Tao Te Ching Chapter 56

The Short of It:

Intelligence and ignorance are one and the same. 

56. Sublime Virtue

They that know don’t speak; and they that speak don’t know. 

To shut the lips, and close the portals (of the eyes and ears), to blunt the sharp angles, to unravel disorder, to soften the glare, to share the dust, -this I call being the same as deep heaven (the abysses). 

Such a character as this is equally incapable of familiarity and of distance, of profit and of injury, of honour and of meanness. Therefore [they are] the most honourable in the world. 

Lau Tsze. Chalmers, John. The Speculations on Metaphysics, Polity, and Morality, of “the Old Philosopher,” Lau-tsze, Translated from the Chinese, with an Introduction by J. Chalmers. United Kingdom: Trübner, 1868.

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56.’The Mysterious Excellence.’

56.1 [Those who know] (the Tao) [do] not (care to) speak (about it); [those who are] (ever ready to) speak about it [do] not know it. 

56.2 [Those (who know it)] will keep [their] mouth shut and close the portals (of [their] nostrils). [They] will blunt [their] sharp points and unravel the complications of things; [they] will attemper [their] brightness, and bring [themselves] into agreement with the obscurity (of others). This is called ‘the Mysterious Agreement.’ 

56.3 (Such an one) cannot be treated familiarly or distantly; [they are] beyond all consideration of profit or injury; of nobility or meanness; -[they are] the noblest [person] under heaven. 

Lao-tze. Legge, James. The Sacred Books of China: The Texts of Tâoism. United Kingdom: Clarendon, 1891.

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56. The Virtue of the Mysterious. 

56.1 One who knows does not talk. One who talks does not know. Therefore the sage keeps [their] mouth shut and [their] sense-gates closed. 

	56.2		“[They] will blunt [their] own sharpness, 
			[Their] own tangles adjust; 
			[They] will dim [their] own radiance, 
			And be one with [their] dust.”

56.3 This is called profound identification. 

56.4 Thus [they are] inaccessible to love and also inaccessible to enmity*. [They are] inaccessible to profit and inaccessible to loss. [They are] also inaccessible to favor and inaccessible to disgrace. Thus [they become] world-honored. 

*Hostility.

Lao-tze. Suzuki, D.T. and Carus, Paul. The Canon of Reason and Virtue: Lao-tze’s Tao Teh King. United States: Open court publishing Company, 1913.

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The Long of It:

Life is a mystery and always will be (Chap 1). Those who understand this don’t pretend they do. Words are just pretense, just labels. They will never encompass the totality of the Universe, no matter who is saying them.  

Instead, look for the silent teachers. The ones who are available but inaccessible. The ones who stand close but do not embrace.

-TB