The Tao of Emerson (7 page)

Without going outside his door, one understands
   all that takes place under the sky;
Without looking out from his window, one sees
   the Tao of Heaven
.
The farther that one goes out from himself
,
   the less he knows
.

Therefore the sages got their knowledge
   without traveling;
Gave their right name to things without seeing them;
And accomplished their ends without any purpose
   of doing so
.

The soul is no traveler;
The wise man stays at home.
He does not go abroad with the hope of finding
   somewhat greater than he knows.
The soul that is plain and true
   dwells in the hour that now is,
   in the earnest experience of the common day
And the mere trifle becomes porous to thought,
   and bibulous to the sea of light.

He who devotes himself to learning seeks
   from day to day to increase his knowledge;
He who devotes himself to the Tao seeks
   from day to day to diminish his doing
.
He diminishes it and again diminishes it
,
   till he arrives at doing nothing (on purpose)
.
Having arrived at this point of non-action, there is
   nothing which he does not do
.

Let us unlearn our wisdom of the world.
Let us take our bloated nothingness out of
   the path of divine circuits.
Let us lie low and learn that truth alone
   makes rich and great.
The rich mind lies in the sun and sleeps,
   and is nature.
To think is to act.

The sage has no invariable mind of his own;
He makes the mind of the people his mind
.

To those who are good to me, I am good;
And to those who are not good to me
,
   
I am also good
—
And thus, all get to be good
.
To those who are sincere with me
,
   
I am sincere;
And to those who are not sincere with me
,
   
I am also sincere
—
And thus all get to be sincere
.

The sage has in the world an appearance
   of indecision
,
And keeps his mind in a state of indifference to all
.
The people all keep their eyes and ears directed to him
,
   and he deals with them all as his children
.

By the permanence of nature, minds are trained alike
   and made intelligible to each other.
Good and bad are but names very readily
   transferable to that or this.
I ought to go upright and vital
   and speak the rude truth in all ways.

My life is for itself and not for spectacle.
The great man is he who in the midst of the crowd
Keeps with perfect sweetness
   the independence of solitude.
The wise man shall make men sensible
   by the expression of his countenance,
That he goes the missionary of wisdom and virtue.

Men come forth and live; they enter again and die
.

Of every ten, three are ministers of life;
And three are ministers of death
.
There are also three in every ten
   whose aim is to live
,
   but whose movements tend to the land of death
.
And for what reason?
Because of their excessive endeavors to perpetuate life
.

But I have heard that he who is skillful
   at managing the life entrusted to him
For a time travels on the land
   without having to shun rhinoceros or tiger
,
And enters a host without having to avoid
   buff coat or sharp weapon
.
The rhinoceros finds no place in him
   into which to thrust its horn
,
Nor the tiger a place in which to fix its claws
,
Nor the weapon a place to admit its point
.
And for what reason?
Because there is in him no place of death
.

The name of death was never terrible
   to him that knew to live.
A man of thought is willing to die,
   willing to live.

The world is delivered into your hand,
   but on two conditions—
Not for property, but for use,
Use according to the noble nature of the gift,
   not for toys, and not for self-indulgence.
Things work to their ends, not yours,
And will certainly defeat any adventurer
   who fights against this ordination.

On the borders of the grave, the wise man
   looks forward with elasticity of mind, or hope.

All things are produced by the Tao
,
   and nourished by its outflowing operation
.
They receive their forms according to the nature of each
,
   and are completed according
   to the circumstances of their condition
.
Therefore all things without exception
   honor the Tao
,
And exalt its outflowing operation
.
Thus it is that the Tao produces all things
,
Nourishes them, brings them to their full growth
,
Nurses them, completes them, matures them
,
   maintains them, and overspreads them
.

It produces them and makes no claim
   to the possession of them;
It carries them through their processes
   and does not vaunt its ability in doing so;
It brings them to maturity and exercises
   no control over them
—
This is called its mysterious operation
.

The method of nature: who could ever analyze it?
The simplicity of nature is not that
   which may be easily read,
But it is inexhaustible.
The spirit and peculiarity of that impression is
That it does not exist to any one or to any number
   of particular hands,
But to numberless and endless benefit.
There is in it no private will, no rebel leaf or limb,
   but the whole is oppressed by
   our superincumbent tendency.

Nature converts itself into a vast promise,
   and will not be rashly explained.

The Tao which originated all under the sky
Is to be considered as the mother of them all
.

When the mother is found
,
We know what her children should be
.
When one knows that he is his mother’s child
,
   and proceeds to guard the mother that belongs to him
,
To the end of his life he will be free from all peril
.

Let him keep his mouth closed, and shut up
   the portals of his nostrils
,
And all his life he will be exempt from laborious exertion
.
Let him keep his mouth opened
,
   and spend his breath
   in the promotion of his affairs
,
And all his life there will be no safety for him
.

