Read With Me : Tao Te Ching -

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Better pick up a book and Read With Me because these posts are not slowing down. I had just finished Mark Manson’s, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck, and started reading You Are A Badass, but felt the need to pick up something else, something older, something a bit more philosophical and that’s when I found Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching in a thrift store.

I have been interested in Taoism ever since I read The Tao of Pooh last year. That was my first introduction and I must say, I’m happy I read that before the tougher to decipher Tao Te Ching. I actually just finished The Tao of Pooh again in January and it was even quicker and easier to consume than I remembered. I highly recommend picking it up if you are feeling in a rut or if your life seems like it’s not panning out the way it should.

You could call Tao Te Ching a classic as it’s thought to be written sometime between 551-479 B.C. After a lengthy and somewhat snoozy fifty page introduction, the two parts of the Tao Te Ching are presented, line by line. The Tao Te Ching is easy to read in that the vocabulary is quite simple and it’s short in length, but it definitely takes some reading into if you want to gain a deeper message.

You’ll Enjoy Reading Tao Te Ching :

You are interest in religion and philosophy.
You like to read all the classics.
You want to learn about Taoism.
You are curious about the way.
You crave a deeper understanding and acceptance of yourself.
You read the Tao of Pooh and are interested in the root of Taoism.
You’ve always wondered about the man behind the popular translation of the quote, “The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.”

This time, instead of filling out the benefits of reading list I shared on the Read With Me post with examples from this book, Tao Te Ching, I’m going to highlight a few of my favorite passages.

A few favorite lines from Tao Te Ching :

To know yet to think that one does not know is best.

Without stirring abroad

One can know the whole world;

Without looking out of the window

One can see the way of heaven.

The further one goes

The less one knows.

Therefore the sage knows without having to stir,

Identifies without having to see,

Accomplishes without having to act.

It is easy to maintain a situation while it is still secure;

It is easy to deal with a situation before symptoms develop;

It is easy to break a thing when it is yet brittle;

It is easy to dissolve a thing when it is yet minute.

Deal with a thing while it is still nothing;

Keep a thing in order before disorder sets in.

A tree that can fill the span of a man’s arms

Grows from a downy tip;

A terrace nine stories high

Rises from hodfuls of earth;

A journey of a thousand miles

Starts from beneath one’s feet.

Do that which consists in taking no action; pursue that which is not meddlesome savor that which has no flavor.

Make the small big and the few many; do good to him who has done you an injury.

Lay plans for the accomplishment of the difficult before it becomes difficult; make something big by starting with it when small.

The way is broad, reaching left as well as right.

The myriad creatures depend on it for life yet it claims no authority.

It accomplishes its task yet lays claim to no merit.

It clothes and feeds the myriad creatures yet lays no claim to being their master.

For ever free of desire, it can be called small; yet, as it lays no claim to being master when the myriad creatures turn to it, it can be called great.

It is because it never attempts itself to be great that it succeeds in becoming great.