Line by Line - Verse 72, Line 7

And thus he puts the latter alternative away and makes choice of the former.
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

He lets go of that and chooses this.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

Thus they discard that and take this
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

They let go of all that to concentrate on this.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

We each have a choice in regard to the way we choose to live our lives. We can be all about ourselves -- looking out solely for #1. We can place our own needs and desires ahead of others and we can fight to insure that we receive all the plaudits we believe we so richly deserve.

The alternative is to choose to serve others. By seeing the connection of all things, we humbly can work for the betterment of the whole.

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