Primary Source Reader 2
Plato: Allegory of the Cave
124
Plato: Diotema’s Teaching on Love
127
Plato’s Crito
134
Epictetus: Enchiridion
145
Confucius’ Doctrine of the Mean
158
Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching
171
Bhagavad-Gita
209
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Plato: Allegory of the Cave
Republic VII
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/plato-republic.txt
(SOCRATES, GLAUCON.)
AND now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or
unenlightened: Behold! human beings living in an underground den, which has a mouth
open toward the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their
childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only
see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above
and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners
there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like
the screen which marionette-players have in front of them, over which they show the
puppets.
I see.
And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and
statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which
appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent.
You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners.
Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of
one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave?
True, he said; how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never
allowed to move their heads?
And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the
shadows?
Yes, he said.
And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not suppose that
they were naming what was actually before them?
Very true.
And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side,
would they not be sure to fancy when one of the passers-by spoke that the voice which
they heard came from the passing shadow?
No question, he replied.
To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.
That is certain.
And now look again, and see what will naturally follow if the prisoners are released
and disabused of their error. At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled
suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look toward the light, he will
suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of
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which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive someone saying to
him, that what he saw before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approaching
nearer to being and his eye is turned toward more real existence, he has a clearer vision-what will be his reply? And you may further imagine that his instructor is pointing to the
objects as they pass and requiring him to name them--will he not be perplexed? Will he
not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are truer than the objects which are
now shown to him?
Far truer.
And if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not have a pain in his eyes
which will make him turn away to take refuge in the objects of vision which he can see,
and which he will conceive to be in reality clearer than the things which are now being
shown to him?
True, he said.
And suppose once more, that he is reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent,
and held fast until he is forced into the presence of the sun himself, is he not likely to be
pained and irritated? When he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled, and he will
not be able to see anything at all of what are now called realities.
Not all in a moment, he said.
He will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world. And first he will
see the shadows best, next the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then
the objects themselves; then he will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the
spangled heaven; and he will see the sky and the stars by night better than the sun or the
light of the sun by day?
Certainly.
Last of all he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of him in the
water, but he will see him in his own proper place, and not in another; and he will
contemplate him as he is.
Certainly.
He will then proceed to argue that this is he who gives the season and the years, and
is the guardian of all that is in the visible world, and in a certain way the cause of all
things which he and his fellows have been accustomed to behold?
Clearly, he said, he would first see the sun and then reason about him.
And when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the den and his
fellow-prisoners, do you not suppose that he would felicitate himself on the change, and
pity him?
Certainly, he would.
And if they were in the habit of conferring honors among themselves on those who
were quickest to observe the passing shadows and to remark which of them went before,
and which followed after, and which were together; and who were there- fore best able to
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draw conclusions as to the future, do you think that he would care for such honors and
glories, or envy the possessors of them? Would he not say with Homer,
"Better to be the poor servant of a poor master,"
and to endure anything, rather than think as they do and live after their manner?
Yes, he said, I think that he would rather suffer anything than entertain these false
notions and live in this miserable manner.
Imagine once more, I said, such a one coming suddenly out of the sun to be replaced
in his old situation; would he not be certain to have his eyes full of darkness?
To be sure, he said.
And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with
the prisoners who had never moved out of the den, while his sight was still weak, and
before his eyes had become steady (and the time which would be needed to acquire this
new habit of sight might be very considerable), would he not be ridiculous? Men would
say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes; and that it was better not
even to think of ascending; and if anyone tried to loose another and lead him up to the
light, let them only catch the offender, and they would put him to death.
No question, he said.
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Socrates’ Teacher Diotema on Love
Plato, Symposium
http://plato.evansville.edu/texts/jowett/symposium.htm
The Nature and Origin of Love
And now, taking my leave of you, I will rehearse a tale of love which I heard from
Diotima of Mantineia, a woman wise in this and in many other kinds of knowledge, who
in the days of old, when the Athenians offered sacrifice before the coming of the plague,
delayed the disease ten years. She was my instructress in the art of love, and I shall repeat
to you what she said to me, beginning with the admissions made by Agathon, which are
nearly if not quite the same which I made to the wise woman when she questioned me: I
think that this will be the easiest way, and I shall take both parts myself as well as I can.
As you, Agathon, suggested, I must speak first [201e] of the being and nature of Love,
and then of his works. First I said to her in nearly the same words which he used to me,
that Love was a mighty god, and likewise fair; and she proved to me as I proved to him
that, by my own showing, Love was neither fair nor good. "What do you mean, Diotima,"
I said, "is love then evil and foul?" "Hush," she cried; "must that be foul which is not
fair?" [202a] "Certainly," I said. "And is that which is not wise, ignorant? do you not see
that there is a mean between wisdom and ignorance?" "And what may that be?" I said.
"Right opinion," she replied; "which, as you know, being incapable of giving a reason, is
not knowledge (for how can knowledge be devoid of reason? nor again, ignorance, for
neither can ignorance attain the truth), but is clearly something which is a mean between
ignorance and wisdom." "Quite true," I replied. [202b] "Do not then insist," she said,
"that what is not fair is of necessity foul, or what is not good evil; or infer that because
love is not fair and good he is therefore foul and evil; for he is in a mean between them."
"Well," I said, "Love is surely admitted by all to be a great god." "By those who know or
by those who do not know?" "By all." [202c] "And how, Socrates," she said with a smile,
"can Love be acknowledged to be a great god by those who say that he is not a god at
all?" "And who are they?" I said. "You and I are two of them," she replied. "How can that
be?" I said. "It is quite intelligible," she replied; "for you yourself would acknowledge
that the gods are happy and fair -- of course you would -- would you dare to say that any
god was not?" "Certainly not," I replied. "And you mean by the happy, those who are the
possessors of things good or fair?" [202d] "Yes." "And you admitted that Love, because
he was in want, desires those good and fair things of which he is in want?" "Yes, I did."
"But how can he be a god who has no portion in what is either good or fair?"
"Impossible." "Then you see that you also deny the divinity of Love."
"What then is Love?" I asked; "is he mortal?" "No." [202e] "What then?" "As in the
former instance, he is neither mortal nor immortal, but in a mean between the two."
"What is he, Diotima?" "He is a great spirit (daimon), and like all spirits he is
intermediate between the divine and the mortal." "And what," I said, "is his power?" "He
interprets," she replied, "between gods and men, conveying and taking across to the gods
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the prayers and sacrifices of men, and to men the commands and replies of the gods; he is
the mediator who spans the chasm which divides them, and therefore in him all is bound
together, and through him the arts of the prophet and the priest, their sacrifices and
mysteries [203a] and charms, and all prophecy and incantation, find their way. For God
mingles not with man; but through Love all the intercourse and converse of god with
man, whether awake or asleep, is carried on. The wisdom which understands this is
spiritual; all other wisdom, such as that of arts and handicrafts, is mean and vulgar. Now
these spirits or intermediate powers are many and diverse, and one of them is Love."
"And who," I said, "was his father, and who his mother?" [203b] "The tale," she said,
"will take time; nevertheless I will tell you. On the birthday of Aphrodite there was a
feast of the gods, at which the god Poros or Plenty, who is the son of Metis or Discretion,
was one of the guests. When the feast was over, Penia or Poverty, as the manner is on
such occasions, came about the doors to beg. Now Plenty who was the worse for nectar
(there was no wine in those days), went into the garden of Zeus and fell into a heavy
sleep; and Poverty considering her own straitened circumstances, plotted to have a child
by him, [203c] and accordingly she lay down at his side and conceived Love, who partly
because he is naturally a lover of the beautiful, and because Aphrodite is herself
beautiful, and also because he was born on her birthday, is her follower and attendant.
And as his parentage is, so also are his fortunes. In the first place he is always poor, and
anything but tender and fair, as the many imagine him; [203d] and he is rough and
squalid, and has no shoes, nor a house to dwell in; on the bare earth exposed he lies under
the open heaven, in the streets, or at the doors of houses, taking his rest; and like his
mother he is always in distress. Like his father too, whom he also partly resembles, he is
always plotting against the fair and good; he is bold, enterprising, strong, a mighty
hunter, always weaving some intrigue or other, keen in the pursuit of wisdom, fertile in
resources; a philosopher at all times, terrible as an enchanter, sorcerer, [203e] sophist. He
is by nature neither mortal nor immortal, but alive and flourishing at one moment when
he is in plenty, and dead at another moment, and again alive by reason of his father's
nature. But that which is always flowing in is always flowing out, and so he is never in
want and never in wealth; and, further, he is in a mean between ignorance and
knowledge. The truth of the matter is this: No god is a philosopher or seeker after
wisdom, [204a] for he is wise already; nor does any man who is wise seek after wisdom.
Neither do the ignorant seek after wisdom. For herein is the evil of ignorance, that he
who is neither good nor wise is nevertheless satisfied with himself: he has no desire for
that of which he feels no want." "But who then, Diotima," I said, "are the lovers of
wisdom, if they are neither the wise nor the foolish?" [204b] "A child may answer that
question," she replied; "they are those who are in a mean between the two; Love is one of
them. For wisdom is a most beautiful thing, and Love is of the beautiful; and therefore
Love is also a philosopher or lover of wisdom, and being a lover of wisdom is in a mean
between the wise and the ignorant. And of this too his birth is the cause; for his father is
wealthy and wise, and his mother poor and foolish. Such, my dear Socrates, is the nature
of the spirit Love. The error in your conception of him [204c] was very natural, and as I
imagine from what you say, has arisen out of a confusion of love and the beloved, which
made you think that love was all beautiful. For the beloved is the truly beautiful, and
delicate, and perfect, and blessed; but the principle of love is of another nature, and is
such as I have described."
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The Cause and Effect of Love
I said: "O thou stranger woman, thou sayest well; but, assuming Love to be such as you
say, what is the use of him to men?" [204d] "That, Socrates," she replied, "I will attempt
to unfold: of his nature and birth I have already spoken; and you acknowledge that love is
of the beautiful. But some one will say: Of the beautiful in what, Socrates and Diotima? - or rather let me put the question more clearly, and ask: When a man loves the beautiful,
what does he desire?" I answered her "That the beautiful may be his." "Still," she said,
"the answer suggests a further question: What is given by the possession of beauty?" "To
what you have asked," I replied, "I have no answer ready." [204e] "Then," she said, "let
me put the word 'good' in the place of the beautiful, and repeat the question once more: If
he who loves loves the good, what is it then that he loves?" "The possession of the good,"
I said. "And what does he gain who possesses the good?" "Happiness," I replied; "there is
less difficulty in answering that question." [205a] "Yes," she said, "the happy are made
happy by the acquisition of good things. Nor is there any need to ask why a man desires
happiness; the answer is already final." "You are right," I said. "And is this wish and this
desire common to all? and do all men always desire their own good, or only some men? - what say you?" "All men," I replied; "the desire is common to all." [205b] "Why, then,"
she rejoined, "are not all men, Socrates, said to love, but only some of them? whereas you
say that all men are always loving the same things." "I myself wonder," I said, "why this
is." "There is nothing to wonder at," she replied; "the reason is that one part of love is
separated off and receives the name of the whole, but the other parts have other names."
"Give an illustration," I said. She answered me as follows: "There is poetry, which, as
you know, is complex and manifold. All creation or passage of non-being into being
[205c] is poetry or making, and the processes of all art are creative; and the masters of
arts are all poets or makers." "Very true." "Still," she said, "you know that they are not
called poets, but have other names; only that portion of the art which is separated off
from the rest, and is concerned with music and meter, is termed poetry, and they who
possess poetry in this sense of the word are called poets." "Very true," I said. "And the
same holds of love. For you may say generally [205d] that all desire of good and
happiness is only the great and subtle power of love; but they who are drawn towards him
by any other path, whether the path of money-making or gymnastics or philosophy, are
not called lovers -- the name of the whole is appropriated to those whose affection takes
one form only -- they alone are said to love, or to be lovers." "I dare say," I replied, "that
you are right." [205e] "Yes," she added, "and you hear people say that lovers are seeking
for their other half; but I say that they are seeking neither for the half of themselves, nor
for the whole, unless the half or the whole be also a good. And they will cut off their own
hands and feet and cast them away, if they are evil; for they love not what is their own,
unless perchance there be some one who calls what belongs to him the good, and what
belongs to another the evil. [206a] For there is nothing which men love but the good. Is
there anything?" "Certainly, I should say, that there is nothing." "Then," she said, "the
simple truth is, that men love the good." "Yes," I said. "To which must be added that they
love the possession of the good?" "Yes, that must be added." "And not only the
possession, but the everlasting possession of the good?" "That must be added too." "Then
love," she said, "may be described generally as the love of the everlasting possession of
the good?" "That is most true."
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[206b]
"Then if this be the nature of love, can you tell me further," she said, "what is the manner
of the pursuit? what are they doing who show all this eagerness and heat which is called
love? and what is the object which they have in view? Answer me." "Nay, Diotima," I
replied, "if I had known, I should not have wondered at your wisdom, neither should I
have come to learn from you about this very matter." "Well," she said, "I will teach you: - The object which they have in view is birth in beauty, whether of body or soul." "I do
not understand you," I said; "the oracle requires an explanation." [206c] "I will make my
meaning clearer," she replied. "I mean to say, that all men are bringing to the birth in
their bodies and in their souls. There is a certain age at which human nature is desirous of
procreation -- procreation which must be in beauty and not in deformity; and this
procreation is the union of man and woman, and is a divine thing; for conception and
generation are an immortal principle in the mortal creature, and in the inharmonious they
can never be. [206d] But the deformed is always inharmonious with the divine, and the
beautiful harmonious. Beauty, then, is the destiny or goddess of parturition who presides
at birth, and therefore, when approaching beauty, the conceiving power is propitious, and
diffusive, and benign, and begets and bears fruit: at the sight of ugliness she frowns and
contracts and has a sense of pain, and turns away, and shrivels up, and not without a pang
refrains from conception. And this is the reason why, when the hour of conception
arrives, and the teeming nature is full, [206e] there is such a flutter and ecstasy about
beauty whose approach is the alleviation of the pain of travail. For love, Socrates, is not,
as you imagine, the love of the beautiful only." "What then?" "The love of generation and
of birth in beauty." "Yes," I said. "Yes, indeed," she replied. "But why of generation?"
