Chapter 47 · Knowing Without Travelling

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

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 travelling; gave their (right) names to things without seeing them; and accomplished their ends without any purpose of doing so.

Without Going Out the Door

Dao De Kooi — an original rendering by David Kooi

You can know how the world works without going out the door. You can see the lay of things without leaning out the window. The further you chase it, the less you tend to actually know. So the steady hand gets there without the trip, sees it without the staring, and gets it done without the thrashing around.

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

Without going — missed outside his door

The dotted words are the ones you missed.

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