favor or disgrace is to live in fear. To take the body seriously is to admit one can suffer. What does that mean, to be in favor or disgrace is to live in fear? Favor debases: we fear to lose it, fear to win it. So to be in favor or disgrace is to live in fear. What does that mean, to take the body seriously is to admit one can suffer? I suffer because I'm a body; if I weren't a body, how could I suffer? So people who set their bodily good before the public good could be entrusted with the commonwealth, and people who treated the body politic as gently as their own body would be worthy to govern the commonwealth.
14
Look at it: nothing to see. Call it colorless. Listen to it: nothing to hear. Call it soundless. Reach for it: nothing to hold. Call it intangible. Triply undifferentiated, it merges into oneness, not bright above, not dark below. Never, oh! never can it be named. It reverts, it returns to unbeing. Call it the form of the unformed, the image of no image. Call it unthinkable thought. Face it: no face. Follow it: no end. Holding fast to the old Way, we can live in the present. Mindful of the ancient beginnings, we hold the thread of the Tao.
15
Once upon a time people who knew the Way were subtle, spiritual, mysterious, penetrating, unfathomable. Since they're inexplicable I can only say what they seemed like: Cautious, oh yes, as if wading through a winter river. Alert, as if afraid of the neighbors. Polite and quiet, like houseguests. Elusive, like melting ice. Blank, like uncut wood. Empty, like valleys. Mysterious, oh yes, they were like troubled water. Who can by stillness, little by little make what is troubled grow clear? Who can by movement, little by little make what is still grow quick? To follow the Way is not to need fulfillment. Unfulfilled, one may live on needing no renewal.
16
Work in progress.