Tao Te-ching (Dao De-jing)

Verse 31 to 38

31.
Weapons do not bring happiness
Their use brings misfortune
Those on the way shun them.

Peace is a time to create
War is a time to destroy
Weapons bring misery
Those on the Way keep them away
And use them only when forced to
Nothing good can be said about them
Who praises them loves violence
And is not able to govern the world.

Peace is a time to create
War is a time to destroy
When you take up weapons
You are on your way to a funeral.

Might you kill others
Honour them with your tears
When the battle is won
Offer tears and peace
To the dead as a wake.

32.

The Way has always been nameless
Simple and fair
And although utterly minute
No one can catch or command it.

If a noble person could guard and uphold It
All beings would be their honoured guest
When Heaven and Earth unite
Sweet dew is bestowed everywhere
No one makes that happen
It naturally descends on all.

At the first discrimination there is a name
Through naming things come to be
Therefore we must also learn to stop naming
Restraint in naming avoids problems.

How could we picture the Way in the world?
As rivulets streaming into rivers
And rivers streaming into the sea.

33.

To know others one needs to be perceptive
To know oneself one needs to be wise
To master others requires power
To control oneself requires strength.

Who is content is rich
Who strives shows ambition
Who stands firm endures
Who dies while still alive
Knows eternal life.

34.

The Way flows freely
It can turn left or right
All things come forth from it
But it does not tell them to, or how to;
When things work out well
It never claims success.
It is free of desires.

Call it small -
All things return to it
It does not make them to.
Call it great -
Because sages never act “great”
They can accomplish great things.

35.

Hold the Great Seal
And the world will come
Come beyond harm
Safe and at peace.

Music and nice food
Attract guests - for a while
Simple words of the Way
Do not seem to make much sense.

We look and can’t see it
Listen and can’t hear it
When we use it, there is no end to it.

37.

The Way does not do a thing
Yet all things are done by it
If one of position would uphold it
All beings would naturally change
If they were stirred by desire
That one could appease them
With nameless simplicity
And make them free of desire
So they would be at peace
The world would return to its true state.

38.

Who embodies higher virtue is not virtuous
But full of virtue
Who embodies little virtue is not without virtue
But cannot avail of it
Embodying higher virtue
Happens by itself
Involves no thought or effort
Benevolence too arises naturally
Without any intent to be benevolent.
Whoever are righteous
Wànt to be righteous
And if people do not respond
They will threaten and compel.

Virtue appears when the natural Way is lost
Kindness appears when virtue is lost
Righteousness appears when kindness is lost
Civility appears when righteousness is lost
Civility despises trust
And is the beginning of confusion.

Predicting the future is hiding the Way
With a flowery picture
And is the beginning of delusion.

Those who follow the Way go for the real
For what is present here and now;
They choose the fruit, not for the flower
They go for this, not for that.