The Tao Te Ching has long been a favorite book of mine. I first got a copy of it in my early twenties and have always had a translation close. It is a book of mystic poetry which serves me well. I love reading it but don’t always get it, and often “get it” in a different way than I did previously.
When I first started teaching yoga I would read poems from it on a regular basis. For whatever reason that habit fell to the wayside for many years but it has returned of late.
The translation that I have been reading from is by Stephen Mitchell who has translated a number of the more important books of my life in a way that allowed me to understand them. The big three are the Tao Te Ching, Letters to a Young Poet, and The Bhagavad Gita. And I am planning on diving into his Iliad and Odyssey soon.
I have read the poem below in the last few classes and it is one that I am particularly fond of.
The Tao Te Ching by Lau-tzu
Translated by Stephen Mitchell
Poem 27
A good traveller has no fixed plans
and is not intent upon arriving.
A good artist lets his intuition
lead him wherever it wants.
A good scientist has freed himself of concepts
and keeps his mind open to what is.
.
Thus the Master is available to all people
and doesn’t reject anyone.
He is ready to use all situations
and doesn’t waste anything.
This is called embodying the light.
.
What is a good man but a bad man’s teacher?
What is a bad man but a good man’s job?
If you don’t understand this, you will get lost,
however intelligent you are.
It is the great secret.