[TTC Study] Chapter 38 of the Tao Teh Ching

[Crow With No Mouth]

This is the second verse I made my own version of. This was a hard one. Well at least it became pretty clear why I'm doing this as I noticed that at least 3 different translations would be needed to express every idea in English. I did the best I could to and here's a version that made most sense to me.

 

 

Supreme virtue doesn’t consider itself to be virtuous,

therefore it truly is virtuous.

Low virtue keeps account of its actions,

therefore it is not truly virtuous.

 

Supreme action is effortless and has no motive,

with nothing to do – nothing is left undone.

Low action is forced and done for selfish reasons,

thus there always remains a lot to be done.

 

 

Benevolent person acts without a personal motive.

Moral person acts according to personal ideals.

Dutiful person acts according to the rules of conduct,

and when these man made rules are not followed;

rolls up his sleeves and forces people to comply.

 

Thus when the Way is lost,

only then virtue is required.

When virtue is lost,

only then must one resort to benevolence.

When benevolence is lost,

only then morality is needed.

And when morality is lost,

there isn’t anything left but ritualized conduct.

When it comes to ritualized conduct,

it is but a husk for faith and loyalty,

which only bring confusion to heart and trouble for others.

 

 

Foreknowledge is but a flowery trapping of Tao;

having one’s mind made up before hand is the beginning of delusion.

 

Thus the truly great man dwells in the deep and not on the surface;

substance instead of the husk.

He keeps the real and discards the superficial;

fruit instead of the flower.

Accepts the former and rejects the latter.