Translation: Tao Te King – Chapter 73. Freedom of action

Chapter 73. Freedom of action

Whose bravery manifests itself in defiance, he will be in the hands of death.

Whose bravery shows itself in self control, he stays.

Thus there are two kinds of bravery, one is unlucky and the other is beneficial.

But who can say why one of them receives the damnation of the heaven?

This is why the wise one notices action to be difficult.

The heavenly Tao does not compete, yet it wins everything; it does not speak and yet it is skilled in answering, it does not call and yet things come easily to it.

Picture of an empty speech bubble
Silence is golden but you cannot buy it with gold nor platinum. PD by artist and uploader Anynobody

It is quiet in its course of action and its actions are fully effective.

The net of the heaven has large meshes and yet nothing slips through them.


Own translation from 1925 Finnish translation by Pekka Ervast (ISBN 951-8995-01-X) with kind permission of Ruusu-Ristin Kirjallisuusseura ry.

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