TAO TE CHING.. Verses 1-5

1. DAOS, NAMES AND PUZZLES

Ways can be guided; they are not fixed ways.

Names can be named; they are not fixed names.

"Absence" names the cosmic horizon,

"Presence" names the mother of 10,000 natural kinds.

Fixing on "absence" is to want to view enigmas.

Fixing on "presence" is to want to view phenomena.

These two, emerging together, we name differently.

Conceiving of them as being one: call that "fathomless".

Calling it "fathomless" is still not to fathom it.

...the door to a cluster of puzzles.

What does this mean to me? Well, if I give you a destination and a map, there are always plenty of ways of getting there. If I name something, the name can always be changed, or someone else might call it something different. These are not "fixed", they require interpretation and can be misread. Whereas the movement of the stars is constant and "fixed". I can't tell you how to digest food, because the process of digestion is also "fixed". The latter part of this passage talks about opposites (in my opinion). Like Yin and Yang, "presence" has an equal "absence" and vice versa. Everything has an equal opposite.

2. LANGUAGE AND CONTRASTS

When all the social world regards beauty as "beauty",

Here already is "ugly".

If all treat mastery as "being good at" things,

Here already is "not being good at" things.

Thus "presence" and "absence" mutually sprout.

"Hard" and "easy" mutually inform.

"Long" and "short" are mutually gauged.

"High" and "low" mutually incline.

"Sound" and "tone" mutually blend.

"Before" and "after" mutually follow on.

Using this: sages don't act on constructs in addressing affairs;

They practice a "don't-use-language" teaching.

10,000 natural kinds are made by it

Yet don't express anything.

Sprouting, you don't treat them as "existing".

Acting on constructs, you don't rely on anything.

Success taking form, you don't dwell on it.

In general, they simply don't dwell on it,

And in that, they don't lose it.

What does this mean to me? Everything comes in pairs, opposites. To commit to one is to rule the other one out and normally society decides how we define each circumstance. Animals are born and live without making judgments on what is real and what isn't, but most humans judge everything. If we never judged something as present or that we "have it", than we wouldn't judge that it is missing or lost.

3. ARTIFICIAL DESIRES

Don't elevate the outstanding:

Then your subjects will not contend.

Don't value hard-to-get goods:

Then your subjects will not act as thieves.

Don't display the desirable:

Then your subjects' minds will not be muddled.

Using these: The way a sage maintains order:

Empties their minds,

Stuffs their guts,

Weakens their resolve,

And strengthens their bones.

He fixes on making his subjects lack both knowing and desiring.

Makes the wise not presume to act on constructs.

Act on the construct "lack acting on constructs".

Then nothing is not ordered.

What does this mean to me? To me it's saying that we shouldn't idolize anyone or anything. If nothing is idolized than jealousy would be extinct, along with a lot of other unhealthy traits. In most cultures and religions there is someone who is looked up to by the rest and they get "special privileges" that the others don't get. These things are valued only in the sense that others want them, not that they contribute to a person's survival or satisfaction. In most cases this will breed competition, jealousy and contempt, resulting in people losing contact with what has real value. We should not create systems of classification, which in turn will not create people's unnatural desires. Only then will people begin to focus on what has real power or solve real problems.

4. REFLEXIVE DAOS

Ways permeate, but in using them

Part remains unfilled.

Oh! Deep!... Like the ancestors of 10,000 natural kinds.

Treat what they make "sharp" as "dull"

Treat what they make "tied" as "loose"

Treat what they make "bright" as "blurred"

Treat what they make "dust" as "together".

Oh! Profound!... Like they partly exist.

I don't know whose offspring they are.

They predate the lord of signs.

What does this mean to me? Ways are not things but we can use them. In fact we can use them without depleting anything. This passage seems to say that we should value the opposite of what we have been taught. It's a little too abstract for me... anyone got any ideas what it could mean? And what is the lord of signs? Is that referring to the zodiac? Or the dawn of time?

5. NATURES INDIFFERENCE

The cosmos is not humane.

It treats 10,000 natural kinds as straw dogs.

Sages are not humane.

They treat the people as straw dogs.

Is the space between heaven and earth (the cosmos)

Not like a bellows pipe?

Emptying, it doesn't warp.

Moving, it produces more.

Much discourse, counting to the limit,

Best to stay near the middle.

What does this mean to me? Well, it's kind of saying that the world can be a harsh place and the people in it can be cruel. It could be saying that even the most, knowledgeable, down to earth people can be just as cruel as anyone else or it may mean that these people don't see the world using any evaluations. They just let thing's take their course, just like the cosmos. The world is constantly growing and producing new things and while doing this it doesn't lose momentum or burn out, nor care about the things that people care about. It is just a process, or dao,of birth, death, and then new life. The world doesn't care about us. It just does it's thing.