"Because to the mortal creature, generation is a sort of eternity and immortality," she
replied; [207a] "and if, as has been already admitted, love is of the everlasting possession
of the good, all men will necessarily desire immortality together with good: Wherefore
love is of immortality."
All this she taught me at various times when she spoke of love. And I remember her once
saying to me, "What is the cause, Socrates, of love, and the attendant desire? See you not
how all animals, birds, as well as beasts, in their desire of procreation, are in agony when
they take the infection of love, [207b] which begins with the desire of union; whereto is
added the care of offspring, on whose behalf the weakest are ready to battle against the
strongest even to the uttermost, and to die for them, and will let themselves be tormented
with hunger or suffer anything in order to maintain their young. Man may be supposed to
act thus from reason; but why should animals [207c] have these passionate feelings? Can
you tell me why?" Again I replied that I did not know. She said to me: "And do you
expect ever to become a master in the art of love, if you do not know this?" "But I have
told you already, Diotima, that my ignorance is the reason why I come to you; for I am
conscious that I want a teacher; tell me then the cause of this and of the other mysteries of
love." "Marvel not," she said, "if you believe that love is of the immortal, as we have
several times acknowledged; for here again, and on the same principle too, [207d] the
mortal nature is seeking as far as is possible to be everlasting and immortal: and this is
only to be attained by generation, because generation always leaves behind a new
existence in the place of the old. Nay even in the life of the same individual there is
succession and not absolute unity: a man is called the same, and yet in the short interval
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which elapses between youth and age, and in which every animal is said to have life and
identity, he is undergoing a perpetual process of loss and reparation [207e] -- hair, flesh,
bones, blood, and the whole body are always changing. Which is true not only of the
body, but also of the soul, whose habits, tempers, opinions, desires, pleasures, pains,
fears, never remain the same in any one of us, but are always coming and going; [208a]
and equally true of knowledge, and what is still more surprising to us mortals, not only do
the sciences in general spring up and decay, so that in respect of them we are never the
same; but each of them individually experiences a like change. For what is implied in the
word 'recollection,' but the departure of knowledge, which is ever being forgotten, and is
renewed and preserved by recollection, and appears to be the same although in reality
new, according to that law of succession by which all mortal things are preserved, not
absolutely the same, [208b] but by substitution, the old worn-out mortality leaving
another new and similar existence behind -- unlike the divine, which is always the same
and not another? And in this way, Socrates, the mortal body, or mortal anything, partakes
of immortality; but the immortal in another way. Marvel not then at the love which all
men have of their offspring; for that universal love and interest is for the sake of
immortality."
I was astonished at her words, and said: [208c] "Is this really true, O thou wise Diotima?"
And she answered with all the authority of an accomplished sophist: "Of that, Socrates,
you may be assured; -- think only of the ambition of men, and you will wonder at the
senselessness of their ways, unless you consider how they are stirred by the love of an
immortality of fame. They are ready to run all risks greater far than they would have run
for their children, and [208d] to spend money and undergo any sort of toil, and even to
die, for the sake of leaving behind them a name which shall be eternal. Do you imagine
that Alcestis would have died to save Admetus, or Achilles to avenge Patroclus, or your
own Codrus in order to preserve the kingdom for his sons, if they had not imagined that
the memory of their virtues, which still survives among us, would be immortal? Nay,"
she said, "I am persuaded that all men do all things, [208e] and the better they are the
more they do them, in hope of the glorious fame of immortal virtue; for they desire the
immortal.
"Those who are pregnant in the body only, betake themselves to women and beget
children -- this is the character of their love; their offspring, as they hope, will preserve
their memory and give them the blessedness and immortality which they desire in the
future. [209a] But souls which are pregnant -- for there certainly are men who are more
creative in their souls than in their bodies -- conceive that which is proper for the soul to
conceive or contain. And what are these conceptions? -- wisdom and virtue in general.
And such creators are poets and all artists who are deserving of the name inventor. But
the greatest and fairest sort of wisdom by far is that which is concerned with the ordering
of states and families, and which is called temperance [209b] and justice. And he who in
youth has the seed of these implanted in him and is himself inspired, when he comes to
maturity desires to beget and generate. He wanders about seeking beauty that he may
beget offspring -- for in deformity he will beget nothing -- and naturally embraces the
beautiful rather than the deformed body; above all when he finds a fair and noble and
well-nurtured soul, he embraces the two in one person, and to such an one he is full of
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speech about virtue and [209c] the nature and pursuits of a good man; and he tries to
educate him; and at the touch of the beautiful which is ever present to his memory, even
when absent, he brings forth that which he had conceived long before, and in company
with him tends that which he brings forth; and they are married by a far nearer tie and
have a closer friendship than those who beget mortal children, for the children who are
their common offspring are fairer and more immortal. [209d] Who, when he thinks of
Homer and Hesiod and other great poets, would not rather have their children than
ordinary human ones? Who would not emulate them in the creation of children such as
theirs, which have preserved their memory and given them everlasting glory? Or who
would not have such children as Lycurgus left behind him to be the saviours, not only of
Lacedaemon, but of Hellas, as one may say? There is Solon, too, who is the revered
father of Athenian laws; and [209e] many others there are in many other places, both
among Hellenes and barbarians, who have given to the world many noble works, and
have been the parents of virtue of every kind; and many temples have been raised in their
honour for the sake of children such as theirs; which were never raised in honour of any
one, for the sake of his mortal children.
The Ascent of Love
"These are the lesser mysteries of love, into which even you, Socrates, may enter; [210a]
to the greater and more hidden ones which are the crown of these, and to which, if you
pursue them in a right spirit, they will lead, I know not whether you will be able to attain.
But I will do my utmost to inform you, and do you follow if you can. For he who would
proceed aright in this matter should begin in youth to visit beautiful forms; and first, if he
be guided by his instructor aright, to love one such form only -- out of that he should
create fair thoughts; [210b] and soon he will of himself perceive that the beauty of one
form is akin to the beauty of another; and then if beauty of form in general is his pursuit,
how foolish would he be not to recognize that the beauty in every form is one and the
same! And when he perceives this he will abate his violent love of the one, which he will
despise and deem a small thing, and will become a lover of all beautiful forms; in the
next stage he will consider that the beauty of the mind is more honourable than the beauty
of the outward form. So that if a virtuous soul have but a little comeliness, [210c] he will
be content to love and tend him, and will search out and bring to the birth thoughts which
may improve the young, until he is compelled to contemplate and see the beauty of
institutions and laws, and to understand that the beauty of them all is of one family, and
that personal beauty is a trifle; and after laws and institutions he will go on to the
sciences, that he may see their beauty, being not like a servant in love with the beauty of
one youth or man or institution, [210d] himself a slave mean and narrow-minded, but
drawing towards and contemplating the vast sea of beauty, he will create many fair and
noble thoughts and notions in boundless love of wisdom; until on that shore he grows and
waxes strong, and at last the vision is revealed to him of a single science, which is the
science of beauty everywhere. To this I will proceed; [210e] please to give me your very
best attention:
"He who has been instructed thus far in the things of love, and who has learned to see the
beautiful in due order and succession, when he comes toward the end will suddenly
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perceive a nature of wondrous beauty (and this, Socrates, is the final cause of all our
former toils) -- a nature which in the first place is everlasting, [211a] not growing and
decaying, or waxing and waning; secondly, not fair in one point of view and foul in
another, or at one time or in one relation or at one place fair, at another time or in another
relation or at another place foul, as if fair to some and foul to others, or in the likeness of
a face or hands or any other part of the bodily frame, or in any form of speech or
knowledge, or existing in any other being, as for example, in an animal, [211b] or in
heaven, or in earth, or in any other place; but beauty absolute, separate, simple, and
everlasting, which without diminution and without increase, or any change, is imparted to
the ever-growing and perishing beauties of all other things. He who from these ascending
under the influence of true love, begins to perceive that beauty, is not far from the end.
And the true order of going, [211c] or being led by another, to the things of love, is to
begin from the beauties of earth and mount upwards for the sake of that other beauty,
using these as steps only, and from one going on to two, and from two to all fair forms,
and from fair forms to fair practices, and from fair practices to fair notions, until from fair
notions he arrives at the notion of absolute beauty, and at last knows [211d] what the
essence of beauty is. This, my dear Socrates," said the stranger of Mantineia, "is that life
above all others which man should live, in the contemplation of beauty absolute; a beauty
which if you once beheld, you would see not to be after the measure of gold, and
garments, and fair boys and youths, whose presence now entrances you; and you and
many a one would be content to live seeing them only and conversing with them without
meat or drink, if that were possible -- you only want to look at them and to be with them.
[211e] But what if man had eyes to see the true beauty -- the divine beauty, I mean, pure
and dear and unalloyed, not clogged with the pollutions of mortality and all the colours
and vanities of human life -- thither looking, and holding converse with the true beauty
simple and divine? [212a] Remember how in that communion only, beholding beauty
with the eye of the mind, he will be enabled to bring forth, not images of beauty, but
realities (for he has hold not of an image but of a reality), and bringing forth and
nourishing true virtue to become the friend of God and be immortal, if mortal man may.
Would that be an ignoble life?"
[212b]
Such, Phaedrus -- and I speak not only to you, but to all of you -- were the words of
Diotima; and I am persuaded of their truth. And being persuaded of them, I try to
persuade others, that in the attainment of this end human nature will not easily find a
helper better than love. And therefore, also, I say that every man ought to honour him as I
myself honour him, and walk in his ways, and exhort others to do the same, and praise
the power and spirit of love [212c] according to the measure of my ability now and ever.
The words which I have spoken, you, Phaedrus, may call an encomium of love, or
anything else which you please.
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Crito @
By Plato
Written 360 B.C.E
Translated by Benjamin Jowett
Persons of the Dialogue
SOCRATES
CRITO
Scene
The Prison of Socrates.
Socrates. WHY have you come at this hour, Crito? it must be quite early.
Crito. Yes, certainly.
Soc. What is the exact time?
Cr. The dawn is breaking.
Soc. I wonder the keeper of the prison would let you in.
Cr. He knows me because I often come, Socrates; moreover. I have done him a kindness.
Soc. And are you only just come?
Cr. No, I came some time ago.
Soc. Then why did you sit and say nothing, instead of awakening me at once?
Cr. Why, indeed, Socrates, I myself would rather not have all this sleeplessness and
sorrow. But I have been wondering at your peaceful slumbers, and that was the reason
why I did not awaken you, because I wanted you to be out of pain. I have always thought
you happy in the calmness of your temperament; but never did I see the like of the easy,
cheerful way in which you bear this calamity.
Soc. Why, Crito, when a man has reached my age he ought not to be repining at the
prospect of death.
Cr. And yet other old men find themselves in similar misfortunes, and age does not
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prevent them from repining.
Soc. That may be. But you have not told me why you come at this early hour.
Cr. I come to bring you a message which is sad and painful; not, as I believe, to yourself
but to all of us who are your friends, and saddest of all to me.
Soc. What! I suppose that the ship has come from Delos, on the arrival of which I am to
die?
Cr. No, the ship has not actually arrived, but she will probably be here to-day, as persons
who have come from Sunium tell me that they have left her there; and therefore tomorrow, Socrates, will be the last day of your life.
Soc. Very well, Crito; if such is the will of God, I am willing; but my belief is that there
will be a delay of a day.
Cr. Why do you say this?
Soc. I will tell you. I am to die on the day after the arrival of the ship?
Cr. Yes; that is what the authorities say.
Soc. But I do not think that the ship will be here until to-morrow; this I gather from a
vision which I had last night, or rather only just now, when you fortunately allowed me to
sleep.
Cr. And what was the nature of the vision?
Soc. There came to me the likeness of a woman, fair and comely, clothed in white
raiment, who called to me and said: O Socrates"The third day hence, to Phthia shalt thou go."
Cr. What a singular dream, Socrates!
Soc. There can be no doubt about the meaning Crito, I think.
Cr. Yes: the meaning is only too clear. But, O! my beloved Socrates, let me entreat you
once more to take my advice and escape. For if you die I shall not only lose a friend who
can never be replaced, but there is another evil: people who do not know you and me will
believe that I might have saved you if I had been willing to give money, but that I did not
care. Now, can there be a worse disgrace than this- that I should be thought to value
money more than the life of a friend? For the many will not be persuaded that I wanted
you to escape, and that you refused.
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Soc. But why, my dear Crito, should we care about the opinion of the many? Good men,
and they are the only persons who are worth considering, will think of these things truly
as they happened.
Cr. But do you see. Socrates, that the opinion of the many must be regarded, as is evident
in your own case, because they can do the very greatest evil to anyone who has lost their
good opinion?
Soc. I only wish, Crito, that they could; for then they could also do the greatest good, and
that would be well. But the truth is, that they can do neither good nor evil: they cannot
make a man wise or make him foolish; and whatever they do is the result of chance.
Cr. Well, I will not dispute about that; but please to tell me, Socrates, whether you are
not acting out of regard to me and your other friends: are you not afraid that if you escape
hence we may get into trouble with the informers for having stolen you away, and lose
either the whole or a great part of our property; or that even a worse evil may happen to
us? Now, if this is your fear, be at ease; for in order to save you, we ought surely to run
this or even a greater risk; be persuaded, then, and do as I say.
Soc. Yes, Crito, that is one fear which you mention, but by no means the only one.
