READING PATHS
Approaching the Way
Read the book’s central images together. Leave room for the differences between a name, an image, and what they point toward.
The way and its name
道可道，非常道，名可名，非常名。
The Tao that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Tao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name. (Conceived of as)…
Read chapterThe empty vessel
道冲而用之或不盈，渊兮似万物之宗。
The Tao is (like) the emptiness of a vessel; and in our employment of it we must be on our guard against all fulness. How deep and unfathomable it is, as…
Read chapterThe invisible way
视之不见名曰夷，听之不闻名曰希，搏之不得名曰微。
We look at it, and we do not see it, and we name it 'the Equable.' We listen to it, and we do not hear it, and we name it 'the Inaudible.' We try to grasp…
Read chapterFollowing what is natural
有物混成，先天地生。
There was something undefined and complete, coming into existence before Heaven and Earth. How still it was and formless, standing alone, and undergoing…
Read chapterReturn and reversal
反者道之动，弱者道之用。
40. The movement of the Tao By contraries proceeds; And weakness marks the course Of Tao's mighty deeds. All things under heaven sprang from It as…
Read chapterOne, two, three
道生一，一生二，二生三，三生万物。
The Tao produced One; One produced Two; Two produced Three; Three produced All things. All things leave behind them the Obscurity (out of which they have…
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