Thursday, May 26, 2011

Line by Line - Verse 31, Line 7

Calm and repose are what he prizes;
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

Peace and quiet are dear to his heart,
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

Calm detachment should be above all
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

He does so with great restraint,
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~
When we go rushing around in one hundred different directions and thousands of bits of data are flowing through our heads, our decision-making processes are fragmented and disjointed, at best. We make snap judgments and rash decisions that, on further reflection, aren't usually our most well thought out.

The calm mind -- free of attachments and distractions -- is the most productive.

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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