Cr. Fear not. There are persons who at no great cost are willing to save you and bring
you out of prison; and as for the informers, you may observe that they are far from being
exorbitant in their demands; a little money will satisfy them. My means, which, as I am
sure, are ample, are at your service, and if you have a scruple about spending all mine,
here are strangers who will give you the use of theirs; and one of them, Simmias the
Theban, has brought a sum of money for this very purpose; and Cebes and many others
are willing to spend their money too. I say, therefore, do not on that account hesitate
about making your escape, and do not say, as you did in the court, that you will have a
difficulty in knowing what to do with yourself if you escape. For men will love you in
other places to which you may go, and not in Athens only; there are friends of mine in
Thessaly, if you like to go to them, who will value and protect you, and no Thessalian
will give you any trouble. Nor can I think that you are justified, Socrates, in betraying
your own life when you might be saved; this is playing into the hands of your enemies
and destroyers; and moreover I should say that you were betraying your children; for you
might bring them up and educate them; instead of which you go away and leave them,
and they will have to take their chance; and if they do not meet with the usual fate of
orphans, there will be small thanks to you. No man should bring children into the world
who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nurture and education. But you are
choosing the easier part, as I think, not the better and manlier, which would rather have
become one who professes virtue in all his actions, like yourself. And, indeed, I am
ashamed not only of you, but of us who are your friends, when I reflect that this entire
business of yours will be attributed to our want of courage. The trial need never have
come on, or might have been brought to another issue; and the end of all, which is the
crowning absurdity, will seem to have been permitted by us, through cowardice and
baseness, who might have saved you, as you might have saved yourself, if we had been
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good for anything (for there was no difficulty in escaping); and we did not see how
disgraceful, Socrates, and also miserable all this will be to us as well as to you. Make
your mind up then, or rather have your mind already made up, for the time of deliberation
is over, and there is only one thing to be done, which must be done, if at all, this very
night, and which any delay will render all but impossible; I beseech you therefore,
Socrates, to be persuaded by me, and to do as I say.
Soc. Dear Crito, your zeal is invaluable, if a right one; but if wrong, the greater the zeal
the greater the evil; and therefore we ought to consider whether these things shall be done
or not. For I am and always have been one of those natures who must be guided by
reason, whatever the reason may be which upon reflection appears to me to be the best;
and now that this fortune has come upon me, I cannot put away the reasons which I have
before given: the principles which I have hitherto honored and revered I still honor, and
unless we can find other and better principles on the instant, I am certain not to agree
with you; no, not even if the power of the multitude could inflict many more
imprisonments, confiscations, deaths, frightening us like children with hobgoblin terrors.
But what will be the fairest way of considering the question? Shall I return to your old
argument about the opinions of men, some of which are to be regarded, and others, as we
were saying, are not to be regarded? Now were we right in maintaining this before I was
condemned? And has the argument which was once good now proved to be talk for the
sake of talking; in fact an amusement only, and altogether vanity? That is what I want to
consider with your help, Crito: whether, under my present circumstances, the argument
appears to be in any way different or not; and is to be allowed by me or disallowed. That
argument, which, as I believe, is maintained by many who assume to be authorities, was
to the effect, as I was saying, that the opinions of some men are to be regarded, and of
other men not to be regarded. Now you, Crito, are a disinterested person who are not
going to die to-morrow- at least, there is no human probability of this, and you are
therefore not liable to be deceived by the circumstances in which you are placed. Tell me,
then, whether I am right in saying that some opinions, and the opinions of some men
only, are to be valued, and other opinions, and the opinions of other men, are not to be
valued. I ask you whether I was right in maintaining this?
Cr. Certainly.
Soc. The good are to be regarded, and not the bad?
Cr. Yes.
Soc. And the opinions of the wise are good, and the opinions of the unwise are evil?
Cr. Certainly.
Soc. And what was said about another matter? Was the disciple in gymnastics supposed
to attend to the praise and blame and opinion of every man, or of one man only- his
physician or trainer, whoever that was?
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Cr. Of one man only.
Soc. And he ought to fear the censure and welcome the praise of that one only, and not of
the many?
Cr. That is clear.
Soc. And he ought to live and train, and eat and drink in the way which seems good to his
single master who has understanding, rather than according to the opinion of all other
men put together?
Cr. True.
Soc. And if he disobeys and disregards the opinion and approval of the one, and regards
the opinion of the many who have no understanding, will he not suffer evil?
Cr. Certainly he will.
Soc. And what will the evil be, whither tending and what affcting, in the disobedient
person?
Cr. Clearly, affecting the body; that is what is destroyed by the evil.
Soc. Very good; and is not this true, Crito, of other things which we need not separately
enumerate? In the matter of just and unjust, fair and foul, good and evil, which are the
subjects of our present consultation, ought we to follow the opinion of the many and to
fear them; or the opinion of the one man who has understanding, and whom we ought to
fear and reverence more than all the rest of the world: and whom deserting we shall
destroy and injure that principle in us which may be assumed to be improved by justice
and deteriorated by injustice; is there not such a principle?
Cr. Certainly there is, Socrates.
Soc. Take a parallel instance; if, acting under the advice of men who have no
understanding, we destroy that which is improvable by health and deteriorated by
disease- when that has been destroyed, I say, would life be worth having? And that is- the
body?
Cr. Yes.
Soc. Could we live, having an evil and corrupted body?
Cr. Certainly not.
Soc. And will life be worth having, if that higher part of man be depraved, which is
improved by justice and deteriorated by injustice? Do we suppose that principle,
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whatever it may be in man, which has to do with justice and injustice, to be inferior to the
body?
Cr. Certainly not.
Soc. More honored, then?
Cr. Far more honored.
Soc. Then, my friend, we must not regard what the many say of us: but what he, the one
man who has understanding of just and unjust, will say, and what the truth will say. And
therefore you begin in error when you suggest that we should regard the opinion of the
many about just and unjust, good and evil, honorable and dishonorable. Well, someone
will say, "But the many can kill us."
Cr. Yes, Socrates; that will clearly be the answer.
Soc. That is true; but still I find with surprise that the old argument is, as I conceive,
unshaken as ever. And I should like to know Whether I may say the same of another
proposition- that not life, but a good life, is to be chiefly valued?
Cr. Yes, that also remains.
Soc. And a good life is equivalent to a just and honorable one- that holds also?
Cr. Yes, that holds.
Soc. From these premises I proceed to argue the question whether I ought or ought not to
try to escape without the consent of the Athenians: and if I am clearly right in escaping,
then I will make the attempt; but if not, I will abstain. The other considerations which you
mention, of money and loss of character, and the duty of educating children, are, I fear,
only the doctrines of the multitude, who would be as ready to call people to life, if they
were able, as they are to put them to death- and with as little reason. But now, since the
argument has thus far prevailed, the only question which remains to be considered is,
whether we shall do rightly either in escaping or in suffering others to aid in our escape
and paying them in money and thanks, or whether we shan not do rightly; and if the
latter, then death or any other calamity which may ensue on my remaining here must not
be allowed to enter into the calculation.
Cr. I think that you are right, Socrates; how then shall we proceed?
Soc. Let us consider the matter together, and do you either refute me if you can, and I
will be convinced; or else cease, my dear friend, from repeating to me that I ought to
escape against the wishes of the Athenians: for I am extremely desirous to be persuaded
by you, but not against my own better judgment. And now please to consider my first
position, and do your best to answer me.
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Cr. I will do my best.
Soc. Are we to say that we are never intentionally to do wrong, or that in one way we
ought and in another way we ought not to do wrong, or is doing wrong always evil and
dishonorable, as I was just now saying, and as has been already acknowledged by us? Are
all our former admissions which were made within a few days to be thrown away? And
have we, at our age, been earnestly discoursing with one another all our life long only to
discover that we are no better than children? Or are we to rest assured, in spite of the
opinion of the many, and in spite of consequences whether better or worse, of the truth of
what was then said, that injustice is always an evil and dishonor to him who acts
unjustly? Shall we affirm that?
Cr. Yes.
Soc. Then we must do no wrong?
Cr. Certainly not.
Soc. Nor when injured injure in return, as the many imagine; for we must injure no one at
all?
Cr. Clearly not.
Soc. Again, Crito, may we do evil?
Cr. Surely not, Socrates.
Soc. And what of doing evil in return for evil, which is the morality of the many-is that
just or not?
Cr. Not just.
Soc. For doing evil to another is the same as injuring him?
Cr. Very true.
Soc. Then we ought not to retaliate or render evil for evil to anyone, whatever evil we
may have suffered from him. But I would have you consider, Crito, whether you really
mean what you are saying. For this opinion has never been held, and never will be held,
by any considerable number of persons; and those who are agreed and those who are not
agreed upon this point have no common ground, and can only despise one another, when
they see how widely they differ. Tell me, then, whether you agree with and assent to my
first principle, that neither injury nor retaliation nor warding off evil by evil is ever right.
And shall that be the premise of our agreement? Or do you decline and dissent from this?
For this has been of old and is still my opinion; but, if you are of another opinion, let me
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hear what you have to say. If, however, you remain of the same mind as formerly, I will
proceed to the next step.
Cr. You may proceed, for I have not changed my mind.
Soc. Then I will proceed to the next step, which may be put in the form of a question:
Ought a man to do what he admits to be right, or ought he to betray the right?
Cr. He ought to do what he thinks right.
Soc. But if this is true, what is the application? In leaving the prison against the will of
the Athenians, do I wrong any? or rather do I not wrong those whom I ought least to
wrong? Do I not desert the principles which were acknowledged by us to be just? What
do you say?
Cr. I cannot tell, Socrates, for I do not know.
Soc. Then consider the matter in this way: Imagine that I am about to play truant (you
may call the proceeding by any name which you like), and the laws and the government
come and interrogate me: "Tell us, Socrates," they say; "what are you about? are you
going by an act of yours to overturn us- the laws and the whole State, as far as in you
lies? Do you imagine that a State can subsist and not be overthrown, in which the
decisions of law have no power, but are set aside and overthrown by individuals?" What
will be our answer, Crito, to these and the like words? Anyone, and especially a clever
rhetorician, will have a good deal to urge about the evil of setting aside the law which
requires a sentence to be carried out; and we might reply, "Yes; but the State has injured
us and given an unjust sentence." Suppose I say that?
Cr. Very good, Socrates.
Soc. "And was that our agreement with you?" the law would sar, "or were you to abide
by the sentence of the State?" And if I were to express astonishment at their saying this,
the law would probably add: "Answer, Socrates, instead of opening your eyes: you are in
the habit of asking and answering questions. Tell us what complaint you have to make
against us which justifies you in attempting to destroy us and the State? In the first place
did we not bring you into existence? Your father married your mother by our aid and
begat you. Say whether you have any objection to urge against those of us who regulate
marriage?" None, I should reply. "Or against those of us who regulate the system of
nurture and education of children in which you were trained? Were not the laws, who
have the charge of this, right in commanding your father to train you in music and
gymnastic?" Right, I should reply. "Well, then, since you were brought into the world and
nurtured and educated by us, can you deny in the first place that you are our child and
slave, as your fathers were before you? And if this is true you are not on equal terms with
us; nor can you think that you have a right to do to us what we are doing to you. Would
you have any right to strike or revile or do any other evil to a father or to your master, if
you had one, when you have been struck or reviled by him, or received some other evil at
his hands?- you would not say this? And because we think right to destroy you, do you
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think that you have any right to destroy us in return, and your country as far as in you
lies? And will you, O professor of true virtue, say that you are justified in this? Has a
philosopher like you failed to discover that our country is more to be valued and higher
and holier far than mother or father or any ancestor, and more to be regarded in the eyes
of the gods and of men of understanding? also to be soothed, and gently and reverently
entreated when angry, even more than a father, and if not persuaded, obeyed? And when
we are punished by her, whether with imprisonment or stripes, the punishment is to be
endured in silence; and if she leads us to wounds or death in battle, thither we follow as is
right; neither may anyone yield or retreat or leave his rank, but whether in battle or in a
court of law, or in any other place, he must do what his city and his country order him; or
he must change their view of what is just: and if he may do no violence to his father or
mother, much less may he do violence to his country." What answer shall we make to
this, Crito? Do the laws speak truly, or do they not?
Cr. I think that they do.
Soc. Then the laws will say: "Consider, Socrates, if this is true, that in your present
attempt you are going to do us wrong. For, after having brought you into the world, and
nurtured and educated you, and given you and every other citizen a share in every good
that we had to give, we further proclaim and give the right to every Athenian, that if he
does not like us when he has come of age and has seen the ways of the city, and made our
acquaintance, he may go where he pleases and take his goods with him; and none of us
laws will forbid him or interfere with him. Any of you who does not like us and the city,
and who wants to go to a colony or to any other city, may go where he likes, and take his
goods with him. But he who has experience of the manner in which we order justice and
administer the State, and still remains, has entered into an implied contract that he will do
as we command him. And he who disobeys us is, as we maintain, thrice wrong: first,
because in disobeying us he is disobeying his parents; secondly, because we are the
authors of his education; thirdly, because he has made an agreement with us that he will
duly obey our commands; and he neither obeys them nor convinces us that our
commands are wrong; and we do not rudely impose them, but give him the alternative of
obeying or convincing us; that is what we offer and he does neither. These are the sort of
accusations to which, as we were saying, you, Socrates, will be exposed if you
accomplish your intentions; you, above all other Athenians." Suppose I ask, why is this?
they will justly retort upon me that I above all other men have acknowledged the
agreement. "There is clear proof," they will say, "Socrates, that we and the city were not
displeasing to you. Of all Athenians you have been the most constant resident in the city,
which, as you never leave, you may be supposed to love. For you never went out of the
city either to see the games, except once when you went to the Isthmus, or to any other
place unless when you were on military service; nor did you travel as other men do. Nor
had you any curiosity to know other States or their laws: your affections did not go
beyond us and our State; we were your especial favorites, and you acquiesced in our
government of you; and this is the State in which you begat your children, which is a
proof of your satisfaction. Moreover, you might, if you had liked, have fixed the penalty
at banishment in the course of the trial-the State which refuses to let you go now would
have let you go then. But you pretended that you preferred death to exile, and that you
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were not grieved at death. And now you have forgotten these fine sentiments, and pay no
respect to us, the laws, of whom you are the destroyer; and are doing what only a
miserable slave would do, running away and turning your back upon the compacts and
agreements which you made as a citizen. And first of all answer this very question: Are
we right in saying that you agreed to be governed according to us in deed, and not in
word only? Is that true or not?" How shall we answer that, Crito? Must we not agree?
Cr. There is no help, Socrates.
Soc. Then will they not say: "You, Socrates, are breaking the covenants and agreements
which you made with us at your leisure, not in any haste or under any compulsion or
deception, but having had seventy years to think of them, during which time you were at
liberty to leave the city, if we were not to your mind, or if our covenants appeared to you
to be unfair. You had your choice, and might have gone either to Lacedaemon or Crete,
which you often praise for their good government, or to some other Hellenic or foreign
State. Whereas you, above all other Athenians, seemed to be so fond of the State, or, in
other words, of us her laws (for who would like a State that has no laws?), that you never
stirred out of her: the halt, the blind, the maimed, were not more stationary in her than
you were. And now you run away and forsake your agreements. Not so, Socrates, if you
will take our advice; do not make yourself ridiculous by escaping out of the city.
