The Short of It:
To accomplish the impossible, stick to the possible.
59. Keeping Tau.
In governing [people] and in serving Heaven, there is nothing like moderation. This moderation, I say, is the first thing to be attained. When this is first attained, one may be said to have laid in an abundant store of virtue. With an abundant store of virtue, one may conquer every obstacle. Being able to conquer every obstacle, no limit can be seen to one’s resources. And when this is the case, one may have the kingdom.
Such an one has the Mother of the kingdom, and may endure long. This I call having the roots deep and the fibres firm. This is the Tau by which one may live long and see many days.
59. ‘Guarding the Tao.’
59.1 For regulating the human (in our constitution) and rendering the (proper) service to the heavenly, there is nothing like moderation.
59.2 It is only by this moderation that there is effected an early return (to [people’s] normal state). That early return is what I call the repeated accumulation of the attributes (of the Tao). With that repeated accumulation of those attributes, there comes the subjugation (of every obstacle to such return). Of this subjugation we know not what shall be the limit; and when one knows not what the limit shall be, he may be the ruler of a state.
59.3 [Those] who possesses the mother of the state may continue long. [Their] case is like that (of the plant) of which we say that its roots are deep and its flower stalks firm: -this is the way to secure that its enduring life shall long be seen.
59. Hold Fast To Reason.
59.1 To govern the people is the affair of heaven and there is nothing like thrift.
Now consider that thrift is said to come from early practice.
59.2 By early practice it is said that we can accumulate an abundance of virtue. If one accumulates an abundance of virtue then there is nothing that can not be overcome.
59.3 When nothing can not be overcome then no one knows [their] limit. When no one knows [their] limit one can have possession of the commonwealth.
59.4 Who has possession of the commonwealth’s mother (thrift) may last and abide.
59.5 This is called the possession of deep roots and of a staunch stem. To life, to everlastingness, to comprehension, this is the way.
The Long of It:
Chapter 59 harkens back to Chapter 33, conquer the external by cultivating the internal.
Tao is not achieved by maxing out our efforts and energies. It’s achieved by restricting them. Hence the farming metaphor in the last stanza. Tao takes patience and attention, like growing crops. Only by watering them will our actions grow into something productive that we can use when the time is right.
Because trying to consume the world is the equivalent of being consumed by it.
-TB
