 Dao De Jing can be translated as the book of the immanence of the way or the book of the way and of how it manifests itself in the world Or simply the book of the way Since it is already well known by its Chinese title. I have let that stand About Lao Tzu its author There's practically nothing to be said He may have been an older contemporary of Confucius 551 to 479 BCE And may have held the position of archive keeper in one of the petty kingdoms of the time But all the information that has come down to us is highly suspect Even the meaning of his name is uncertain The most likely interpretations The old master or more picturesquely The old boy Like an Iroquois woodsman. He left no traces All he left us is his book The classic manual on the art of living Written in a style of gem-like lucidity Radiant with humor and grace And large heartedness and deep wisdom One of the wonders of the world People usually think of Lao Tzu as a hermit a dropout from society Dwelling serenely in some mountain hut Unvisited except perhaps by the occasional traveler arriving from a 60s joke to ask What is the meaning of life? But it's clear from his teachings that he deeply cared about society If society means the welfare of one's fellow human beings His book is among other things A treatise on the art of government whether of a country or of a child The misperception may arise from his insistence on Wei Wu Wei Literally doing not doing Which has been seen as passivity Nothing could be further from the truth A good athlete can enter a state of body awareness in which the right stroke or the right movement happens by itself Effortlessly without any interference of the conscious will This is a paradigm for non-action The purest and most effective form of action The game plays the game The poem writes the poem We can't tell the dancer from the dance Less and less do you need to force things Until finally you arrive at non-action When nothing is done Nothing is left undone Nothing is done because the doer has wholeheartedly vanished into the deed The fuel has been completely transformed into flame This nothing is in fact everything It happens when we trust the intelligence of the universe In the same way that an athlete or a dancer trusts the superior intelligence of the body Hence Lao Tzu's emphasis on softness Softness means the opposite of rigidity And is synonymous with suppleness Adaptability endurance Anyone who has seen a Tai Chi or Aikido master doing not doing will know how powerful this softness is Lao Tzu's central figure is a man or woman whose life is in perfect harmony with the way things are This is not an idea. It is a reality. I have seen it The master has mastered nature not in the sense of conquering it but of becoming it In surrendering to the Tao in giving up all concepts judgments and desires Her mind has grown naturally compassionate She finds deep in her own experience the central truths of the art of living Which are paradoxical only on the surface That the more truly solitary we are The more compassionate we can be The more we let go of what we love The more present our love becomes The clearer our insight into what is beyond good and evil The more we can embody the good Until finally she is able to say in all humility I am the Tao the truth the life The teaching of the Tao Dijing is moral in the deepest sense Unencumbered by any concept of sin The master doesn't see evil as a force to resist But simply as an opaqueness a state of self absorption Which is in disharmony with the universal process So that as with a dirty window the light can't shine through This freedom from moral categories allows him his great compassion for the wicked and the selfish Thus the master is available to all people and doesn't reject anyone He is ready to use all situations and doesn't waste anything This is called embodying the light What is a good man but a bad man's teacher What is a bad man but a good man's job If you don't understand this you will get lost however intelligent you are It is the great secret The listener will notice that in the many passages we're allowed to describe the master I've used the pronoun she at least as often as he The Chinese language doesn't make this kind of distinction In English we have to choose But since we are all potentially the master Since the master is essentially us I felt it would be untrue to present a male archetype as other versions have ironically done Ironically because of all the great world religions the teaching of Lao Tzu is by far the most female Of course you should feel free throughout the recording to substitute he for she or vice versa As to method I worked from Paul Karras's literal version which provides English equivalents often very quaint ones Alongside each of the Chinese ideograms I also consulted dozens of translations into English German and French But the most essential preparation for my work was a 14 years long course of Zen training Which brought me face to face with Lao Tzu and his true disciples and heirs the early Chinese Zen masters With great poetry the freest translation is sometimes the most faithful We must try its effect as an English poem. Dr. Johnson said that is the way to judge of the merit of a translation I have often been fairly literal or as literal as one can be with such a subtle Kaleidoscopic book as the Tao Te Ching But I have also paraphrased Expanded contracted interpreted Worked with the text played with it Until it became embodied in a language that felt genuine to me If I haven't always translated Lao Tzu's words My intention has always been to translate his mind Describing the indescribable Teaching the unteachable Pointing the way to the way What does Lao Tzu think he is doing here? It can't be done No way Hence Po Chu Yi poet and stand-up comedian wrote He who talks doesn't know he who knows doesn't talk That is what Lao Tzu told us in a book of 5 000 words If he was the one who knew how could he have been such a blabbermouth? That's the problem with spiritual teachers They have to be blabbermouths But their words are in the traditional buddhist metaphor Fingers pointing at the moon If you watch the finger You can't see the moon How meticulous the great masters had to be A monk asked Matsu Why do you teach mind is Buddha? Matsu said to stop a baby from crying The monk said when the crying has stopped what then Matsu said then I teach not mind not buddha The monk said how about someone who isn't attached to either? Matsu said I would tell him not beings The monk said and what if you met a man unattached to all things? What would you tell him? Matsu said I would just let him experience The great Tao In fact, the truth is right before our eyes Right under our noses So simple That every child understands it And yet as banque said The farther you enter into it The deeper it is Where is the way to the way What a question Still for complicated minds Drastic measures are needed Lao Tzu's book was written as a response Out of grandmotherly kindness According to the oldest biography Lao Tzu lived for a long time in the country of Chu But seeing its decline he departed When he reached the frontier the guard said Since you are going away sir, could you write a book to teach me the art of living? Thereupon Lao Tzu wrote his book about the Tao And departed This is legend, but it is an accurate description of the way in which true teaching happens He who knows doesn't talk, but words are no hindrance for him He uses them as he would use gardening tools When someone asks He answers