Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Line by Line - Verse 59, Lines 3-4

It is only by this moderation that there is effected an early return (to man's normal state). That early return is what I call the repeated accumulation of the attributes (of the Tao).
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

Restraint begins with giving up one's own ideas.
This depends on Virtue gathered in the past.

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

Only with conservation is it called submitting early
Submitting early is called emphasis on accumulating virtues

~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

Practice moderation,
and you'll get in touch
with the power of Tao.

~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~
We often are our own worst enemies. We get some cockamamie idea in our heads and, come hell or high water, we will follow the string out, even when almost everyone else can see we're headed at high speed into a brick wall.

Most of us -- and I certainly fall into this category -- believe we are right. We believe that the way we see things is the way things should be seen! Because ownership of ideas and strategies is so tied to who we are, we'll be damned if we will consider that someone else might see things a little more clearly than we do.

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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