Introduction

Verse 42 is perhaps one of the most famous and challenging verses of the Dao De Jing.

Aside from (potentially?) dealing with profound metaphysics, it seems to change topics several times. One of those topic changes is incredibly odd in this context. So much so that I decided to omit it in the translation, marking its place with an * and inserting the lines into the commentary.

Overall, we see a theme of emanation describing Cosmic Law, an allusion to breath practices that enable one to obtain insight into these laws and acquire personal energetic balance, and a lesson on karma. Let’s dig in. 

Translation

Dao engenders Potential.
Potential generates Movement.
Potential and Movement become the Mystery.
The Mystery produces All Things.

All things rely on Potential and
  embrace Movement.
Harmony relies on Cleansing Breaths.

*

Therefore, sometimes, the body requires
  reducing to gain.
  gaining to reduce.

I will pass on what the ancients taught.

The Strong and Violent don’t die well.
  I take this as an essential starting point.

Commentary

Dao engenders Potential.
Potential generates Movement.
Potential and Movement become the Mystery.
The Mystery produces All Things. 

This chunk is often translated more like 

Dao produces One.
One produces Two.
Two produces Three.
Three produces Everything. 

This is pretty much what the original Chinese says. Many read this as a simple chain of causation. While I think that can be valid, it doesn’t quite jive with the rest of the textual teachings. In exploring this issue, I found several commentaries pointing to a tradition of seeing One, Two, and Three as shorthand recaps for the teachings we’ve encountered beginning in the first verse and repeatedly since then. For example, these lines are a near-perfect inverse of the conclusion of verse 40.

Further, since this text is classed as part of the esoteric human wisdom tradition, it’s impossible to ignore parallel structures in Western Esotericism that say precisely the same thing. For example, the Law of the Triangle in Rosicrucian thought, and other esoteric understandings of the Trinity have a similar structure. So does Jewish Kabbalah/Hermetic Qabalah’s treatment of the initial three spheres on the Tree of Life.  

While it applies to everything, one of the most valuable ways this teaching can inform us is in its description of how our minds function, described in verse 40. The Mystery is the moment of self-awareness and the perfume left behind from the meaning given to the subject/object interaction.