The perception of what is small is the secret
   of clear-sightedness;
The guarding of what is soft and tender
   is the secret of strength
.

Who uses well his light
,
Reverting to its source so bright
,
Will from his body ward all blight
,
And hides the unchanging from men’s sight
.

Under all this running sea of circumstance,
   whose waters ebb and flow with perfect balance,
   lies the aboriginal abyss of real Being.
Let me see every trifle bristling with
   the polarity that ranges it instantly
   on an internal law.
And the shop, the plough, and the ledger
   refer to the like cause by which
   light undulates and poets sing.

The world lies no longer a dull miscellany,
   but has form and order;
There is no trifle, there is no puzzle;
But one design writes and animates
   the farthest pinnacle and the lowest trench.

There is always life for the living;
   What a man has done a man can do.
   Every man is provided with a key to nature,

   And that man only rightly knows himself

   as far as he has experimented on things.

If I were suddenly to become known
,
And put in a position to conduct
   
a government according to the great Tao,
What I should he most afraid of would he a boastful display
.

The great Tao is very level and easy;
   But people love the byways
.

Their courtyards and buildings shall be well kept
,
But their fields shall he ill cultivated
,
   and their granaries very empty
.
They shall wear elegant and ornamented robes,
   carry a sharp sword at their girdle,
   pamper themselves in eating and drinking,
   and have a superabundance of property and wealth
—
Such princes may be called robbers and boasters
.
This is contrary to the Tao surely!

What a man does, that he has.
Let him regard no good as solid,
   but that which is in his nature.
The goods of fortune may come and go
   like summer leaves;
Let him scatter them on every wind
   as momentary signs.

Virtue is the adherence in action
   to the nature of things,
And the nature of things makes it prevalent.
It consists in a perpetual substitution
   of being for seeming.

Why need you choose so painfully your place,
   and occupation, and association and modes of action?
For you, there is a reality, a fit place
   and congenial duties.

What Tao’s skillful planter plants
      Can never be uptorn;
What his skillful arms enfold
,
      
From him can ne’er be borne
.
Sons shall bring in lengthening line
,
Sacrifices to his shrine
.

Tao, when nursed within one’s self
      His vigor will make true;
And where the family it rules
      
What riches will accrue!
The neighborhood where it prevails
      
In thriving will abound;
And when ’tis seen throughout the state
,
      
Good fortune will be found
.
Employ it in the kingdom o’er
      
And men thrive all around
.

All power is of one kind.
The mind that is parallel with the laws of nature
Will be in the current of events and strong
   with their strength.

Who has learned to root himself in being,
   and wholly to cease from seeming,
He is domestic, and he is at the heart of nature.

Concentration is the secret of strength.
The importance of one person who has the truth
   over nations who have it not,
Is because power obeys reality, and not appearance,
   according to quality, and not quantity.

He who has in himself abundantly
   
the attributes of the Tao is like an infant
.
Poisonous insects will not sting him;
Fierce beasts will not seize him;
Birds of prey will not strike him
.

The infant’s bones are weak
And its sinews soft, but yet its grasp is firm
.
It knows not yet the union of male and female
,
And yet its virile member may be excited—
   showing the perfection of its physical essence
.
All day long it will cry out without becoming hoarse
   showing the harmony in its constitution
.

To him by whom this harmony is known
,
The secret of the unchanging Tao is shown
,
And in the knowledge wisdom finds its throne
.
All life-increasing arts to evil turn;
Where the mind makes the vital breath to burn
,
False is the strength, and o’er it we should mourn
.

When things have become strong
,
They then become old
,
Which may be said to be contrary to the Tao
.
Whatever is contrary to the Tao soon ends
.

The will constitutes the man.
He has his life in nature, like a beast,
But choice is born in him;
He chooses as the rest of creation does not.

But will, pure and perceiving, is not willfulness.

The high, contemplative, all-commanding vision,
   the sense of Right and Wrong, is alike in all.
Its attributes are self-existence, eternity,

   intuition, and command.
It is the mind of the mind.
We belong to it, not it to us.

Whilst a man seek good ends,
He is strong by the whole strength of nature.
Insofar as he roves from these ends,
He bereaves himself of power,
He becomes less and less.

He who knows the Tao does not care to speak about it;
He who is ever ready to speak about it does not know it
.

He who knows it will keep his mouth shut
   and close the portals of his nostrils
.
He will blunt his sharp points
   
and unravel the complications of things;
He will temper his brightness, and bring himself
   
into agreement with the obscurity of others
.
This is called the mysterious agreement
.

Such a one cannot be treated familiarly
   or distantly;
He is beyond all consideration of profit
   
or injury;
Of nobility or meanness
—
He is the noblest man under heaven
.