Weaving the Way
A meditative translation of the Dao de Jing,
Ancient China’s Practical Guide to Meditative Living.
by Umi Dan Rotnem
These translations are offered freely, and you are encouraged to share them.
Please make the appropriate attributions and refer to this page if you do.
Members and Patrons of the Word have access to the full commentaries
If you already are either, be sure to Log In
Bridges Across Time
A few folks have wondered how I go about translating the Dao De Jing into Weaving the Virtuous Way. What sources do I use? What does the translation process look like? Are you really translating Lao Zi or are you offering your interpretation?
Bibliography
Here is an ongoing, informal list of the resources that have supported this project:
Verse 1: Body of the Way
Spoken words about the Dao do not say it all.
Nor does any word written convey its essence.
Verse 2: Cultivating the Main Point
Once beauty is recognized,
the idea of ugliness is created.
Once good is established,
so is the notion of not good.
Verse 3: Cherishing People
Refrain from making a big deal about talent;
ordinary people won’t compete for recognition.
Make something important difficult to obtain
and people will be tempted to steal it.
Verse 4: Without Origin
The Dao flows from a bottomless vessel,
Throughout eternity, it cannot be depleted.
So deep!
It is the wellspring of all that is.
Verse 5: Using Nothing-ness
Nature is not benevolent;
all things serve their purpose and are destroyed.
The Wise are not benevolent;
people serve their purpose and are destroyed.
Verse 6: Becoming Sensable
The fertility of the spirit is eternal.
The profound and mysterious creatress.
Verse 7: Sheathing Light
Heaven is permanent; Earth is eternal.
Nature is permanent and eternal
because it is not self-made.
Being other-made enables immortality.
Verse 8: Effortless Nature
The highest virtues are like Water.
Water’s virtue is to benefit all things,
not strive against them.
It rests in places people consider foul.
Thus, it is like the Dao.
Verse 9: Moving Smoothly
Excessive accumulation.
Stop!
Endless forging and sharpening
Ruins the edge.
Verse 10: Can it be?
Sustain the unity of Yang and Yin,
Can it be separated?
Caress and soften the breath,
Can it be pure and united?
Verse 11: Nothing is Useful
Thirty spokes join at one hub.
Integrating what isn’t and is,
makes a cart useful.
Verse 12: Examine Desire
The five colors cause people’s eyes to go blind.
The five sounds cause people’s ears to go deaf.
The five flavors cause people’s mouths to spoil.
Verse 13: Get Tired of Shame
Honor and shame are extras.
Regard caring as your core.
Verse 14: Praising the Mystery
Vision without sight: “profound.”
Hearing without listening: “silent.”
Holding without gaining: “formless”
Verse 15: Appearances
To perfect Weaving the Way,
master the mysteries
deep beyond knowledge.
Verse 16: Return to the Root
Approach absolute voidness,
preserve the profound center.
All that exists acts
from its origin and returns to it.
Verse 17: Simple, Sincere Conduct
The ultimate Weavers of the Way?
No one even knows they’re here.
Verse 18: Weak Practice
When the Way is neglected,
values of charity and virtue appear.
Wisdom and understanding emerge
together with great delusion.
Verse 19: Return to Original Honesty
End “knowing” and abandon debates.
The people will prosper 100-fold.
End competition and abandon profiteering.
Thieves will disappear.
Verse 20: Different Approaches
“Yeah” and “YES!”
how far apart are they?
Delightful and repulsive,
what really makes them different?
Verse 21: Empty Heart-Mind
True virtue’s appearance
is only from the Dao.
The Dao’s form is vague and indistinct.
Verse 22: Beneficial Modesty
Just until
confusion is purified,
the bent is straightened,
the holes are filled,
the worn-out is renewed,
a little is satisfying,
too much is regretted,
The Wise single-mindedly shepherd their world.
Verse 23: Nothing is Everywhere
Shh! Just do it.
Morning winds fade.
The rainy day ends.
What makes it like this?
Nature.
Nothing Nature does lasts long,
How can what people do be any different?
Verse 24: Bitter Kindness
Gloating is not authority.
Self-promotion is not approval.
Showing off is not shining.
Pride is not success.
Arrogance is not memorable.
