Laozi
致虛極，守靜篤。 萬物並作，吾以觀復。 夫物芸芸，各復歸其根。 歸根曰靜，是謂復命。 復命曰常，知常曰明。 不知常，妄作凶。 知常容，容乃公， 公乃王，王乃天， 天乃道，道乃久， 沒身不殆。
James Legge
The (state of) vacancy should be brought to the utmost degree, and that of stillness guarded with unwearying vigour. All things alike go through their processes of activity, and (then) we see them return (to their original state). When things (in the vegetable world) have displayed their luxuriant growth, we see each of them return to its root. This returning to their root is what we call the state of stillness; and that stillness may be called a reporting that they have fulfilled their appointed end.
The report of that fulfilment is the regular, unchanging rule. To know that unchanging rule is to be intelligent; not to know it leads to wild movements and evil issues. The knowledge of that unchanging rule produces a (grand) capacity and forbearance, and that capacity and forbearance lead to a community (of feeling with all things). From this community of feeling comes a kingliness of character; and he who is king-like goes on to be heaven-like. In that likeness to heaven he possesses the Tao. Possessed of the Tao, he endures long; and to the end of his bodily life, is exempt from all danger of decay.
Victor H. Mair
Attain utmost emptiness, Maintain utter stillness. The myriad creatures arise side by side, thus I observe their renewal. Heaven’s creatures abound, but each returns to its roots, which is called “stillness.” This is termed “renewal of fate.” Renewal of fate is perpetual - To know the perpetual is to be enlightened; Not to know the perpetual is to be reckless - recklessness breeds evil. To know the perpetual is to be tolerant - tolerance leads to ducal impartiality, ducal impartiality to kingliness, kingliness to heaven, heaven to the Way, the Way to permanence. To the end of his days, he will not be imperiled.
C. Spurgeon Medhurst
Abstraction complete, quiescence maintained unalloyed, [^1] the various forms arise with one accord, and I observe that each returns again. [^2] All things thrive and increase, then each returns again to the root. [^3] This return to the root is called ‘stillness,’ [^4] or it may be described as a return to report that they have fulfilled their destiny. This report is called ‘the unchanging rule.’ [^5]
Knowledge of this unchanging rule is called ‘illumination.’ Those who are ignorant of it give way to abandon and to recklessness.
Knowledge of this unchanging rule leads to toleration.
Toleration leads to comprehension. [^6]
Comprehension leads to sovereignty. [^7]
Sovereignty leads to heaven-likeness.
Heaven-likeness leads to the Tao.
The Tao leads to continuity.
Though the body be no more, there is then no danger. [^8]
Plato says: “When a man is always occupied with the cravings of desire and ambition, and is eagerly striving to satisfy them, all his thoughts must be mortal, and, as far as it is possible altogether to become such, he must be mortal every whit, because he has cherished his mortal part. But he who has been earnest in the love of knowledge and of true wisdom, and has exercised his intellect more than any other part of him, must have thoughts immortal and divine, if he attain truth, and in so far as human nature is capable of sharing in immortality, he must be altogether immortal; and since he is ever cherishing the divine power, and has the divinity within him in perfect order, he will be perfectly happy.” [**] “Knowledge of the Unchanging Rule,” says Lao-tzu, is the first step, viz., detachment from the external, even as Nature sacrifices its objective existence to retire whence it came and announce the purport of its forthcoming fulfilled. In the language of one of the Upanishads, “When all the bonds of the heart are broken, then the man becomes immortal. Though the body be no more, there is then no danger.”
[^1] Su Cheh observes that neither abstraction nor quiescence are complete unless unconscious. So long as they are maintained with effort there can be neither absolute abstraction nor perfect stillness.
[^2] “I think that what struck Lao Tzu was the fact that vegetable life seemed to be controlled by the quiet and invisible root: from it everything comes forth as having received a commission: to it there is a return, as if reporting the fulfillment of the commission.”—J. P. Maclagan.
[^3]
“That each, who seems a separate whole, Should move his rounds, and fusing all The skirts of self again, should fall Remerging in the general soul.”—Tennyson.
[^4] The word here translated, “stillness,” is the same as that rendered “quiescence” in the first sentence, suggesting a similitude between the ideal rest of the soul and the rest or pralaya of the vegetable kingdom.
[^5] “As thousands of sparks rise from the fire, and then again merge into the fire; as clouds of dust rise in the air, and then rest again in the dust; as thousands of bubbles rise in tie rivers, and melt into water again in the same way from non-being come forth beings, and merge in Him again.”—Central Hindu College Magazine, May, 1902.
[^6] The submergence of the personal I into the impersonal All.
[^7] Complete sway over desire.
[^8] Because no longer bound to earth, “which time is wont to prey upon.”
See II. Cor. v. 1. Also Secret Doctrine (3d ed.) iii. 454.
^29:* Timaeus. Jowett’s translation, vol. iii., p. 513.
Ursula K. Le Guin
Be completely empty. Be perfectly serene. The ten thousand things arise together; in their arising is their return. Now they flower, and flowering sink homeward, returning to the root.
The return to the root is peace. Peace: to accept what must be, to know what endures. In that knowledge is wisdom. Without it, ruin, disorder.
To know what endures is to be openhearted, magnanimous, regal, blessed, following the Tao, the way that endures forever. The body comes to its ending, but there is nothing to fear.
Note UKLG: To those who will not admit morality without a deity to validate it, or spirituality of which man is not the measure, the firmness of Lao Tzu’s morality and the sweetness of his spiritual counsel must seem incomprehensible, or illegitimate, or very troubling indeed.