
Lao Tzu for Everyone
Students, Scholars
& Seekers
Peter Gilboy, Ph.D.
Line 5 幽呵冥呵中亓有精
Line 6 其請甚真其中有信
Line 7 自今及古其名不去
Line 8 以順眾父
Line 9 吾何以知眾父之然以此
LESSON 21
How do I know
that this is so?
This is a wonderful chapter, in which Lao Tzu marvels at the profound mystery of the Way. This mystery cannot be grasped conceptually, so we are at a disadvantage if we only apply our intellects and our present knowledge to understand it. Book-learning won't help. Self-help seminars will miss the point. Even more lessons from Lao Tzu's won't help us either.
Our only avenue, according to Lao Tzu, is discovering that even ourselves, each of us indivicually, is an ongoing expression of the Way. That is Lao Tzu’s point in his final line.
. . . . . .
Click on each line number
for Chinese-English interlinear
& commentary
The vast power
of the Way
appears to us in its
many forms,
and each is in accord
with the Way alone.
But the "thingness"
of the Way itself
cannot be perceived.
Formless
is the Way!
Shapeless
is the Way!
Yet within the Way
the things of our world
comes into existence.
No markings!
No outline!
And yet within the Way
each thing
has its own existence.
Concealed!
Profound!
And yet within it
are the essences
of all life.
These essences are very real,
and within them
is the evidence.
For all of time,
the things of the world
have always been.
It is by this that
we know to heed
the father of all things.
How do I know
that the father of
all things is like this?
By this!
. . . . . . .