Spirituality Corner: Tao Te Ching

The Tao Te Ching is the best-known and most-translated work of the Taoist spiritual philosophy. Even in ancient China, the work enjoyed a great popularity and was studied both by Taoists and Confucians.  For those that don’t speak any of the Chinese languages or dialects here is a pronunciation guide.

Chinese	Sound	Meaning
	Dao	The Way
	De	Virtue
	Jing	Book

The Book

The book consists of 81 short chapters. The goal of the Taoist philosophy as explored in the Tao Te Ching is to become one with Tao – loosely translated as “the way” or “the flow” of life – inwardly attaining a cosmic return to the source. For this purpose, the seeker has to achieve a state of emptiness and to consciously practice non-doing.

I first discovered this book when I was 19, and nearly a quarter century later, it still resonates deeply within the heart of me. Following are some of my favorite chapters.  I have taken the liberty of putting them in the order than best conveys the crux of the spiritual teaching that I am seeking to share.

I recommend anyone who is interested to get the translation by Gia Fu Feng (with stunning black-and-white nature photographs by Jane English). In my estimation, this captures best the essence of the philosophy of “following the flow.”

Without going outside, you may know the whole world.
Without looking through the window, you may see the ways of heaven.
The farther you go, the less you know.
Thus the sage knows without traveling;
He sees without looking;
He works without doing.

The softest thing in the universe
Overcomes the hardest thing in the universe.
That without substance can enter where there is no room.
Hence I know the value of non-action.
Teaching without words and work without doing
Are understood by very few.

Look, it cannot be seen – it is beyond form.
Listen, it cannot be heard – it is beyond sound.
Grasp, it cannot be held – it is intangible.
These three are indefinable;
Therefore they are joined in one.
From above it is not bright;
From below it is not dark:
An unbroken thread beyond description.

It returns to nothingness.
The form of the formless,
The image of the imageless,
It is called indefinable and beyond imagination.

Stand before it and there is no beginning.
Follow it and there is no end.
Stay with the ancient Tao,
Move with the present.

Knowing the ancient beginning is the essence of Tao.

Pronunciation credit from here.