Chapter 43 · The Advantage of Doing Nothing

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 softest thing in the world dashes against and overcomes the hardest;

Free. No account needed to start.

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

The softest thing in the world dashes against and overcomes the hardest; that which has no (substantial) existence enters where there is no crevice. I know hereby what advantage belongs to doing nothing (with a purpose). There are few in the world who attain to the teaching without words, and the advantage arising from non-action.

Learn this chapter by heart, one line at a time.

Read a chapter. Recite the next line from memory. The app shows you, gently, what you missed — then has each line ready again around when it would start to slip.

Your recall of a later line — for example

and the advantage arising — missed from non-action

The dotted words are the ones you missed.

Try this chapter’s first line ↑

Free. No account needed to start.

Chapter 43, in a second rendering

Slips Into Where There's No Gap

Dao De Kooi — an original rendering by David Kooi

The softest thing in the world rides right over the hardest. What has no form slips into where there's no gap. That's how I know there's something to doing less. Teaching without the lecture, getting somewhere by not forcing it - hardly anybody actually pulls it off.

Next · Chapter 44Or fame or life…Read chapter 44 →

Read the whole chapter end to end →How the practice works →