Line by Line - Verse 19, Lines 8-9

And made these names their want of worth to veil;
But simple views,
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

It is more important
To see the simplicity,
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

Thus this teaching has its place:
Show plainness; hold simplicity
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

Be simple.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

Ever notice the human penchant for complicating our lives? Our egos are imprisoned by our insatiable desires and these desires tend to cause us to be far less than the people we could be. We crave more when we have sufficient and we don't like it when we suffer the consequences of allowing our desires to direct our lives.

Those who learn the lesson of tempering desire remove many of the encumbrances that the unlearned continually deal with. While leading a simple life may sound unglamorous and boring, the simple life produces a kind of freedom that those who lead complicated lives ever yearn for and yet never realize.

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