"For just consider, if you transgress and err in this sort of way, what good will you do,
either to yourself or to your friends? That your friends will be driven into exile and
deprived of citizenship, or will lose their property, is tolerably certain; and you yourself,
if you fly to one of the neighboring cities, as, for example, Thebes or Megara, both of
which are well-governed cities, will come to them as an enemy, Socrates, and their
government will be against you, and all patriotic citizens will cast an evil eye upon you as
a subverter of the laws, and you will confirm in the minds of the judges the justice of
their own condemnation of you. For he who is a corrupter of the laws is more than likely
to be corrupter of the young and foolish portion of mankind. Will you then flee from
well-ordered cities and virtuous men? and is existence worth having on these terms? Or
will you go to them without shame, and talk to them, Socrates? And what will you say to
them? What you say here about virtue and justice and institutions and laws being the best
things among men? Would that be decent of you? Surely not. But if you go away from
well-governed States to Crito's friends in Thessaly, where there is great disorder and
license, they will be charmed to have the tale of your escape from prison, set off with
ludicrous particulars of the manner in which you were wrapped in a goatskin or some
other disguise, and metamorphosed as the fashion of runaways is- that is very likely; but
will there be no one to remind you that in your old age you violated the most sacred laws
from a miserable desire of a little more life? Perhaps not, if you keep them in a good
temper; but if they are out of temper you will hear many degrading things; you will live,
but how?- as the flatterer of all men, and the servant of all men; and doing what?- eating
and drinking in Thessaly, having gone abroad in order that you may get a dinner. And
where will be your fine sentiments about justice and virtue then? Say that you wish to
live for the sake of your children, that you may bring them up and educate them- will you
take them into Thessaly and deprive them of Athenian citizenship? Is that the benefit
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which you would confer upon them? Or are you under the impression that they will be
better cared for and educated here if you are still alive, although absent from them; for
that your friends will take care of them? Do you fancy that if you are an inhabitant of
Thessaly they will take care of them, and if you are an inhabitant of the other world they
will not take care of them? Nay; but if they who call themselves friends are truly friends,
they surely will.
"Listen, then, Socrates, to us who have brought you up. Think not of life and children
first, and of justice afterwards, but of justice first, that you may be justified before the
princes of the world below. For neither will you nor any that belong to you be happier or
holier or juster in this life, or happier in another, if you do as Crito bids. Now you depart
in innocence, a sufferer and not a doer of evil; a victim, not of the laws, but of men. But if
you go forth, returning evil for evil, and injury for injury, breaking the covenants and
agreements which you have made with us, and wronging those whom you ought least to
wrong, that is to say, yourself, your friends, your country, and us, we shall be angry with
you while you live, and our brethren, the laws in the world below, will receive you as an
enemy; for they will know that you have done your best to destroy us. Listen, then, to us
and not to Crito."
This is the voice which I seem to hear murmuring in my ears, like the sound of the flute
in the ears of the mystic; that voice, I say, is humming in my ears, and prevents me from
hearing any other. And I know that anything more which you will say will be in vain. Yet
speak, if you have anything to say.
Cr. I have nothing to say, Socrates.
Soc. Then let me follow the intimations of the will of God.
THE END
Source:
classics.mit.edu/Plato/crito.html
144
The Enchiridion
By Epictetus
Written 135 A.C.E.
Translated by Elizabeth Carter
1. Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion,
pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our
control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our
own actions.
The things in our control are by nature free, unrestrained, unhindered; but those not in our
control are weak, slavish, restrained, belonging to others. Remember, then, that if you
suppose that things which are slavish by nature are also free, and that what belongs to
others is your own, then you will be hindered. You will lament, you will be disturbed,
and you will find fault both with gods and men. But if you suppose that only to be your
own which is your own, and what belongs to others such as it really is, then no one will
ever compel you or restrain you. Further, you will find fault with no one or accuse no
one. You will do nothing against your will. No one will hurt you, you will have no
enemies, and you not be harmed.
Aiming therefore at such great things, remember that you must not allow yourself to be
carried, even with a slight tendency, towards the attainment of lesser things. Instead, you
must entirely quit some things and for the present postpone the rest. But if you would
both have these great things, along with power and riches, then you will not gain even the
latter, because you aim at the former too: but you will absolutely fail of the former, by
which alone happiness and freedom are achieved.
Work, therefore to be able to say to every harsh appearance, "You are but an appearance,
and not absolutely the thing you appear to be." And then examine it by those rules which
you have, and first, and chiefly, by this: whether it concerns the things which are in our
own control, or those which are not; and, if it concerns anything not in our control, be
prepared to say that it is nothing to you.
2. Remember that following desire promises the attainment of that of which you are
desirous; and aversion promises the avoiding that to which you are averse. However, he
who fails to obtain the object of his desire is disappointed, and he who incurs the object
of his aversion wretched. If, then, you confine your aversion to those objects only which
are contrary to the natural use of your faculties, which you have in your own control, you
will never incur anything to which you are averse. But if you are averse to sickness, or
death, or poverty, you will be wretched. Remove aversion, then, from all things that are
not in our control, and transfer it to things contrary to the nature of what is in our control.
But, for the present, totally suppress desire: for, if you desire any of the things which are
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not in your own control, you must necessarily be disappointed; and of those which are,
and which it would be laudable to desire, nothing is yet in your possession. Use only the
appropriate actions of pursuit and avoidance; and even these lightly, and with gentleness
and reservation.
3. With regard to whatever objects give you delight, are useful, or are deeply loved,
remember to tell yourself of what general nature they are, beginning from the most
insignificant things. If, for example, you are fond of a specific ceramic cup, remind
yourself that it is only ceramic cups in general of which you are fond. Then, if it breaks,
you will not be disturbed. If you kiss your child, or your wife, say that you only kiss
things which are human, and thus you will not be disturbed if either of them dies.
4. When you are going about any action, remind yourself what nature the action is. If you
are going to bathe, picture to yourself the things which usually happen in the bath: some
people splash the water, some push, some use abusive language, and others steal. Thus
you will more safely go about this action if you say to yourself, "I will now go bathe, and
keep my own mind in a state conformable to nature." And in the same manner with
regard to every other action. For thus, if any hindrance arises in bathing, you will have it
ready to say, "It was not only to bathe that I desired, but to keep my mind in a state
conformable to nature; and I will not keep it if I am bothered at things that happen.
5. Men are disturbed, not by things, but by the principles and notions which they form
concerning things. Death, for instance, is not terrible, else it would have appeared so to
Socrates. But the terror consists in our notion of death that it is terrible. When therefore
we are hindered, or disturbed, or grieved, let us never attribute it to others, but to
ourselves; that is, to our own principles. An uninstructed person will lay the fault of his
own bad condition upon others. Someone just starting instruction will lay the fault on
himself. Some who is perfectly instructed will place blame neither on others nor on
himself.
6. Don't be prideful with any excellence that is not your own. If a horse should be
prideful and say, " I am handsome," it would be supportable. But when you are prideful,
and say, " I have a handsome horse," know that you are proud of what is, in fact, only the
good of the horse. What, then, is your own? Only your reaction to the appearances of
things. Thus, when you behave conformably to nature in reaction to how things appear,
you will be proud with reason; for you will take pride in some good of your own.
7. Consider when, on a voyage, your ship is anchored; if you go on shore to get water you
may along the way amuse yourself with picking up a shellish, or an onion. However, your
thoughts and continual attention ought to be bent towards the ship, waiting for the captain
to call on board; you must then immediately leave all these things, otherwise you will be
thrown into the ship, bound neck and feet like a sheep. So it is with life. If, instead of an
onion or a shellfish, you are given a wife or child, that is fine. But if the captain calls, you
must run to the ship, leaving them, and regarding none of them. But if you are old, never
go far from the ship: lest, when you are called, you should be unable to come in time.
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8. Don't demand that things happen as you wish, but wish that they happen as they do
happen, and you will go on well.
9. Sickness is a hindrance to the body, but not to your ability to choose, unless that is
your choice. Lameness is a hindrance to the leg, but not to your ability to choose. Say this
to yourself with regard to everything that happens, then you will see such obstacles as
hindrances to something else, but not to yourself.
10. With every accident, ask yourself what abilities you have for making a proper use of
it. If you see an attractive person, you will find that self-restraint is the ability you have
against your desire. If you are in pain, you will find fortitude. If you hear unpleasant
language, you will find patience. And thus habituated, the appearances of things will not
hurry you away along with them.
11. Never say of anything, "I have lost it"; but, "I have returned it." Is your child dead? It
is returned. Is your wife dead? She is returned. Is your estate taken away? Well, and is
not that likewise returned? "But he who took it away is a bad man." What difference is it
to you who the giver assigns to take it back? While he gives it to you to possess, take care
of it; but don't view it as your own, just as travelers view a hotel.
12. If you want to improve, reject such reasonings as these: "If I neglect my affairs, I'll
have no income; if I don't correct my servant, he will be bad." For it is better to die with
hunger, exempt from grief and fear, than to live in affluence with perturbation; and it is
better your servant should be bad, than you unhappy.
Begin therefore from little things. Is a little oil spilt? A little wine stolen? Say to yourself,
"This is the price paid for apathy, for tranquillity, and nothing is to be had for nothing."
When you call your servant, it is possible that he may not come; or, if he does, he may
not do what you want. But he is by no means of such importance that it should be in his
power to give you any disturbance.
13. If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid with regard to
external things. Don't wish to be thought to know anything; and even if you appear to be
somebody important to others, distrust yourself. For, it is difficult to both keep your
faculty of choice in a state conformable to nature, and at the same time acquire external
things. But while you are careful about the one, you must of necessity neglect the other.
14. If you wish your children, and your wife, and your friends to live for ever, you are
stupid; for you wish to be in control of things which you cannot, you wish for things that
belong to others to be your own. So likewise, if you wish your servant to be without fault,
you are a fool; for you wish vice not to be vice," but something else. But, if you wish to
have your desires undisappointed, this is in your own control. Exercise, therefore, what is
in your control. He is the master of every other person who is able to confer or remove
whatever that person wishes either to have or to avoid. Whoever, then, would be free, let
him wish nothing, let him decline nothing, which depends on others else he must
necessarily be a slave.
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15. Remember that you must behave in life as at a dinner party. Is anything brought
around to you? Put out your hand and take your share with moderation. Does it pass by
you? Don't stop it. Is it not yet come? Don't stretch your desire towards it, but wait till it
reaches you. Do this with regard to children, to a wife, to public posts, to riches, and you
will eventually be a worthy partner of the feasts of the gods. And if you don't even take
the things which are set before you, but are able even to reject them, then you will not
only be a partner at the feasts of the gods, but also of their empire. For, by doing this,
Diogenes, Heraclitus and others like them, deservedly became, and were called, divine.
16. When you see anyone weeping in grief because his son has gone abroad, or is dead,
or because he has suffered in his affairs, be careful that the appearance may not misdirect
you. Instead, distinguish within your own mind, and be prepared to say, "It's not the
accident that distresses this person., because it doesn't distress another person; it is the
judgment which he makes about it." As far as words go, however, don't reduce yourself
to his level, and certainly do not moan with him. Do not moan inwardly either.
17. Remember that you are an actor in a drama, of such a kind as the author pleases to
make it. If short, of a short one; if long, of a long one. If it is his pleasure you should act a
poor man, a cripple, a governor, or a private person, see that you act it naturally. For this
is your business, to act well the character assigned you; to choose it is another's.
18. When a raven happens to croak unluckily, don't allow the appearance hurry you away
with it, but immediately make the distinction to yourself, and say, "None of these things
are foretold to me; but either to my paltry body, or property, or reputation, or children, or
wife. But to me all omens are lucky, if I will. For whichever of these things happens, it is
in my control to derive advantage from it."
19. You may be unconquerable, if you enter into no combat in which it is not in your own
control to conquer. When, therefore, you see anyone eminent in honors, or power, or in
high esteem on any other account, take heed not to be hurried away with the appearance,
and to pronounce him happy; for, if the essence of good consists in things in our own
control, there will be no room for envy or emulation. But, for your part, don't wish to be a
general, or a senator, or a consul, but to be free; and the only way to this is a contempt of
things not in our own control.
20. Remember, that not he who gives ill language or a blow insults, but the principle
which represents these things as insulting. When, therefore, anyone provokes you, be
assured that it is your own opinion which provokes you. Try, therefore, in the first place,
not to be hurried away with the appearance. For if you once gain time and respite, you
will more easily command yourself.
21. Let death and exile, and all other things which appear terrible be daily before your
eyes, but chiefly death, and you win never entertain any abject thought, nor too eagerly
covet anything.
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22. If you have an earnest desire of attaining to philosophy, prepare yourself from the
very first to be laughed at, to be sneered by the multitude, to hear them say,." He is
returned to us a philosopher all at once," and " Whence this supercilious look?" Now, for
your part, don't have a supercilious look indeed; but keep steadily to those things which
appear best to you as one appointed by God to this station. For remember that, if you
adhere to the same point, those very persons who at first ridiculed will afterwards admire
you. But if you are conquered by them, you will incur a double ridicule.
23. If you ever happen to turn your attention to externals, so as to wish to please anyone,
be assured that you have ruined your scheme of life. Be contented, then, in everything
with being a philosopher; and, if you wish to be thought so likewise by anyone, appear so
to yourself, and it will suffice you.
24. Don't allow such considerations as these distress you. "I will live in dishonor, and be
nobody anywhere." For, if dishonor is an evil, you can no more be involved in any evil
by the means of another, than be engaged in anything base. Is it any business of yours,
then, to get power, or to be admitted to an entertainment? By no means. How, then, after
all, is this a dishonor? And how is it true that you will be nobody anywhere, when you
ought to be somebody in those things only which are in your own control, in which you
may be of the greatest consequence? "But my friends will be unassisted." -- What do you
mean by unassisted? They will not have money from you, nor will you make them
Roman citizens. Who told you, then, that these are among the things in our own control,
and not the affair of others? And who can give to another the things which he has not
himself? "Well, but get them, then, that we too may have a share." If I can get them with
the preservation of my own honor and fidelity and greatness of mind, show me the way
and I will get them; but if you require me to lose my own proper good that you may gain
what is not good, consider how inequitable and foolish you are. Besides, which would
you rather have, a sum of money, or a friend of fidelity and honor? Rather assist me,
then, to gain this character than require me to do those things by which I may lose it.
