Friday, August 26, 2011

Line by Line - Verse 41, Line 7

Who progress in it makes, seems drawing back;
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

Going forward seems like retreat;
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

The advancing Tao appears to retreat
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

The way forward
feels like taking a step back.

~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~
One of the great advantages of living near the ocean is that, from time to time, I can go spend time on the beach. One of my favorite activities at the beach is to sit silently watching the ocean waves come hurtling towards me and then just as quickly heading back out to sea.

For me, this activity captures the essence of this line. When the waves come in, they are advancing. When they go back out, they are retreating. It happens like this time and time and time again. It is how the ocean breathes!

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

1 comment:

  1. Going with the Tao, or sensing the movement of the Tao, by doing this you are appearing to be moving away -- but it is from from your ego or willpower, which ego or willpower cleverly projects onto the Tao as being 'backwards'.

    You 'move away' from ego -- ego responds: 1. There is something to be moved away from 2. The Tao is portrayed as backwards

    So I'm saying, from the limited point-of-view of ego, the Tao appears to be a backwards step, but that is why the ego or willpower is constrained. The Tao has no backwards or forwardness -- it just is.

    ReplyDelete

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