Line by Line - Verse 60, Lines 7-8

When these two do not injuriously affect each other, their good influences converge in the virtue (of the Tao).
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

They do not hurt each other,
And the Virtue in each one refreshes both.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

They both do no harm to one another
So virtue merges and returns
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

so people won't have to worry
about getting hurt,
and they'll take the opportunity
to do the right thing.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

So much of what we do as we wend our way through life is harmful. We make decisions that harm ourselves, our families and people we will never meet. Sometimes our decisions are conscious ones -- we conduct our own cost-benefit analysis and decide that the benefit outweighs the cost -- but, more often, our harmful actions are born of unconscious decisions.

Imagine if we took all the variables of life into consideration each time we decided to act AND we decided to do no harm. Each of us would instantaneously become a sage!

We could change the world!

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