Well, but my country, say you, as far as depends on me, will be unassisted. Here again,
what assistance is this you mean? "It will not have porticoes nor baths of your providing."
And what signifies that? Why, neither does a smith provide it with shoes, or a shoemaker
with arms. It is enough if everyone fully performs his own proper business. And were
you to supply it with another citizen of honor and fidelity, would not he be of use to it?
Yes. Therefore neither are you yourself useless to it. "What place, then, say you, will I
hold in the state?" Whatever you can hold with the preservation of your fidelity and
honor. But if, by desiring to be useful to that, you lose these, of what use can you be to
your country when you are become faithless and void of shame.
25. Is anyone preferred before you at an entertainment, or in a compliment, or in being
admitted to a consultation? If these things are good, you ought to be glad that he has
gotten them; and if they are evil, don't be grieved that you have not gotten them. And
remember that you cannot, without using the same means [which others do] to acquire
things not in our own control, expect to be thought worthy of an equal share of them. For
how can he who does not frequent the door of any [great] man, does not attend him, does
not praise him, have an equal share with him who does? You are unjust, then, and
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insatiable, if you are unwilling to pay the price for which these things are sold, and would
have them for nothing. For how much is lettuce sold? Fifty cents, for instance. If another,
then, paying fifty cents, takes the lettuce, and you, not paying it, go without them, don't
imagine that he has gained any advantage over you. For as he has the lettuce, so you have
the fifty cents which you did not give. So, in the present case, you have not been invited
to such a person's entertainment, because you have not paid him the price for which a
supper is sold. It is sold for praise; it is sold for attendance. Give him then the value, if it
is for your advantage. But if you would, at the same time, not pay the one and yet receive
the other, you are insatiable, and a blockhead. Have you nothing, then, instead of the
supper? Yes, indeed, you have: the not praising him, whom you don't like to praise; the
not bearing with his behavior at coming in.
26. The will of nature may be learned from those things in which we don't distinguish
from each other. For example, when our neighbor's boy breaks a cup, or the like, we are
presently ready to say, "These things will happen." Be assured, then, that when your own
cup likewise is broken, you ought to be affected just as when another's cup was broken.
Apply this in like manner to greater things. Is the child or wife of another dead? There is
no one who would not say, "This is a human accident." but if anyone's own child happens
to die, it is presently, "Alas I how wretched am I!" But it should be remembered how we
are affected in hearing the same thing concerning others.
27. As a mark is not set up for the sake of missing the aim, so neither does the nature of
evil exist in the world.
28. If a person gave your body to any stranger he met on his way, you would certainly be
angry. And do you feel no shame in handing over your own mind to be confused and
mystified by anyone who happens to verbally attack you?
29. In every affair consider what precedes and follows, and then undertake it. Otherwise
you will begin with spirit; but not having thought of the consequences, when some of
them appear you will shamefully desist. "I would conquer at the Olympic games." But
consider what precedes and follows, and then, if it is for your advantage, engage in the
affair. You must conform to rules, submit to a diet, refrain from dainties; exercise your
body, whether you choose it or not, at a stated hour, in heat and cold; you must drink no
cold water, nor sometimes even wine. In a word, you must give yourself up to your
master, as to a physician. Then, in the combat, you may be thrown into a ditch, dislocate
your arm, turn your ankle, swallow dust, be whipped, and, after all, lose the victory.
When you have evaluated all this, if your inclination still holds, then go to war.
Otherwise, take notice, you will behave like children who sometimes play like wrestlers,
sometimes gladiators, sometimes blow a trumpet, and sometimes act a tragedy when they
have seen and admired these shows. Thus you too will be at one time a wrestler, at
another a gladiator, now a philosopher, then an orator; but with your whole soul, nothing
at all. Like an ape, you mimic all you see, and one thing after another is sure to please
you, but is out of favor as soon as it becomes familiar. For you have never entered upon
anything considerately, nor after having viewed the whole matter on all sides, or made
any scrutiny into it, but rashly, and with a cold inclination. Thus some, when they have
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seen a philosopher and heard a man speaking like Euphrates (though, indeed, who can
speak like him?), have a mind to be philosophers too. Consider first, man, what the
matter is, and what your own nature is able to bear. If you would be a wrestler, consider
your shoulders, your back, your thighs; for different persons are made for different
things. Do you think that you can act as you do, and be a philosopher? That you can eat
and drink, and be angry and discontented as you are now? You must watch, you must
labor, you must get the better of certain appetites, must quit your acquaintance, be
despised by your servant, be laughed at by those you meet; come off worse than others in
everything, in magistracies, in honors, in courts of judicature. When you have considered
all these things round, approach, if you please; if, by parting with them, you have a mind
to purchase apathy, freedom, and tranquillity. If not, don't come here; don't, like children,
be one while a philosopher, then a publican, then an orator, and then one of Caesar's
officers. These things are not consistent. You must be one man, either good or bad. You
must cultivate either your own ruling faculty or externals, and apply yourself either to
things within or without you; that is, be either a philosopher, or one of the vulgar.
30. Duties are universally measured by relations. Is anyone a father? If so, it is implied
that the children should take care of him, submit to him in everything, patiently listen to
his reproaches, his correction. But he is a bad father. Is you naturally entitled, then, to a
good father? No, only to a father. Is a brother unjust? Well, keep your own situation
towards him. Consider not what he does, but what you are to do to keep your own faculty
of choice in a state conformable to nature. For another will not hurt you unless you
please. You will then be hurt when you think you are hurt. In this manner, therefore, you
will find, from the idea of a neighbor, a citizen, a general, the corresponding duties if you
accustom yourself to contemplate the several relations.
31. Be assured that the essential property of piety towards the gods is to form right
opinions concerning them, as existing "I and as governing the universe with goodness
and justice. And fix yourself in this resolution, to obey them, and yield to them, and
willingly follow them in all events, as produced by the most perfect understanding. For
thus you will never find fault with the gods, nor accuse them as neglecting you. And it is
not possible for this to be effected any other way than by withdrawing yourself from
things not in our own control, and placing good or evil in those only which are. For if you
suppose any of the things not in our own control to be either good or evil, when you are
disappointed of what you wish, or incur what you would avoid, you must necessarily find
fault with and blame the authors. For every animal is naturally formed to fly and abhor
things that appear hurtful, and the causes of them; and to pursue and admire those which
appear beneficial, and the causes of them. It is impractical, then, that one who supposes
himself to be hurt should be happy about the person who, he thinks, hurts him, just as it is
impossible to be happy about the hurt itself. Hence, also, a father is reviled by a son,
when he does not impart to him the things which he takes to be good; and the supposing
empire to be a good made Polynices and Eteocles mutually enemies. On this account the
husbandman, the sailor, the merchant, on this account those who lose wives and children,
revile the gods. For where interest is, there too is piety placed. So that, whoever is careful
to regulate his desires and aversions as he ought, is, by the very same means, careful of
piety likewise. But it is also incumbent on everyone to offer libations and sacrifices and
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first fruits, conformably to the customs of his country, with purity, and not in a slovenly
manner, nor negligently, nor sparingly, nor beyond his ability.
32. When you have recourse to divination, remember that you know not what the event
will be, and you come to learn it of the diviner; but of what nature it is you know before
you come, at least if you are a philosopher. For if it is among the things not in our own
control, it can by no means be either good or evil. Don't, therefore, bring either desire or
aversion with you to the diviner (else you will approach him trembling), but first acquire
a distinct knowledge that every event is indifferent and nothing to you., of whatever sort
it may be, for it will be in your power to make a right use of it, and this no one can
hinder; then come with confidence to the gods, as your counselors, and afterwards, when
any counsel is given you, remember what counselors you have assumed, and whose
advice you will neglect if you disobey. Come to divination, as Socrates prescribed, in
cases of which the whole consideration relates to the event, and in which no opportunities
are afforded by reason, or any other art, to discover the thing proposed to be learned.
When, therefore, it is our duty to share the danger of a friend or of our country, we ought
not to consult the oracle whether we will share it with them or not. For, though the
diviner should forewarn you that the victims are unfavorable, this means no more than
that either death or mutilation or exile is portended. But we have reason within us, and it
directs, even with these hazards, to the greater diviner, the Pythian god, who cast out of
the temple the person who gave no assistance to his friend while another was murdering
him.
33. Immediately prescribe some character and form of conduce to yourself, which you
may keep both alone and in company.
Be for the most part silent, or speak merely what is necessary, and in few words. We
may, however, enter, though sparingly, into discourse sometimes when occasion calls for
it, but not on any of the common subjects, of gladiators, or horse races, or athletic
champions, or feasts, the vulgar topics of conversation; but principally not of men, so as
either to blame, or praise, or make comparisons. If you are able, then, by your own
conversation bring over that of your company to proper subjects; but, if you happen to be
taken among strangers, be silent.
Don't allow your laughter be much, nor on many occasions, nor profuse.
Avoid swearing, if possible, altogether; if not, as far as you are able.
Avoid public and vulgar entertainments; but, if ever an occasion calls you to them, keep
your attention upon the stretch, that you may not imperceptibly slide into vulgar manners.
For be assured that if a person be ever so sound himself, yet, if his companion be
infected, he who converses with him will be infected likewise.
Provide things relating to the body no further than mere use; as meat, drink, clothing,
house, family. But strike off and reject everything relating to show and delicacy.
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As far as possible, before marriage, keep yourself pure from familiarities with women,
and, if you indulge them, let it be lawfully." But don't therefore be troublesome and full
of reproofs to those who use these liberties, nor frequently boast that you yourself don't.
If anyone tells you that such a person speaks ill of you, don't make excuses about what is
said of you, but answer: " He does not know my other faults, else he would not have
mentioned only these."
It is not necessary for you to appear often at public spectacles; but if ever there is a proper
occasion for you to be there, don't appear more solicitous for anyone than for yourself;
that is, wish things to be only just as they are, and him only to conquer who is the
conqueror, for thus you will meet with no hindrance. But abstain entirely from
declamations and derision and violent emotions. And when you come away, don't
discourse a great deal on what has passed, and what does not contribute to your own
amendment. For it would appear by such discourse that you were immoderately struck
with the show.
Go not [of your own accord] to the rehearsals of any
authors , nor appear [at them] readily. But, if you do appear, keepyour gravity and
sedateness, and at the same time avoid being morose.
When you are going to confer with anyone, and particularly of those in a superior station,
represent to yourself how Socrates or Zeno would behave in such a case, and you will not
be at a loss to make a proper use of whatever may occur.
When you are going to any of the people in power, represent to yourself that you will not
find him at home; that you will not be admitted; that the doors will not be opened to you;
that he will take no notice of you. If, with all this, it is your duty to go, bear what
happens, and never say [to yourself], " It was not worth so much." For this is vulgar, and
like a man dazed by external things.
In parties of conversation, avoid a frequent and excessive mention of your own actions
and dangers. For, however agreeable it may be to yourself to mention the risks you have
run, it is not equally agreeable to others to hear your adventures. Avoid, likewise, an
endeavor to excite laughter. For this is a slippery point, which may throw you into vulgar
manners, and, besides, may be apt to lessen you in the esteem of your acquaintance.
Approaches to indecent discourse are likewise dangerous. Whenever, therefore, anything
of this sort happens, if there be a proper opportunity, rebuke him who makes advances
that way; or, at least, by silence and blushing and a forbidding look, show yourself to be
displeased by such talk.
34. If you are struck by the appearance of any promised pleasure, guard yourself against
being hurried away by it; but let the affair wait your leisure, and procure yourself some
delay. Then bring to your mind both points of time: that in which you will enjoy the
pleasure, and that in which you will repent and reproach yourself after you have enjoyed
it; and set before you, in opposition to these, how you will be glad and applaud yourself if
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you abstain. And even though it should appear to you a seasonable gratification, take
heed that its enticing, and agreeable and attractive force may not subdue you; but set in
opposition to this how much better it is to be conscious of having gained so great a
victory.
35. When you do anything from a clear judgment that it ought to be done, never shun the
being seen to do it, even though the world should make a wrong supposition about it; for,
if you don't act right, shun the action itself; but, if you do, why are you afraid of those
who censure you wrongly?
36. As the proposition, "Either it is day or it is night," is extremely proper for a
disjunctive argument, but quite improper in a conjunctive one, so, at a feast, to choose the
largest share is very suitable to the bodily appetite, but utterly inconsistent with the social
spirit of an entertainment. When you eat with another, then, remember not only the value
of those things which are set before you to the body, but the value of that behavior which
ought to be observed towards the person who gives the entertainment.
37. If you have assumed any character above your strength, you have both made an ill
figure in that and quitted one which you might have supported.
38. When walking, you are careful not to step on a nail or turn your foot; so likewise be
careful not to hurt the ruling faculty of your mind. And, if we were to guard against this
in every action, we should undertake the action with the greater safety.
39. The body is to everyone the measure of the possessions proper for it, just as the foot
is of the shoe. If, therefore, you stop at this, you will keep the measure; but if you move
beyond it, you must necessarily be carried forward, as down a cliff; as in the case of a
shoe, if you go beyond its fitness to the foot, it comes first to be gilded, then purple, and
then studded with jewels. For to that which once exceeds a due measure, there is no
bound.
40. Women from fourteen years old are flattered with the title of "mistresses" by the men.
Therefore, perceiving that they are regarded only as qualified to give the men pleasure,
they begin to adorn themselves, and in that to place ill their hopes. We should, therefore,
fix our attention on making them sensible that they are valued for the appearance of
decent, modest and discreet behavior.
41. It is a mark of want of genius to spend much time in things relating to the body, as to
be long in our exercises, in eating and drinking, and in the discharge of other animal
functions. These should be done incidentally and slightly, and our whole attention be
engaged in the care of the understanding.