Verse 25: Phenomenal Cycle
Earth shapes Identities
Heaven shapes Earth.
Dao shapes heaven.
Weaving the Way shapes the Dao.
Verse 26: Noble Virtue
Prudence is the root of ease,
Stillness rules over anxiety.
Verse 27: Skillful Use
Perfected action leaves no trace.
Perfected speech lacks error and blame.
Perfected planning rolls no dice.
Verse 28: Return to Simplicity
Know one’s creativity,
preserve one’s receptivity,
become Creation’s channel.
Serving as Creation’s channel,
Enduring Integrity is non-separation,
a return to unity.
Verse 29: (Y)in-action
About to grasp Creation
you act.
I see you didn’t get it.
Verse 30: Judicious Force
One who uses the Dao
in service to the Leader
does not want force to be
used on the World.
Verse 31: Stop Forcing
Excellent force
is a tool of ill omen.
Phenomenon dislikes it,
therfore desire does not claim it.
Verse 32: Perfected Integrity
The Dao constantly undoes names.
It is raw but refined.
Heaven and Earth dare not
consider themselves greater.
If Leaders preserve the Dao,
all things will host themselves.
Verse 33: Discussing Integrity
One who knows others is resourceful,
One who knows themself is brilliant.
One who conquers others has power,
One who conquers themself is powerful.
Verse 34: True Compassion
The Great Dao is boundless
It can be either left or right.
Completion follows events,
it cannot be claimed as a possession.
Verse 35: True Taste
Established in the Great Appearance,
Creation departs.
Departs and does not harm:
extreme peace and calm.
Verse 36: Veiled Wisdom
Spread things out first
to facilitate bringing them together.
Strengthening
enables softening.
Verse 37: For Regulation
The Dao endures without becoming.
The Leader can preserve it
and All That Is self-evolves.
Verse 38: Discussing Integrity
Superior integrity is not virtuous,
this is how it has integrity.
Inferior integrity does not lose virtue,
this is how it lacks integrity.
Verse 39: Source Principle
Not wanting to appear as a precious gem,
pretending to be coarse like a mountain boulder.
Because accumulating honors is dishonorable.
It isn’t really a “basis of lowliness,” is it?
Verse 40: Use it
Returning.
Dao’s movement.
Softening.
Dao’s function.
Verse 41: Same Difference
The Weaver hears of the Way,
and resolves to act from its Center.
The Aspirant hears of the Way,
and sometimes gets it, sometimes forgets it.
The Fool just laughs
when they hear of the Way.
42: Dao Transforms
Dao engenders Potential.
Potential generates Movement.
Potential and Movement become the Mystery.
The Mystery produces All Things.
43: Universal Utility
Nature’s softest,
overpowers nature’s hardest.
Yin and Yang join seamlessly.
Verse 44: Establishing the Precept
Which is dearer,
your reputation or your body?
Which is more important,
your character or your wealth?
Which produces more anxiety,
gain or loss?
45: Flood of Virtue
If one is deficient in
Great Skill,
breath unbroken.
If one is overflowing in
Great Fullness,
breath “no extremes.”
Verse 46: Moderate Desire
In a world of Active Dao,
still, ride horses for fertilizer.
In a world of Passive Dao,
warhorses are born in open spaces.
Verse 47: Profound Reflection
Don’t leave home,
yet know the world.
Without cracking a window,
see Heaven’s Way.
48: Forget Knowledge
Scholars daily gain,
those on the Way daily lose.
Lose and lose again,
until there is nothing left to do.
Verse 49: Trust Integrity
The Wise frequent Yin-mind,
and the ordinary mind is Yang-mind.
Supporting those who deserve it,
and also those who don’t,
That’s integral support.
50: Value Life
Once we’re born,
we start dying.
3 out of 10 follow life.
3 out of 10 follow death.
3 out of 10 of those alive rush to their deaths.
Why? Because their life is so important to them.
51: Cultivate Integrity
Dao creates it; De nurtures it.
Matter forms it; Reason matures it.
This is why all that is,
venerates Dao and cherishes De.
52: Returning to the Origin
Everything under heaven has a beginning
that serves as its mother.
Knowing the mother,
is knowledge of the child.
