Line by Line - Verse 70, Lines 1-2

My words are very easy to know, and very easy to practice; but there is no one in the world who is able to know and able to practice them.
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

My words are easy to understand and easy to perform,
Yet no man under heaven knows them or practices them.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

My words are easy to understand, easy to practice
The world cannot understand, cannot practice
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

Lao Tzu's advice
was easy to understand
and easy to follow.
But nobody understood him
or did what he suggested.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

The Tao Te Ching -- like so many other religious and/or philosophic works -- points to ideals. An ideal is the human conception of absolute perfection. It is an elusive idea that someone (somewhere along the line) made up.

Ideals imagine a world that is neat, tidy and completely well ordered. I don't know about you, but that's not the way I would describe the world we live in! As Scott has written on more than one occasion, life is messy and we each live in our own mess!

This is not to say that ideals serve no purpose. If nothing else, they represent behaviors to aim at...as long as we don't strive for them (which sort defeats the whole purpose).

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