42. When any person harms you, or speaks badly of you, remember that he acts or speaks
from a supposition of its being his duty. Now, it is not possible that he should follow
what appears right to you, but what appears so to himself. Therefore, if he judges from a
wrong appearance, he is the person hurt, since he too is the person deceived. For if
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anyone should suppose a true proposition to be false, the proposition is not hurt, but he
who is deceived about it. Setting out, then, from these principles, you will meekly bear a
person who reviles you, for you will say upon every occasion, "It seemed so to him."
43. Everything has two handles, the one by which it may be carried, the other by which it
cannot. If your brother acts unjustly, don't lay hold on the action by the handle of his
injustice, for by that it cannot be carried; but by the opposite, that he is your brother, that
he was brought up with you; and thus you will lay hold on it, as it is to be carried.
44. These reasonings are unconnected: "I am richer than you, therefore I am better"; "I
am more eloquent than you, therefore I am better." The connection is rather this: "I am
richer than you, therefore my property is greater than yours;" "I am more eloquent than
you, therefore my style is better than yours." But you, after all, are neither property nor
style.
45. Does anyone bathe in a mighty little time? Don't say that he does it ill, but in a mighty
little time. Does anyone drink a great quantity of wine? Don't say that he does ill, but that
he drinks a great quantity. For, unless you perfectly understand the principle from which
anyone acts, how should you know if he acts ill? Thus you will not run the hazard of
assenting to any appearances but such as you fully comprehend.
46. Never call yourself a philosopher, nor talk a great deal among the unlearned about
theorems, but act conformably to them. Thus, at an entertainment, don't talk how persons
ought to eat, but eat as you ought. For remember that in this manner Socrates also
universally avoided all ostentation. And when persons came to him and desired to be
recommended by him to philosophers, he took and- recommended them, so well did he
bear being overlooked. So that if ever any talk should happen among the unlearned
concerning philosophic theorems, be you, for the most part, silent. For there is great
danger in immediately throwing out what you have not digested. And, if anyone tells you
that you know nothing, and you are not nettled at it, then you may be sure that you have
begun your business. For sheep don't throw up the grass to show the shepherds how much
they have eaten; but, inwardly digesting their food, they outwardly produce wool and
milk. Thus, therefore, do you likewise not show theorems to the unlearned, but the
actions produced by them after they have been digested.
47. When you have brought yourself to supply the necessities of your body at a small
price, don't pique yourself upon it; nor, if you drink water, be saying upon every
occasion, "I drink water." But first consider how much more sparing and patient of
hardship the poor are than we. But if at any time you would inure yourself by exercise to
labor, and bearing hard trials, do it for your own sake, and not for the world; don't grasp
statues, but, when you are violently thirsty, take a little cold water in your mouth, and
spurt it out and tell nobody.
48. The condition and characteristic of a vulgar person, is, that he never expects either
benefit or hurt from himself, but from externals. The condition and characteristic of a
philosopher is, that he expects all hurt and benefit from himself. The marks of a
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proficient are, that he censures no one, praises no one, blames no one, accuses no one,
says nothing concerning himself as being anybody, or knowing anything: when he is, in
any instance, hindered or restrained, he accuses himself; and, if he is praised, he secretly
laughs at the person who praises him; and, if he is censured, he makes no defense. But he
goes about with the caution of sick or injured people, dreading to move anything that is
set right, before it is perfectly fixed. He suppresses all desire in himself; he transfers his
aversion to those things only which thwart the proper use of our own faculty of choice;
the exertion of his active powers towards anything is very gentle; if he appears stupid or
ignorant, he does not care, and, in a word, he watches himself as an enemy, and one in
ambush.
49. When anyone shows himself overly confident in ability to understand and interpret
the works of Chrysippus, say to yourself, " Unless Chrysippus had written obscurely, this
person would have had no subject for his vanity. But what do I desire? To understand
nature and follow her. I ask, then, who interprets her, and, finding Chrysippus does, I
have recourse to him. I don't understand his writings. I seek, therefore, one to interpret
them." So far there is nothing to value myself upon. And when I find an interpreter, what
remains is to make use of his instructions. This alone is the valuable thing. But, if I
admire nothing but merely the interpretation, what do I become more than a grammarian
instead of a philosopher? Except, indeed, that instead of Homer I interpret Chrysippus.
When anyone, therefore, desires me to read Chrysippus to him, I rather blush when I
cannot show my actions agreeable and consonant to his discourse.
50. Whatever moral rules you have deliberately proposed to yourself. abide by them as
they were laws, and as if you would be guilty of impiety by violating any of them. Don't
regard what anyone says of you, for this, after all, is no concern of yours. How long, then,
will you put off thinking yourself worthy of the highest improvements and follow the
distinctions of reason? You have received the philosophical theorems, with which you
ought to be familiar, and you have been familiar with them. What other master, then, do
you wait for, to throw upon that the delay of reforming yourself? You are no longer a
boy, but a grown man. If, therefore, you will be negligent and slothful, and always add
procrastination to procrastination, purpose to purpose, and fix day after day in which you
will attend to yourself, you will insensibly continue without proficiency, and, living and
dying, persevere in being one of the vulgar. This instant, then, think yourself worthy of
living as a man grown up, and a proficient. Let whatever appears to be the best be to you
an inviolable law. And if any instance of pain or pleasure, or glory or disgrace, is set
before you, remember that now is the combat, now the Olympiad comes on, nor can it be
put off. By once being defeated and giving way, proficiency is lost, or by the contrary
preserved. Thus Socrates became perfect, improving himself by everything. attending to
nothing but reason. And though you are not yet a Socrates, you ought, however, to live as
one desirous of becoming a Socrates.
51. The first and most necessary topic in philosophy is that of the use of moral theorems,
such as, "We ought not to lie;" the second is that of demonstrations, such as, "What is the
origin of our obligation not to lie;" the third gives strength and articulation to the other
two, such as, "What is the origin of this is a demonstration." For what is demonstration?
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What is consequence? What contradiction? What truth? What falsehood? The third topic,
then, is necessary on the account of the second, and the second on the account of the first.
But the most necessary, and that whereon we ought to rest, is the first. But we act just on
the contrary. For we spend all our time on the third topic, and employ all our diligence
about that, and entirely neglect the first. Therefore, at the same time that we lie, we are
immediately prepared to show how it is demonstrated that lying is not right.
52. Upon all occasions we ought to have these maxims ready at hand:
"Conduct me, Jove, and you, 0 Destiny,
Wherever your decrees have fixed my station."
Cleanthes
"I follow cheerfully; and, did I not,
Wicked and wretched, I must follow still
Whoever yields properly to Fate, is deemed
Wise among men, and knows the laws of heaven."
Euripides, Frag. 965
And this third:
"0 Crito, if it thus pleases the gods, thus let it be. Anytus and Melitus may kill me indeed,
but hurt me they cannot."
Plato's Crito and Apology
THE END
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@
THE DOCTRINE OF THE MEAN
Confucius
http://www.sacred-texts.com/cfu/conf3.htm
What Heaven has conferred is called The Nature; an accordance with this nature is
called The Path of duty; the regulation of this path is called Instruction.
The path may not be left for an instant. If it could be left, it would not be the path. On
this account, the superior man does not wait till he sees things, to be cautious, nor till he
hears things, to be apprehensive.
There is nothing more visible than what is secret, and nothing more manifest than
what is minute. Therefore the superior man is watchful over himself, when he is alone.
While there are no stirrings of pleasure, anger, sorrow, or joy, the mind may be said
to be in the state of Equilibrium. When those feelings have been stirred, and they act in
their due degree, there ensues what may be called the state of Harmony. This Equilibrium
is the great root from which grow all the human actings in the world, and this Harmony is
the universal path which they all should pursue.
Let the states of equilibrium and harmony exist in perfection, and a happy order will
prevail throughout heaven and earth, and all things will be nourished and flourish.
Chung-ni said, "The superior man embodies the course of the Mean; the mean man
acts contrary to the course of the Mean.
"The superior man's embodying the course of the Mean is because he is a superior
man, and so always maintains the Mean. The mean man's acting contrary to the course of
the Mean is because he is a mean man, and has no caution."
The Master said, "Perfect is the virtue which is according to the Mean! Rare have
they long been among the people, who could practice it!
The Master said, "I know how it is that the path of the Mean is not walked in:-The
knowing go beyond it, and the stupid do not come up to it. I know how it is that the path
of the Mean is not understood:-The men of talents and virtue go beyond it, and the
worthless do not come up to it.
"There is no body but eats and drinks. But they are few who can distinguish flavors."
The Master said, "Alas! How is the path of the Mean untrodden!"
The Master said, "There was Shun:-He indeed was greatly wise! Shun loved to
question others, and to study their words, though they might be shallow. He concealed
what was bad in them and displayed what was good. He took hold of their two extremes,
determined the Mean, and employed it in his government of the people. It was by this that
he was Shun!"
The Master said "Men all say, 'We are wise'; but being driven forward and taken in a
net, a trap, or a pitfall, they know not how to escape. Men all say, 'We are wise'; but
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happening to choose the course of the Mean, they are not able to keep it for a round
month."
The Master said "This was the manner of Hui:-he made choice of the Mean, and
whenever he got hold of what was good, he clasped it firmly, as if wearing it on his
breast, and did not lose it."
The Master said, "The kingdom, its states, and its families, may be perfectly ruled;
dignities and emoluments may be declined; naked weapons may be trampled under the
feet; but the course of the Mean cannot be attained to."
Tsze-lu asked about energy.
The Master said, "Do you mean the energy of the South, the energy of the North, or
the energy which you should cultivate yourself?
"To show forbearance and gentleness in teaching others; and not to revenge
unreasonable conduct:-this is the energy of southern regions, and the good man makes it
his study.
"To lie under arms; and meet death without regret:-this is the energy of northern
regions, and the forceful make it their study.
"Therefore, the superior man cultivates a friendly harmony, without being weak.-How
firm is he in his energy! He stands erect in the middle, without inclining to either side.How firm is he in his energy! When good principles prevail in the government of his
country, he does not change from what he was in retirement. How firm is he in his
energy! When bad principles prevail in the country, he maintains his course to death
without changing.-How firm is he in his energy!"
The Master said, "To live in obscurity, and yet practice wonders, in order to be
mentioned with honor in future ages:-this is what I do not do.
"The good man tries to proceed according to the right path, but when he has gone
halfway, he abandons it:-I am not able so to stop.
"The superior man accords with the course of the Mean. Though he may be all
unknown, unregarded by the world, he feels no regret.-It is only the sage who is able for
this."
The way which the superior man pursues, reaches wide and far, and yet is secret.
Common men and women, however ignorant, may intermeddle with the knowledge
of it; yet in its utmost reaches, there is that which even the sage does not know. Common
men and women, however much below the ordinary standard of character, can carry it
into practice; yet in its utmost reaches, there is that which even the sage is not able to
carry into practice. Great as heaven and earth are, men still find some things in them with
which to be dissatisfied. Thus it is that, were the superior man to speak of his way in all
its greatness, nothing in the world would be found able to embrace it, and were he to
speak of it in its minuteness, nothing in the world would be found able to split it.
It is said in the Book of Poetry, "The hawk flies up to heaven; the fishes leap in the
deep." This expresses how this way is seen above and below.
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The way of the superior man may be found, in its simple elements, in the intercourse
of common men and women; but in its utmost reaches, it shines brightly through Heaven
and earth.
The Master said "The path is not far from man. When men try to pursue a course,
which is far from the common indications of consciousness, this course cannot be
considered The Path.
"In the Book of Poetry, it is said, 'In hewing an ax handle, in hewing an ax handle, the
pattern is not far off. We grasp one ax handle to hew the other; and yet, if we look
askance from the one to the other, we may consider them as apart. Therefore, the superior
man governs men, according to their nature, with what is proper to them, and as soon as
they change what is wrong, he stops.
"When one cultivates to the utmost the principles of his nature, and exercises them on
the principle of reciprocity, he is not far from the path. What you do not like when done
to yourself, do not do to others.
"In the way of the superior man there are four things, to not one of which have I as
yet attained.-To serve my father, as I would require my son to serve me: to this I have not
attained; to serve my prince as I would require my minister to serve me: to this I have not
attained; to serve my elder brother as I would require my younger brother to serve me: to
this I have not attained; to set the example in behaving to a friend, as I would require him
to behave to me: to this I have not attained. Earnest in practicing the ordinary virtues, and
careful in speaking about them, if, in his practice, he has anything defective, the superior
man dares not but exert himself; and if, in his words, he has any excess, he dares not
allow himself such license. Thus his words have respect to his actions, and his actions
have respect to his words; is it not just an entire sincerity which marks the superior man?"
The superior man does what is proper to the station in which he is; he does not desire
to go beyond this.
In a position of wealth and honor, he does what is proper to a position of wealth and
honor. In a poor and low position, he does what is proper to a poor and low position.
Situated among barbarous tribes, he does what is proper to a situation among barbarous
tribes. In a position of sorrow and difficulty, he does what is proper to a position of
sorrow and difficulty. The superior man can find himself in no situation in which he is
not himself.
In a high situation, he does not treat with contempt his inferiors. In a low situation, he
does not court the favor of his superiors. He rectifies himself, and seeks for nothing from
others, so that he has no dissatisfactions. He does not murmur against Heaven, nor
grumble against men.
Thus it is that the superior man is quiet and calm, waiting for the appointments of
Heaven, while the mean man walks in dangerous paths, looking for lucky occurrences.
The Master said, "In archery we have something like the way of the superior man.
When the archer misses the center of the target, he turns round and seeks for the cause of
his failure in himself."
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The way of the superior man may be compared to what takes place in traveling, when
to go to a distance we must first traverse the space that is near, and in ascending a height,
when we must begin from the lower ground.
It is said in the Book of Poetry, "Happy union with wife and children is like the music
of lutes and harps. When there is concord among brethren, the harmony is delightful and
enduring. Thus may you regulate your family, and enjoy the pleasure of your wife and
children."
The Master said, "In such a state of things, parents have entire complacence!"
The Master said, "How abundantly do spiritual beings display the powers that belong
to them!
"We look for them, but do not see them; we listen to, but do not hear them; yet they
enter into all things, and there is nothing without them.
