Chapter 21 · The Nature of the Tao

Tao Te Ching (Legge, 1891) · chapter title added by Learn the Dao

Learn the Dao: a quiet practice for learning the thing that can’t be known.

The chapter’s first line

The grandest forms of active force

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This chapter in plain modern English — David Kooi’s rendering ↓

The grandest forms of active force From Tao come, their only source. Who can of Tao the nature tell? Our sight it flies, our touch as well. Eluding sight, eluding touch, The forms of things all in it crouch; Eluding touch, eluding sight, There are their semblances, all right. Profound it is, dark and obscure; Things' essences all there endure. Those essences the truth enfold Of what, when seen, shall then be told. Now it is so; 'twas so of old. Its name--what passes not away; So, in their beautiful array, Things form and never know decay. How know I that it is so with all the beauties of existing things? By this (nature of the Tao).

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Who can of Tao — missed the nature tell

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Chapter 21, in a second rendering

Checking the Data

Dao De Kooi — an original rendering by David Kooi

Real substance just follows the Dao and nothing else. The Dao as a thing to grab is slippery - vague, hard to pin. But inside the vagueness there are shapes. Inside the shapes, things. Inside the things, something with weight to it. Something real, that holds up when you test it. From way back to right now, the name has held. That's how you keep track of where everything started. How do I know it works like that? I looked. This is the part where you check the data.

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