Lao Tzu for Everyone
Students, Scholars,
& Seekers
Peter Gilboy, Ph.D.
第一章
Line 1 道 可 道 也 非 恆 道 也
Line 2 名 可 名 也 非 恆 名 也
Line 3 无 名 萬 物 之 始 也
Line 4 有 名 萬 物 之 母 也
Line 5 故 恆 无 欲 也 以 觀 其 眇
Line 6 恆 有 欲 也 以 觀 其 所 徼
Line 7 兩 者 同 出 異 名 同 胃
Line 8 玄 之 有 玄 眾 眇 之 門
LESSON 1
“These Two
are actually the Same”
Lao Tzu’s first lesson is metaphysical.* It is also his fullest lesson. In fact, Lao’s Tzu's entire message to us is housed in this one lesson. But it may well seem cryptic at first. See the interlinear translations and commentaries of this and other lessons to better understand. Lao Tzu is not giving us data. He is leading toward seeing what he sees.
Click on each line number
for Chinese-English interlinear & commentary
1.
The way that I
can talk about
is not
the timeless Way.
Any name that I
can name
is not
the timeless Name.
3.
As Nameless, the Way is
the origin of each thing
in our world.
But after we give it a name
then we then conceptualize ‘the Way,’
as the ‘mother’ of all things.
Therefore, ever without desire,
we behold the
mystery of the Way.
And ever with desire,
we behold the
coming forth
of the Way as the
teeming world around us.
7.
These “two” are
actually the Same.
They come forth to us
with different names,
but they are the same Way.
This is the most
profound truth of all,
and it is our gateway to the
many and the mystery.
________
*Metaphysics: The science of the inward and essential nature of things; not just what we see, taste, touch and smell in the busy world around us, but what the source is that underlies it all. Metaphysics asks the most fundamental questions of all: “Why is there something and not nothing?” “Where did it all come from?” This also begs the question, “What is my place in it all?”
PG
. . . . . . .