"They cause all the people in the kingdom to fast and purify themselves, and array
themselves in their richest dresses, in order to attend at their sacrifices. Then, like
overflowing water, they seem to be over the heads, and on the right and left of their
worshippers.
"It is said in the Book of Poetry, 'The approaches of the spirits, you cannot sunrise;
and can you treat them with indifference?'
"Such is the manifestness of what is minute! Such is the impossibility of repressing
the outgoings of sincerity!"
The Master said, "How greatly filial was Shun! His virtue was that of a sage; his
dignity was the throne; his riches were all within the four seas. He offered his sacrifices
in his ancestral temple, and his descendants preserved the sacrifices to himself.
"Therefore having such great virtue, it could not but be that he should obtain the
throne, that he should obtain those riches, that he should obtain his fame, that he should
attain to his long life.
"Thus it is that Heaven, in the production of things, is sure to be bountiful to them,
according to their qualities. Hence the tree that is flourishing, it nourishes, while that
which is ready to fall, it overthrows.
"In the Book of Poetry, it is said, 'The admirable amiable prince displayed
conspicuously his excelling virtue, adjusting his people, and adjusting his officers.
Therefore, he received from Heaven his emoluments of dignity. It protected him, assisted
him, decreed him the throne; sending from Heaven these favors, as it were repeatedly.'
"We may say therefore that he who is greatly virtuous will be sure to receive the
appointment of Heaven."
The Master said, "It is only King Wan of whom it can be said that he had no cause for
grief! His father was King Chi, and his son was King Wu. His father laid the foundations
of his dignity, and his son transmitted it.
"King Wu continued the enterprise of King T'ai, King Chi, and King Wan. He once
buckled on his armor, and got possession of the kingdom. He did not lose the
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distinguished personal reputation which he had throughout the kingdom. His dignity was
the royal throne. His riches were the possession of all within the four seas. He offered his
sacrifices in his ancestral temple, and his descendants maintained the sacrifices to
himself.
"It was in his old age that King Wu received the appointment to the throne, and the
duke of Chau completed the virtuous course of Wan and Wu. He carried up the title of
king to T'ai and Chi, and sacrificed to all the former dukes above them with the royal
ceremonies. And this rule he extended to the princes of the kingdom, the great officers,
the scholars, and the common people. If the father were a great officer and the son a
scholar, then the burial was that due to a great officer, and the sacrifice that due to a
scholar. If the father were a scholar and the son a great officer, then the burial was that
due to a scholar, and the sacrifice that due to a great officer. The one year's mourning was
made to extend only to the great officers, but the three years' mourning extended to the
Son of Heaven. In the mourning for a father or mother, he allowed no difference between
the noble and the mean.
The Master said, "How far-extending was the filial piety of King Wu and the duke of
Chau!
"Now filial piety is seen in the skillful carrying out of the wishes of our forefathers,
and the skillful carrying forward of their undertakings.
"In spring and autumn, they repaired and beautified the temple halls of their fathers,
set forth their ancestral vessels, displayed their various robes, and presented the offerings
of the several seasons.
"By means of the ceremonies of the ancestral temple, they distinguished the royal
kindred according to their order of descent. By ordering the parties present according to
their rank, they distinguished the more noble and the less. By the arrangement of the
services, they made a distinction of talents and worth. In the ceremony of general
pledging, the inferiors presented the cup to their superiors, and thus something was given
the lowest to do. At the concluding feast, places were given according to the hair, and
thus was made the distinction of years.
"They occupied the places of their forefathers, practiced their ceremonies, and
performed their music. They reverenced those whom they honored, and loved those
whom they regarded with affection. Thus they served the dead as they would have served
them alive; they served the departed as they would have served them had they been
continued among them.
"By the ceremonies of the sacrifices to Heaven and Earth they served God, and by the
ceremonies of the ancestral temple they sacrificed to their ancestors. He who understands
the ceremonies of the sacrifices to Heaven and Earth, and the meaning of the several
sacrifices to ancestors, would find the government of a kingdom as easy as to look into
his palm!"
The Duke Ai asked about government.
The Master said, "The government of Wan and Wu is displayed in the records,-the
tablets of wood and bamboo. Let there be the men and the government will flourish; but
without the men, their government decays and ceases.
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"With the right men the growth of government is rapid, just as vegetation is rapid in
the earth; and, moreover, their government might be called an easily-growing rush.
"Therefore the administration of government lies in getting proper men. Such men are
to be got by means of the ruler's own character. That character is to be cultivated by his
treading in the ways of duty. And the treading those ways of duty is to be cultivated by
the cherishing of benevolence.
"Benevolence is the characteristic element of humanity, and the great exercise of it is
in loving relatives. Righteousness is the accordance of actions with what is right, and the
great exercise of it is in honoring the worthy. The decreasing measures of the love due to
relatives, and the steps in the honor due to the worthy, are produced by the principle of
propriety.
"When those in inferior situations do not possess the confidence of their superiors,
they cannot retain the government of the people.
"Hence the sovereign may not neglect the cultivation of his own character. Wishing
to cultivate his character, he may not neglect to serve his parents. In order to serve his
parents, he may not neglect to acquire knowledge of men. In order to know men, he may
not dispense with a knowledge of Heaven.
"The duties of universal obligation are five and the virtues wherewith they are
practiced are three. The duties are those between sovereign and minister, between father
and son, between husband and wife, between elder brother and younger, and those
belonging to the intercourse of friends. Those five are the duties of universal obligation.
Knowledge, magnanimity, and energy, these three, are the virtues universally binding.
And the means by which they carry the duties into practice is singleness.
"Some are born with the knowledge of those duties; some know them by study; and
some acquire the knowledge after a painful feeling of their ignorance. But the knowledge
being possessed, it comes to the same thing. Some practice them with a natural ease;
some from a desire for their advantages; and some by strenuous effort. But the
achievement being made, it comes to the same thing."
The Master said, "To be fond of learning is to be near to knowledge. To practice with
vigor is to be near to magnanimity. To possess the feeling of shame is to be near to
energy.
"He who knows these three things knows how to cultivate his own character.
Knowing how to cultivate his own character, he knows how to govern other men.
Knowing how to govern other men, he knows how to govern the kingdom with all its
states and families.
"All who have the government of the kingdom with its states and families have nine
standard rules to follow;-viz., the cultivation of their own characters; the honoring of men
of virtue and talents; affection towards their relatives; respect towards the great ministers;
kind and considerate treatment of the whole body of officers; dealing with the mass of the
people as children; encouraging the resort of all classes of artisans; indulgent treatment of
men from a distance; and the kindly cherishing of the princes of the states.
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"By the ruler's cultivation of his own character, the duties of universal obligation are
set forth. By honoring men of virtue and talents, he is preserved from errors of judgment.
By showing affection to his relatives, there is no grumbling nor resentment among his
uncles and brethren. By respecting the great ministers, he is kept from errors in the
practice of government. By kind and considerate treatment of the whole body of officers,
they are led to make the most grateful return for his courtesies. By dealing with the mass
of the people as his children, they are led to exhort one another to what is good. By
encouraging the resort of an classes of artisans, his resources for expenditure are rendered
ample. By indulgent treatment of men from a distance, they are brought to resort to him
from all quarters. And by kindly cherishing the princes of the states, the whole kingdom
is brought to revere him.
"Self-adjustment and purification, with careful regulation of his dress, and the not
making a movement contrary to the rules of propriety this is the way for a ruler to
cultivate his person. Discarding slanderers, and keeping himself from the seductions of
beauty; making light of riches, and giving honor to virtue-this is the way for him to
encourage men of worth and talents. Giving them places of honor and large emolument.
and sharing with them in their likes and dislikes-this is the way for him to encourage his
relatives to love him. Giving them numerous officers to discharge their orders and
commissions:-this is the way for him to encourage the great ministers. According to them
a generous confidence, and making their emoluments large:-this is the way to encourage
the body of officers. Employing them only at the proper times, and making the imposts
light:-this is the way to encourage the people. By daily examinations and monthly trials,
and by making their rations in accordance with their labors:-this is the way to encourage
the classes of artisans. To escort them on their departure and meet them on their coming;
to commend the good among them, and show compassion to the incompetent:-this is the
way to treat indulgently men from a distance. To restore families whose line of
succession has been broken, and to revive states that have been extinguished; to reduce to
order states that are in confusion, and support those which are in peril; to have fixed
times for their own reception at court, and the reception of their envoys; to send them
away after liberal treatment, and welcome their coming with small contributions:-this is
the way to cherish the princes of the states.
"All who have the government of the kingdom with its states and families have the
above nine standard rules. And the means by which they are carried into practice is
singleness.
"In all things success depends on previous preparation, and without such previous
preparation there is sure to be failure. If what is to be spoken be previously determined,
there will be no stumbling. If affairs be previously determined, there will be no difficulty
with them. If one's actions have been previously determined, there will be no sorrow in
connection with them. If principles of conduct have been previously determined, the
practice of them will be inexhaustible.
"When those in inferior situations do not obtain the confidence of the sovereign, they
cannot succeed in governing the people. There is a way to obtain the confidence of the
sovereign;-if one is not trusted by his friends, he will not get the confidence of his
sovereign. There is a way to being trusted by one's friends;-if one is not obedient to his
parents, he will not be true to friends. There is a way to being obedient to one's parents;-if
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one, on turning his thoughts in upon himself, finds a want of sincerity, he will not be
obedient to his parents. There is a way to the attainment of sincerity in one's self; -if a
man do not understand what is good, he will not attain sincerity in himself.
"Sincerity is the way of Heaven. The attainment of sincerity is the way of men. He
who possesses sincerity is he who, without an effort, hits what is right, and apprehends,
without the exercise of thought;-he is the sage who naturally and easily embodies the
right way. He who attains to sincerity is he who chooses what is good, and firmly holds it
fast.
"To this attainment there are requisite the extensive study of what is good, accurate
inquiry about it, careful reflection on it, the clear discrimination of it, and the earnest
practice of it.
"The superior man, while there is anything he has not studied, or while in what he has
studied there is anything he cannot understand, Will not intermit his labor. While there is
anything he has not inquired about, or anything in what he has inquired about which he
does not know, he will not intermit his labor. While there is anything which he has not
reflected on, or anything in what he has reflected on which he does not apprehend, he will
not intermit his labor. While there is anything which he has not discriminated or his
discrimination is not clear, he will not intermit his labor. If there be anything which he
has not practiced, or his practice fails in earnestness, he will not intermit his labor. If
another man succeed by one effort, he will use a hundred efforts. If another man succeed
by ten efforts, he will use a thousand.
"Let a man proceed in this way, and, though dull, he will surely become intelligent;
though weak, he will surely become strong."
When we have intelligence resulting from sincerity, this condition is to be ascribed to
nature; when we have sincerity resulting from intelligence, this condition is to be ascribed
to instruction. But given the sincerity, and there shall be the intelligence; given the
intelligence, and there shall be the sincerity.
It is only he who is possessed of the most complete sincerity that can exist under
heaven, who can give its full development to his nature. Able to give its full development
to his own nature, he can do the same to the nature of other men. Able to give its full
development to the nature of other men, he can give their full development to the natures
of animals and things. Able to give their full development to the natures of creatures and
things, he can assist the transforming and nourishing powers of Heaven and Earth. Able
to assist the transforming and nourishing powers of Heaven and Earth, he may with
Heaven and Earth form a ternion.
Next to the above is he who cultivates to the utmost the shoots of goodness in him.
From those he can attain to the possession of sincerity. This sincerity becomes apparent.
From being apparent, it becomes manifest. From being manifest, it becomes brilliant.
Brilliant, it affects others. Affecting others, they are changed by it. Changed by it, they
are transformed. It is only he who is possessed of the most complete sincerity that can
exist under heaven, who can transform.
It is characteristic of the most entire sincerity to be able to foreknow. When a nation
or family is about to flourish, there are sure to be happy omens; and when it is about to
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perish, there are sure to be unlucky omens. Such events are seen in the milfoil and
tortoise, and affect the movements of the four limbs. When calamity or happiness is about
to come, the good shall certainly be foreknown by him, and the evil also. Therefore the
individual possessed of the most complete sincerity is like a spirit.
Sincerity is that whereby self-completion is effected, and its way is that by which
man must direct himself.
Sincerity is the end and beginning of things; without sincerity there would be nothing.
On this account, the superior man regards the attainment of sincerity as the most
excellent thing.
The possessor of sincerity does not merely accomplish the self-completion of himself.
With this quality he completes other men and things also. The completing himself shows
his perfect virtue. The completing other men and things shows his knowledge. But these
are virtues belonging to the nature, and this is the way by which a union is effected of the
external and internal. Therefore, whenever he-the entirely sincere man-employs them,that is, these virtues, their action will be right.
Hence to entire sincerity there belongs ceaselessness.
Not ceasing, it continues long. Continuing long, it evidences itself.
Evidencing itself, it reaches far. Reaching far, it becomes large and substantial. Large
and substantial, it becomes high and brilliant.
Large and substantial;-this is how it contains all things. High and brilliant;-this is how
it overspreads all things. Reaching far and continuing long;-this is how it perfects all
things.
So large and substantial, the individual possessing it is the co-equal of Earth. So high
and brilliant, it makes him the co-equal of Heaven. So far-reaching and long-continuing,
it makes him infinite.
Such being its nature, without any display, it becomes manifested; without any
movement, it produces changes; and without any effort, it accomplishes its ends.
The way of Heaven and Earth may be completely declared in one sentence.-They are
without any doubleness, and so they produce things in a manner that is unfathomable.
The way of Heaven and Earth is large and substantial, high and brilliant, far-reaching
and long-enduring.
The Heaven now before us is only this bright shining spot; but when viewed in its
inexhaustible extent, the sun, moon, stars, and constellations of the zodiac, are suspended
in it, and all things are overspread by it. The earth before us is but a handful of soil; but
when regarded in its breadth and thickness, it sustains mountains like the Hwa and the
Yo, without feeling their weight, and contains the rivers and seas, without their leaking
away. The mountain now before us appears only a stone; but when contemplated in all
the vastness of its size, we see how the grass and trees are produced on it, and birds and
beasts dwell on it, and precious things which men treasure up are found on it. The water
now before us appears but a ladleful; yet extending our view to its unfathomable depths,
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the largest tortoises, iguanas, iguanodons, dragons, fishes, and turtles, are produced in it,
articles of value and sources of wealth abound in it.
