Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Line by Line - Verse 13, Line 10

Therefore he who would administer the kingdom, honouring it as he honours his own person, may be employed to govern it,
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

Surrender yourself humbly; then you can be trusted to care for all things.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

So one who values the self as the world Can be given the world
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

Know your limits, and nothing can ever hold you back.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~
Being too full of ourselves is a recipe for disaster! We overestimate our own capabilities and underestimate those of others. We tend to get careless because we think that we can somehow make everything right in the end and, if we botch things horribly, we expect others to give us a break.

The humble person, on the other hand, neither overestimates nor underestimates anything. She is very diligent in her efforts because she knows that carelessness leads to unintended consequences. When things don't go as anticipated, she accepts the reality of the situation and tries to find a new way to accomplish the same ends OR works to seek different ends.

When you accept life as it comes, you win the trust of others. They know you won't take advantage of the situation to try to benefit yourself at the expense of others.

To view the Index page for this series to see what you may have missed or would like to read again, go here.

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