Line by Line - Verse 52, Line 12

The perception of what is small is (the secret of clear-sightedness);
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

Seeing the small is insight;
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

Seeing details is called clarity
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

It takes insight to see subtlety.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

This is one of those times in which I'm really glad I chose to do this series by offering 4 different versions of the same lines. In my estimation, all four of the offerings above capture a portion of the basic idea Lao Tzu was trying to get across.

We live in a world today that emphasizes BIG, but the truth of life most often is found in the small. When we allow ourselves to be dazzled by the big lights on the big stage, we miss the simple beauty that the lights blot out. We stand before the world to deliver a command performance, but we are tripped up by the fact we never took the time to memorize our lines!

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