道德经 第十章 玄德

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营魄抱一 能无离乎
专气致柔 能婴儿乎
涤除玄览 能无疵乎
爱民治国 能无为乎
天门开阖 能无雌乎
明白四达 能无知乎

生之畜之

生而不有
为而不恃
长而不宰

是谓玄德


[译]

Simultaneously,

Can you control your greed and fear to unity and never let them be separated?
Can you exercise your body to be as soft and flexible as a baby?
Can you clean your heart so deeply so that it becomes spotless?
Can you love people and govern a country without actions?
Can you open your mind so completely so that it is without feminine?
Can your understandings reach all over the world without knowledge?

It is produced this way and it should be nurtured in another way.

To produce without possession
To act without expectation
To control without dominance

These are the mysteries to all powers.

[注]

This chapter is one of the most difficult one to understand at the first few readings. I feel that this chapter is highly condensed in many ways to guide us throughout the entire life. It lays out the basic steps for people to educate themselves, to nurture themselves, and to finally master the mystic powers.

At first, from controlling greed and fear to unity, to exercising our bodies to be soft and flexible, to clearing our desires to the level of spotless, to loving people and governing countries without actions, to opening our minds completely with balance, and to knowing the world without knowledge, this chapter tells us what to do in each of these steps. It stresses that we have to given in when the nature takes its course.

When we have educated ourselves along these steps and finally reach at the level of finishing the production process. We have come to a new level of nurturing process. The nurturing process is to produce without passion, to act without expectation, and to control without dominance.

When we have finished the production and nurturing processes, we can finally reach at the level of mystic powers.