Friday, December 16, 2011

Line by Line - Verse 54, Lines 4-5

Tao when nursed within one's self,
His vigour will make true;

~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

Cultivate Virtue in your self,
And Virtue will be real.

~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

Cultivate it in yourself; its virtue shall be true
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

If you get in touch
with the power of Tao,
it will become real.

~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~
Most people* I know have what I would call an "outward vision." They see the problems of society and look to government leaders, educators, social reformers and the titans of industry to solve these issues. If x or y would do things differently, they screech, then this world would be a better place to live in!

What they too often forget is that, for the world to be a better place, the first changes must come from themselves. Virtue begins at home in the image looking back at them from the bathroom mirror.

* Lest anyone think I'm sitting atop a high horse, I definitely include myself in "most people."

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

2 comments:

  1. Great post Trey. It is so easy to be caught in looking outward for solutions, when the inward is where we should be looking. The outward view becomes an abstraction and avoidance to look within. This avoidance, through looking outward, comes in many forms. The blame game is one of many.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Like this one - posting it to my mirror

    ReplyDelete

Comments are unmoderated, so you can write whatever you want.