Knowing the child,
preserves the mother.
There is no danger of it disappearing.
53: Adding Proof
Make me rely on having knowledge
to walk on the Great Way
and all I fear is going awry.
54: Refining Observation
Perfected foundation,
unshakeable.
Perfected embrace,
all-inclusive.
Honored for generations.
55: Mysterious Sign
A fully Integrated person
is like a newborn.
Unstung by any poisonous creature,
no predator has yet sunk in their claws.
Fragile bones, soft muscles,
and yet a firm grip.
56: Profound Integrity
Knowing is speechless.
Speaking is not knowing.
Shut one’s eyes and ears,
Block one’s gates,
Harmonize one’s vastness,
Unify one’s dusts,
Nourish one’s basin,
Eliminates one’s agitation.
58: Smooth Transformation
In one’s disengaged governance,
their people are like alcohol.
In one’s engaged governance,
their people are absent.
Disaster! Happiness leans on it.
Happiness! Disaster conceals it.
59: Preserving Dao
In Regulating the Person,
or Attending to Heaven,
Conservation is best.
60: Holding Position
Govern the Nation,
as one would fry a small fish.
When the World is governed by Dao,
its “ghosts” do not stir.
61: Proof of Integrity
The great nation
is downstream.
The World’s receptivity
is its threshold.
62: For the Dao
Dao pours into everything.
The Wise maintain it,
The Unwise are maintained by it.
63: Beginning of Kindness
Act (y)in-action.
Engage non-reactively.
Taste tastelessness.
64: Preserving the Profound
When things are stable
it’s easy to handle them.
Before there are omens,
planning is easy.
Something that is still fragile
is easy to break apart.
What is emerging
is easily scattered.
65: Pure Integrity
Thus it is said:
Those who weave the Way,
do not do so through “conceptualizing ‘people,’”
but through their not-knowing.
66: Attending the Self
The Ocean River becomes
Ruler of the Hundred Valleys
because it dwells beneath them.
Thus it is able to rule the hundred valleys.
67: Three Treasures
The World says,
“I’m great! Great and not petty.”
Greatness is possible,
just by not being petty?
68: Fertile Heaven
Therefore,
The best knights,
do not fight.
The best fear,
does not react.
69: Profound Use
Concerning the use of force, it is said:
“I do not act as the host,
but as the guest.
I do not advance an inch,
but retreat a foot.”
70: Knowing Difficulty
I speak of the:
Deep interchange of knowing,
Profound exchange of action,
And no one
can know it
nor enact it.
71: Knowing Flaws
Knowing not-knowing
is noble.
Not knowing not-knowing,
is a flaw.
72: Loving Oneself
People’s irreverence
leads to the greatest reverence.
They do not grow too familiar with
their abiding.
They do not tire of
their arising.
73: Appointed
Resolve with certainty is the point,
Resolve without certainty is the nock.
Each of these brings benefit and harm.
74: Systemic Confusion
How can you scare people with murder
if they’re always unafraid of death?
Make people constantly afraid of death,
And they’ll become non-conforming.
75: Greed Harms
A person’s hunger,
Is because the taxes on food are high.
This is how there is hunger.
Common people’s disorder,
Is because their superior is too active.
This is how the superior doesn’t regulate them.
76: Restrained Strength
A person’s generative force:
Soft, pliant.
Their stillness:
Persisting, enduring, able, strong.
77: Heaven’s Way
The Way of Creation is like
Drawing a Bow.
Raise it by pressing it,
Lower it by pulling it,
Having overdrawn,
reduce it.
If underdrawn,
add to it.
78: The Burden of Truth
Under Heaven, nothing is
more yielding than water,
And in handling the unyielding,
There is nothing that can surpass it.
79: The Burden of Kinship
In resolving Great Resentments,
there will be leftover resentment.
How can that be good?
80: Standing Alone
A small state with few people.
If 1,000 people were to have tools,
and yet make no use of them;
If the people feared death
and moved away;
There would be chariots,
and nowhere to ride them;
There would be soldiers,
and no place to form ranks.
81: Essence Revealed
Trustworthy speech is not beautiful,
beautified speech is not trustworthy.
Knowing is not expansive,
expansiveness is not-knowing.