Tao Te Ching Chapter 40

the short of it:

Stuff happens. And then it stops happening.

40. Leaving off Employment. 

	Returning is the motion of Tau. 
	Weakness is the character of Tau. 

All things in the world are produced from existence; and existence is produced from non-existence. 

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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40. ‘Dispensing with the Use (of Means).’

	40.1 The movement of the Tao
		By contraries proceeds; 
		And weakness marks the course
		Of Tao’s mighty deeds. 

40.2 All things under heaven sprang from It as existing (and named); that existence sprang from It as non-existent (and not named). 

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

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40. Avoiding Activity. 

	40.1 “Homeward is Reason’s course, 
		Weakness is Reason’s force.”

40.2 Heaven and earth and the ten thousand things come from existence, but existence comes from non-existence. 

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:

To be born is a death sentence. Everything must experience this paradox.

A lot of previous chapters (14, 16, 19, 28, and 52) talk about “returning to the source.” But Chapter 40 lays it out in pretty stark terms.

Stuff happens. That’s obvious. But don’t expect things to keep happening. Eternal combustion is not the nature of the Universe. Everything must end, so it can begin again.

-TB