Line by Line - Verse 14, Line 17

this is called (unwinding) the clue of Tao.
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

Knowing the ancient beginning is the essence of Tao.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

One can know the ancient beginning It is called the Tao Axiom
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

Remember that.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

To bring Verse 14 to a close, let's see what two other authors have to say.

For John Lash, he reminds us to

Hold to your centre, to the Oneness, to the principles that have governed the universe from the beginning of existence, but live only in the here and now. Life exists only in the present.

In Lao-tzu's Taoteching: with Selected Commentaries of the Past 2000 Years, Red Pine quotes Lu Hui-Ch'ing as stating

The past isn't different from today, because we know what began in the past. And today isn't different from the past, because we know where today came from. What neither begins nor comes from anywhere else we call the thread that has no end. This is the thread of the Tao.

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