The world has a primal source.
It can be called mother to the world.
Attaining the mother, you know her children.
Knowing her children, stay close to the mother.
Thus all your days will be free from harm. 5
Plug the leaks, latch the gates –
Even on your last day you won’t be used up.
Unplug the leaks, intrude in affairs –
You’ll have nothing to salvage from all your days.
Perceiving the small is called clarity. 10
Abiding in weakness is called power.
Use this light.
Go back again to clarity.
Banish all calamity.
We call this the practice of eternity. 15
***
NOTES
lines 1–5: See notes to poem 59.
line 5: This line also appears in poem 16.
line 6: This line also appears in poem 56.
COMMENTARY
In poem 25 Laozi said that some call Dao mother to Heaven and Earth. Beyond his exaltation of the female principle (see Introduction section IV.5), this maternal image in poem 52 leads Laozi to talk about the mother’s children. And the more you observe the incorrect, inane, wasteful, stupid, worthless, and vicious things that people do, the more affection you feel for the non-being of the principle that gave them rise. Staying close to that mother, you are spared the vicissitudes of relying on people, and so of course all your days will be free from harm. Staying close to Dao also means tuning out the chatter, not getting drawn in by it – because once you start tuning it in, it can very easily swamp you. Following Dao, you have the clarity to perceive the small, the power to abide in weakness. Dao accords with eternity, poem 16 tells us, and seems to partake in eternity, according to poem 4; thus to follow Dao is to practice eternity.
Links To:
The Classic of Dao and De by Laozi: Contents
For more on Daoism, see:
Film Dreams: Frank Capra
Music: KALW Radio Show #3, Ancient China in 20th-Century Music
Music: SFCR Radio Show #8, Daoism in Western Music, part 1
Music: SFCR Radio Show #9, Daoism in Western Music, part 2
NICOLE V. GAGNÉ 