Line by Line - Verse 20, Lines 18-19

All men have their spheres of action,
while I alone seem dull and incapable, like a rude borderer.
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

Everyone else is busy,
But I alone am aimless and depressed.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

The people all have goals
And I alone am stubborn and lowly
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

(No corresponding lines)
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

What is one of the great complaints of our face-paced modern society? "I rush around all the time and barely have a chance to catch my breath!!"

When people feel hurried and harried, it leaves little time and energy to get a read of the landscape before us. Some much of what we do, think and feel is on auto-pilot. New information passes us by like tumbleweeds on a windy day. You catch a glimpse of something moving toward you, then, in an instant, it has blown by you.

One of the great advantages to meditation is to quell the ever-spinning mind, to quiet the myriad of voices and to shutdown the nonstop imagery. It only is in silence and emptiness that we can touch the mysterious void of the cosmos.

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