become supple as a newborn child

.

Nurture the darkness of your soul

until you become whole.

Can you do this and not fail?

Can you focus your life-breath until you become

supple as a newborn child?

While you cleanse your inner vision

will you be found without fault?

Can you love people and lead them

without forcing your will on them?

When Heaven gives and takes away

can you be content with the outcome?

When you understand all things

can you step back from your own understanding?

.

Giving birth and nourishing,

making without possessing,

expecting nothing in return.

To grow, yet not to control:

This is the mysterious virtue.

.

~ Tao Te Ching

translation by j. h. mcdonald

art by Colleen Wallace Nungari 

from Utopia Central Australia

.

preferring simplicity and freedom from desires

.

If you overly esteem talented individuals,

people will become overly competitive.

If you overvalue possessions,

people will begin to steal.

Do not display your treasures

or people will become envious.

The Master leads by

emptying people's minds,

filling their bellies,

weakening their ambitions,

and making them become strong.

Preferring simplicity and freedom from desires,

avoiding the pitfalls of knowledge and wrong action.

For those who practice not-doing,

everything will fall into place.

~ Tao Teh Ching

version by j.h. mcdonald

attaining harmony

.

The best warriors

do not use violence.

The best generals

do not destroy indiscriminately.

The best tacticians

try to avoid confrontation.

The best leaders

become servants of their people.

This is called the virtue of non-competition.

This is called the power to manage others.

This is called attaining harmony with the heavens.

~ Tao Teh Ching

translation by j.h. mcdonald

hidden but always present

.

The Tao is like an empty container:

it can never be emptied and can never be filled.

Infinitely deep, it is the source of all things.

It dulls the sharp, unties the knotted,

shades the lighted, and unites all of creation with dust.

.

It is hidden but always present.

I don't know who gave birth to it.

It is older than the concept of God.

.

~ Tao Te Ching

translation by j. h. mcdonald

.

do by not doing

.

.

Act by not acting;
do by not doing.
Enjoy the plain and simple.
Find that greatness in the small.
Take care of difficult problems
while they are still easy;
Do easy things before they become too hard.
.

~  Tao Teh Ching

.

Good fortune and misfortune cause apprehension

.

.

Selflessness

Good fortune and misfortune cause apprehension.

Regard great trouble as you regard your self.

.

What is meant by

“Good fortune and misfortune cause apprehension?”

Those with good fortune are apprehensive of their gain.

Those with misfortune are apprehensive of their loss.

.

What is meant by

“Regard great trouble as you regard your self?”

Great trouble comes from being selfish.

Being selfless, what trouble is there?

.

Therefore those who value the world as themselves

may be entrusted to govern the world.

Those who love the world as themselves

may be entrusted to care for the world.

.

~ Tao Te Ching

.