Line by Line - Verse 53, Line 3

The great Tao (or way) is very level and easy;
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

Keeping to the main road is easy,
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

The great Tao is broad and plain
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

It's not that hard to get right with Tao,
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

We humans tend toward myopic vision. We hone in on particulars and blind ourselves to the broad spectrum of possibilities before us. It is because of our prevalence for narrowing our field of vision that we rationalize to ourselves that doing the right thing -- keeping to the main road -- is so difficult.

So, we happily skip off down side roads and then wonder why we frequently seem to find ourselves at a dead end...up to our necks in quicksand!

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