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Ron Hogan is an example of someone
making the Dàoist teachings their own.
His tr. makes ch. 46 very clear & direct.

The teaching against craving desire is universal.
Craving desire is unnatural & born of false consciousness.
Our world is in apocalyptic danger due to this.

#Daoism #DaoDeJing Ch. 46

Then, even female horses are used for combat
& stationed at the front, thus the phenomenon
of giving birth at the borders.

2. The same message as found in chs 33.3 & 44.3:

Conscious desire,
following upon the knowledge of values,
is a symptom of discontent.
Chen p. 165

#Daoism #DaoDeJing Ch. 46

Ellen Chen (1989, p.165)

1. Peace reigns in the world when Tao is practiced.
Military horses, idle in peace time, are used on the farm, their dung fertilizing the fields. When the world does not practice Tao war erupts.

#Daoism #DaoDeJing Ch. 46

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Ron Hogan's focus is on individualizing the text &
misses the big picture of the original context.

It works as a personalized teaching,
but some of us need the big picture.

We have become alienated from nature,
& our big forebrain has destabilized its natural balance.

#Daoism #DaoDeJing Ch. 45

Tao as the coincidence of opposites, described in (1),
is the tranquility that produces this beautiful
and harmoniously balanced natural world.

Ellen Chen (1989, p. 163-4, abbr.)
#Daoism #DaoDeJing Ch. 45

Ellen Chen (1989, p. 163-4, abbr.)

The message here is not that one opposite
should overcome another
but that their turning constitutes the round.

This is to read Tao in its dynamic process
through the progression of four seasons.

#Daoism #DaoDeJing Ch. 45

To live humbly, to be at peace with oneself & the world,
to not squander life’s energies are ways to long life.
This primordial trust in the goodness of life and the world reflects ch. 13. (Chen, p. 163)

Ron Hogan's translation below, clear & direct as ever.
#Daoism #DaoDeJing Ch. 44

Ellen Chen, cont.

3. When a person is contented with what he has he does not push his luck to the limit that invites the turning of fortune. Also, he does not push himself to the brink of destruction, often the fate of the over-ambitious.

#Daoism #DaoDeJing Ch. 44

Ellen Chen, (1998, p. 162)

1. The Taoist treasures his body, the seat of his life,
more than any of life’s accoutrements,
including fame or wealth.

He also suspects that acquiring fame and wealth
shortens life.

#Daoism #DaoDeJing Ch. 44

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Ellen Chen p. 161, abbr.

1. To gallop on horseback implies great freedom of movement without resistance.
This is the freedom of non-being.

In #Taoism, negation is the very nature of the absolute.
#Tao alone is the absolute nothingness
that penetrates all beings.

#DaoDeJing 43

Ellen Chen (1998, p. 160)

Stanza 3:
While humility is the way to peace and long life,
asserting one’s strength leads to violent early death.

This part on the evils of strength and recalcitrance
serves as a transition to the next chapter
on the benefits of gentleness.

#Daoism #DaoDeJing 42

#DaoDeJing Part 2: Dé, Ch. 42
c. 350 BCE

This chapter's structure resembles that of chapter 39.
Stanza (1), on cosmogony & cosmology,
is followed by ethics in (2) & (3). (Chen, p. 159)

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... Thus even in the midst of death & despair
there is hope of new life.
Ellen Chen, p. 152, abbr.

Here's Ron Hogan's ch. 40, an example of someone
making the Daoist teachings their own.

#Daoism #DaoDeJing 40

The promise of life returning to earth in the spring
after the trials and tribulations of winter
is the hope of the world.
To the ancient Chinese this return,
a promise that never fails,
was the heart of heaven & earth...

Ellen Chen, p. 152, abbr.
#Daoism #DaoDeJing 40

Ron Hogan’s version below, an example of
someone making the Daoist teachings their own.

I like Hogan's version of the last to lines.
When we were young, Lovie & I were helped
by being poor to live radically simple lives. 😁
We still do. The benefits have been endless.

4/4 #Daoism #DaoDeJing Ch. 37.