The Way(Dao) is the Invisible Power Keeping the Creation in Order says Lao Zi in DaoDeJing 14

Understand The-Way(Dao) and you can master life. However, Dao is not physical to allow you to sense it and measure it. There is nothing to compare it with. Yet it is the Power that keep all things working in proper order. You can also know the Way of Dao through discovering such orders and then you can apply it to master this life.

Dao De Jing 14 Text, Translation and Interpretation:

Here is the mind-map:

• No Sight
  • Seeing and yet see not is called shapeless (literally flat).

    视之不见名曰夷

• No Sound
  • Hearing and yet hear not is called silence.

    听之不闻名曰希

• No Touch
  • Catching it and catch not is call infinitesimal.

    搏之不得名曰微

• These three things cannot be perceived by human senses and hence are mixed as one.

  此三者不可致诘, 故混而为一

• No Top nor Bottom
  • The top is not bright, and the bottom is not dark,

    其上不皦, 其下不昧

• Unmeasurable
  • Try to measure it with standards tapes but could not name it.

    绳绳不可名,

• So it is back to the indescribable thing.

  复归于无物

• Shapeless
  • This is call shapeless shape,

    是谓无状之状

• Substanceless
  • substanceless form,

    无物之象

• Misty
  • and is called misty/fuzzy/obscure

    是谓惚恍

• no physical dimension or properties
• No Head nor Tail
  • welcome it and see not its face

    迎之不见其首

  • follow it and see not its back

    随之不见其后

• We are in the Dao that we cannot finds its head or tail. It is unlimited without any boundaries
  • Job 9:11 When he passes me, I cannot see him; when he goes by, I cannot perceive him.
• Understand Dao to Master Life
  • hold on to the Ancient Way(dao), and you have master what you have today.

    执古之道以御今之有

  • You can know the ancient beginning. This is called the Laws of the Way(Dao).

    能知古始, 是谓道纪

• Lesson
  • 1 Dao is not physical to be seen but a creative force working with order behind the created things
  • NET Bible Hebrew 11:3 By faith we understand that the worlds were set in order at God's command, so that the visible has its origin in the invisible.
  • 2 Understand the Way of Dao and you can master your life today.

We usually use our senses to try to understand this world. That is the scientific method. It is but the basic step. But it is insufficient. Because by that sense method, what we cannot sense does not exist and there are many things exists beyond our senses.

Lao Zi tells us there is Power and Order beyond our senses and even beyond our language and mind. We can only understand in parts. Nevertheless, even with the little understanding of the working of the Way of Dao, we can master this present life. We can know what is right and wrong and how to manage this world better.

Lao Zi wrote 81 short chapters to describe the working of the Way(Dao). There is a book that precedes Lao Zi’s Dao De Jing that described working of the Way more systematically. It is the Book of I-Ching.

To know more, please see Manage Change with I-Ching, or Ancient Chinese Wisdom.

Lim Liat (c) 28 May 2014

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