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Translation and Commentary by Nina


	Dao De Jing Chapter 25 There was a fully developed form that was indistinguishable from anything else. It preceded the birth of the universe. Silent. Vacant. It stood alone and was unalterable. It had the ability to become the source of the world. It hadn't yet been perceived by a name. The word we use for it now is Dao. By its powerful actions we can call it Great. What's great is said to be overflowing. What's overflowing is said to be constantly on the move. What's constantly on the move is said to eventually reverse its movement. The heavens are great. The earth is great. Dao is great. The king of his realm is also great. Within the confines of a nation there are four 'greats', as the king must be considered one of them. A person follows the mandate of the earth. The earth follows the mandate of the heavens. The heavens follow the mandate of Dao. Dao follows the mandate of that which is naturally so. Commentary: 25 ~ Natural movement Many of the things we do during the course of a day seem to require so much effort. It seems that only human beings see their actions as forced or strenuous. Everything else in the universe appears to flow effortlessly through life. Plants grow, birds fly, fish swim, the earth rotates on its axis, rain falls, and the water in a river gravitates to the lowest point. -There was a fully developed form that was indistinguishable from anything else. -It preceded the birth of the universe. -Silent. Vacant. It stood alone and was unalterable. -It had the ability to become the source of the world. -It hadn't yet been perceived by a name. -The word we use for it now is Dao. Regardless of your belief system, life had to be created one way or another. Maybe life was created by God, or maybe it was an evolutionary process that took millions of years. Whatever existed before life appeared was silent and vacant - it was so nebulous that it couldn't be clearly observed as something with an individual character, but yet it had the ability to allow everything in existence to come to life. There was no reason to give it a name, but in order to speak about it, it can be called Dao. -By its powerful actions we can call it Great. -What's great is said to be overflowing. -What's overflowing is said to be constantly on the move. -What's constantly on the move is said to eventually reverse its movement. Since something as empty and formless as Dao had the ability to allow the whole universe to come into existence, we'd say it must surely be great. In that context, then what's truly great flows freely in all directions and doesn't hesitate in its movement. In that way, it keeps going in a constant cycle of renewal and doesn't become stagnant. -The heavens are great. -The earth is great. -Dao is great. -The king of his realm is also great. -Within the confines of a nation there are four 'greats', as the king must be considered one of them. If what's great is in constant motion, then the heavens (Nature), the earth, Dao and the king of his realm are also great. It can be easy to see how things outside of ourselves could be great, but more difficult to see how a person could be considered to be as great as those things who move so unconditionally throughout the universe. However, when a person becomes the king of his realm, then he's not so different from the rest of the things we might consider to be great. The Chinese character that's defined as "king" pictures a person who could join the heavens, earth and man. -A person follows the mandate of the earth. -The earth follows the mandate of the heavens. -The heavens follow the mandate of Dao. -Dao follows the mandate of that which is naturally so. The way to be as effortless in our actions as the rest of the things in the natural world is to realize that people are restricted by and nourished by the earth. We can only follow the course of the earth, as we're bound by the laws of gravity. The earth is subject to the rules of nature and the universe; and it must stay in its orbit and only sustains life due to the changing seasons, rain and sunshine. The heavens follow the course of Dao, since Dao is what allowed the heavens to come into existence in the first place. What does Dao follow? Whatever spontaneously happens from its own nature. Since Dao nourishes all without judgments or prejudices, things just naturally occur without motivations. The above lines are like a mini-map showing how a person can relate more to following Dao. Natural movements occur when we realize that much of what we do in life will happen whether or not we try to force changes. There's a sense of destiny in that we're all given a means of surviving. "Natural Movement" doesn't mean becoming a lazy slug who expects the rest of the world to take care of you. It means recognizing and cultivating our own natural abilities (just like the earth, heavens, and Dao) so that every movement we make becomes effortlessly natural. Dao Is Open Site Map \| BY: Nina \| Guodian Laozi \| DDJ Concordance \| Comparisons \| From the DIO Forum \| BY: Bao Pu \| By: Joshua \| Who was Laozi \| \| Return Home \| Laozi's Dao De Jing \| Your Dao De Jing \| Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu) \| Links \| Meditation \| Dao (Tao) is Open Forum \| Book List \| Other Stuff \|