Chapter 45 · Great Perfection Seems Incomplete

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

Who thinks his great achievements poor Shall find his vigour long endure. Of greatest fulness, deemed a void, Exhaustion ne'er shall stem the tide. Do thou what's straight still crooked deem; Thy greatest art still stupid seem, And eloquence a stammering scream. Constant action overcomes cold; being still overcomes heat. Purity and stillness give the correct law to all under heaven.

Looks Unfinished, Never Wears Out

Dao De Kooi — an original rendering by David Kooi

The most finished thing looks unfinished - and it never wears out. The fullest thing looks empty - and it never runs dry. The straightest looks bent. The most skilled looks clumsy. The best talker sounds like they're stumbling. Move around and you warm up against the cold. Sit still and you cool off against the heat. Still and clear - that's what sets the whole thing right.

Learn the Dao is a quiet practice for learning the thing that can’t be known — committing the Tao Te Ching to memory, one line at a time.

Read a chapter. Recite the next line from memory. The app shows you, gently, what you missed — then brings each line back just before you’d forget it.

Your recall — for example

Who thinks his great — missed achievements poor

The dotted words are the ones you missed.

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