It is said in the Book of Poetry, "The ordinances of Heaven, how profound are they
and unceasing!" The meaning is, that it is thus that Heaven is Heaven. And again, "How
illustrious was it, the singleness of the virtue of King Wan!" indicating that it was thus
that King Wan was what he was. Singleness likewise is unceasing.
How great is the path proper to the Sage!
Like overflowing water, it sends forth and nourishes all things, and rises up to the
height of heaven.
All-complete is its greatness! It embraces the three hundred rules of ceremony, and
the three thousand rules of demeanor.
It waits for the proper man, and then it is trodden.
Hence it is said, "Only by perfect virtue can the perfect path, in all its courses, be
made a fact."
Therefore, the superior man honors his virtuous nature, and maintains constant
inquiry and study, seeking to carry it out to its breadth and greatness, so as to omit none
of the more exquisite and minute points which it embraces, and to raise it to its greatest
height and brilliancy, so as to pursue the course of the Mean. He cherishes his old
knowledge, and is continually acquiring new. He exerts an honest, generous earnestness,
in the esteem and practice of all propriety.
Thus, when occupying a high situation he is not proud, and in a low situation he is not
insubordinate. When the kingdom is well governed, he is sure by his words to rise; and
when it is ill governed, he is sure by his silence to command forbearance to himself. Is
not this what we find in the Book of Poetry,-"Intelligent is he and prudent, and so
preserves his person?"
The Master said, Let a man who is ignorant be fond of using his own judgment; let a
man without rank be fond of assuming a directing power to himself; let a man who is
living in the present age go back to the ways of antiquity;-on the persons of all who act
thus calamities will be sure to come.
To no one but the Son of Heaven does it belong to order ceremonies, to fix the
measures, and to determine the written characters.
Now over the kingdom, carriages have all wheels, of the-same size; all writing is with
the same characters; and for conduct there are the same rules.
One may occupy the throne, but if he have not the proper virtue, he may not dare to
make ceremonies or music. One may have the virtue, but if he do not occupy the throne,
he may not presume to make ceremonies or music.
The Master said, "I may describe the ceremonies of the Hsia dynasty, but Chi cannot
sufficiently attest my words. I have learned the ceremonies of the Yin dynasty, and in
Sung they still continue. I have learned the ceremonies of Chau, which are now used, and
I follow Chau."
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He who attains to the sovereignty of the kingdom, having those three important
things, shall be able to effect that there shall be few errors under his government.
However excellent may have been the regulations of those of former times, they
cannot be attested. Not being attested, they cannot command credence, and not being
credited, the people would not follow them. However excellent might be the regulations
made by one in an inferior situation, he is not in a position to be honored. Unhonored, he
cannot command credence, and not being credited, the people would not follow his rules.
Therefore the institutions of the Ruler are rooted in his own character and conduct,
and sufficient attestation of them is given by the masses of the people. He examines them
by comparison with those of the three kings, and finds them without mistake. He sets
them up before Heaven and Earth, and finds nothing in them contrary to their mode of
operation. He presents himself with them before spiritual beings, and no doubts about
them arise. He is prepared to wait for the rise of a sage a hundred ages after, and has no
misgivings.
His presenting himself with his institutions before spiritual beings, without any
doubts arising about them, shows that he knows Heaven. His being prepared, without any
misgivings, to wait for the rise of a sage a hundred ages after, shows that he knows men.
Such being the case, the movements of such a ruler, illustrating his institutions,
constitute an example to the world for ages. His acts are for ages a law to the kingdom.
His words are for ages a lesson to the kingdom. Those who are far from him look
longingly for him; and those who are near him are never wearied with him.
It is said in the Book of Poetry,-"Not disliked there, not tired of here, from day to day
and night tonight, will they perpetuate their praise." Never has there been a ruler, who did
not realize this description, that obtained an early renown throughout the kingdom.
Chung-ni handed down the doctrines of Yao and Shun, as if they had been his
ancestors, and elegantly displayed the regulations of Wan and Wul taking them as his
model. Above, he harmonized with the times of Heaven, and below, he was conformed to
the water and land.
He may be compared to Heaven and Earth in their supporting and containing, their
overshadowing and curtaining, all things. He may be compared to the four seasons in
their alternating progress, and to the sun and moon in their successive shining.
All things are nourished together without their injuring one another. The courses of
the seasons, and of the sun and moon, are pursued without any collision among them. The
smaller energies are like river currents; the greater energies are seen in mighty
transformations. It is this which makes heaven and earth so great.
It is only he, possessed of all sagely qualities that can exist under heaven, who shows
himself quick in apprehension, clear in discernment, of far-reaching intelligence, and allembracing knowledge, fitted to exercise rule; magnanimous, generous, benign, and mild,
fitted to exercise forbearance; impulsive, energetic, firm, and enduring, fitted to maintain
a firm hold; self-adjusted, grave, never swerving from the Mean, and correct, fitted to
command reverence; accomplished, distinctive, concentrative, and searching, fitted to
exercise discrimination.
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All-embracing is he and vast, deep and active as a fountain, sending forth in their due
season his virtues.
All-embracing and vast, he is like Heaven. Deep and active as a fountain, he is like
the abyss. He is seen, and the people all reverence him; he speaks, and the people all
believe him; he acts, and the people all are pleased with him.
Therefore his fame overspreads the Middle Kingdom, and extends to all barbarous
tribes. Wherever ships and carriages reach; wherever the strength of man penetrates;
wherever the heavens overshadow and the earth sustains; wherever the sun and moon
shine; wherever frosts and dews fall:-all who have blood and breath unfeignedly honor
and love him. Hence it is said,-"He is the equal of Heaven."
It is only the individual possessed of the most entire sincerity that can exist under
Heaven, who can adjust the great invariable relations of mankind, establish the great
fundamental virtues of humanity, and know the transforming and nurturing operations of
Heaven and Earth;-shall this individual have any being or anything beyond himself on
which he depends?
Call him man in his ideal, how earnest is he! Call him an abyss, how deep is he! Call
him Heaven, how vast is he!
Who can know him, but he who is indeed quick in apprehension, clear in
discernment, of far-reaching intelligence, and all-embracing knowledge, possessing all
Heavenly virtue?
It is said in the Book of Poetry, "Over her embroidered robe she puts a plain single
garment," intimating a dislike to the display of the elegance of the former. Just so, it is
the way of the superior man to prefer the concealment of his virtue, while it daily
becomes more illustrious, and it is the way of the mean man to seek notoriety, while he
daily goes more and more to ruin. It is characteristic of the superior man, appearing
insipid, yet never to produce satiety; while showing a simple negligence, yet to have his
accomplishments recognized; while seemingly plain, yet to be discriminating. He knows
how what is distant lies in what is near. He knows where the wind proceeds from. He
knows how what is minute becomes manifested. Such a one, we may be sure, will enter
into virtue.
It is said in the Book of Poetry, "Although the fish sink and lie at the bottom, it is still
quite clearly seen." Therefore the superior man examines his heart, that there may be
nothing wrong there, and that he may have no cause for dissatisfaction with himself. That
wherein the superior man cannot be equaled is simply this,-his work which other men
cannot see.
It is said in the Book of Poetry, "Looked at in your apartment, be there free from
shame as being exposed to the light of Heaven." Therefore, the superior man, even when
he is not moving, has a feeling of reverence, and while he speaks not, he has the feeling
of truthfulness.
It is said in the Book of Poetry, "In silence is the offering presented, and the spirit
approached to; there is not the slightest contention." Therefore the superior man does not
use rewards, and the people are stimulated to virtue. He does not show anger, and the
people are awed more than by hatchets and battle-axes.
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It is said in the Book of Poetry, "What needs no display is virtue. All the princes
imitate it." Therefore, the superior man being sincere and reverential, the whole world is
conducted to a state of happy tranquility.
It is said in the Book of Poetry, "I regard with pleasure your brilliant virtue, making
no great display of itself in sounds and appearances." The Master said, "Among the
appliances to transform the people, sound and appearances are but trivial influences. It is
said in another ode, 'His Virtue is light as a hair.' Still, a hair will admit of comparison as
to its size. 'The doings of the supreme Heaven have neither sound nor smell. 'That is
perfect virtue."
THE END
170
Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching
1
The tao that can be described
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be spoken
is not the eternal Name.
The nameless is the boundary of Heaven and Earth.
The named is the mother of creation.
Freed from desire, you can see the hidden mystery.
By having desire, you can only see what is visibly real.
Yet mystery and reality
emerge from the same source.
This source is called darkness.
Darkness born from darkness.
The beginning of all understanding.
2
When people see things as beautiful,
ugliness is created.
When people see things as good,
evil is created.
Being and non-being produce each other.
Difficult and easy complement each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low oppose each other.
Fore and aft follow each other.
Therefore the Master
can act without doing anything
and teach without saying a word.
Things come her way and she does not stop them;
things leave and she lets them go.
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She has without possessing,
and acts without any expectations.
When her work is done, she take no credit.
That is why it will last forever.
3
If you overly esteem talented individuals,
people will become overly competitive.
If you overvalue possessions,
people will begin to steal.
Do not display your treasures
or people will become envious.
The Master leads by
emptying people's minds,
filling their bellies,
weakening their ambitions,
and making them become strong.
Preferring simplicity and freedom from desires,
avoiding the pitfalls of knowledge and wrong action.
For those who practice not-doing,
everything will fall into place.
4
The Tao is like an empty container:
it can never be emptied and can never be filled.
Infinitely deep, it is the source of all things.
It dulls the sharp, unties the knotted,
shades the lighted, and unites all of creation with dust.
It is hidden but always present.
I don't know who gave birth to it .
It is older than the concept of God.
5
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Heaven and Earth are impartial;
they treat all of creation as straw dogs.
The Master doesn't take sides;
she treats everyone like a straw dog.
The space between Heaven and Earth is like a bellows;
it is empty, yet has not lost its power.
The more it is used, the more it produces;
the more you talk of it, the less you comprehend.
It is better not to speak of things you do not understand.
6
The spirit of emptiness is immortal.
It is called the Great Mother
because it gives birth to Heaven and Earth.
It is like a vapor,
barely seen but always present.
Use it effortlessly.
7
The Tao of Heaven is eternal,
and the earth is long enduring.
Why are they long enduring?
They do not live for themselves;
thus they are present for all beings.
The Master puts herself last;
And finds herself in the place of authority.
She detaches herself from all things;
Therefore she is united with all things.
She gives no thought to self.
She is perfectly fulfilled.
8
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The supreme good is like water,
which benefits all of creation
without trying to compete with it.
It gathers in unpopular places.
Thus it is like the Tao.
The location makes the dwelling good.
Depth of understanding makes the mind good.
A kind heart makes the giving good.
Integrity makes the government good.
Accomplishments makes your labors good.
Proper timing makes a decision good.
Only when there is no competition
will we all live in peace.
9
It is easier to carry an empty cup
than one that is filled to the brim.
The sharper the knife
the easier it is to dull.
The more wealth you possess
the harder it is to protect.
Pride brings it's own trouble.
When you have accomplished your goal
simply walk away.
This is the path way to Heaven.
10
Nurture the darkness of your soul
until you become whole.
Can you do this and not fail?
Can you focus your life-breath until you become
supple as a newborn child?
While you cleanse your inner vision
will you be found without fault?
Can you love people and lead them
without forcing your will on them?
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When Heaven gives and takes away
can you be content with the outcome?
When you understand all things
can you step back from your own understanding?
Giving birth and nourishing,
making without possessing,
expecting nothing in return.
To grow, yet not to control:
This is the mysterious virtue.
11
Thirty spokes are joined together in a wheel,
but it is the center hole
that allows the wheel to function.
We mold clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that makes the vessel useful.
We fashion wood for a house,
but it is the emptiness inside
that makes it livable.
We work with the substantial,
but the emptiness is what we use.
12
Five colors blind the eye.
Five notes deafen the ear.
Five flavors makes the palate go stale.
Too much activity deranges the mind.
Too much wealth causes crime.
The Master acts on what she feels and not what she sees.
She shuns the latter, and prefers to seek the former.
13
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Success is as dangerous as failure,
and we are often our own worst enemy.
What does it mean that success is as dangerous as failure?
He who is superior is also someone's subordinate.
Receiving favor and loosing it both cause alarm.
That is what is meant by success is as dangerous as failure.
What does it mean that we are often our own worst enemy?
The reason I have an enemy is because I have "self".
If I no longer had a "self", I would no longer have an enemy.
Love the whole world as if it were your self;
then you will truly care for all things.
14
Look for it, and it can't be seen.
Listen for it, and it can't be heard.
Grasp for it, and it can't be caught.
These three cannot be further described,
so we treat them as The One.
It's highest is not bright.
It's depths are not dark.
Unending, unnameable, it returns to nothingness.
Formless forms, and image less images,
subtle, beyond all understanding.
Approach it and you will not see a beginning;
follow it and there will be no end.
When we grasp the Tao of the ancient ones,
we can use it to direct our life today.
To know the ancient origin of Tao:
this is the beginning of wisdom.
15
The Sages of old were profound
and knew the ways of subtlety and discernment.
Their wisdom is beyond our comprehension.
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Because their knowledge was so far superior
I can only give a poor description.
They were careful
as someone crossing an frozen stream in winter.
Alert as if surrounded on all sides by the enemy.
Courteous as a guest.
Fluid as melting ice.
Whole as an uncarved block of wood.
Receptive as a valley.
Turbid as muddied water.
Who can be still
until their mud settles
and the water is cleared by itself?
Can you remain tranquil until right action occurs by itself?
The Master doesn't seek fulfillment.
For only those who are not full are able to be used
which brings the feeling of completeness.
16
If you can empty your mind of all thoughts
your heart will embrace the tranquility of peace.
Watch the workings of all of creation,
but contemplate their return to the source.
All creatures in the universe
return to the point where they began.
Returning to the source is tranquility
because we submit to Heavens mandate.
Returning to Heavens mandate is called being constant.
Knowing the constant is called 'enlightenment'.
Not knowing the constant is the source of evil deeds
because we have no roots.
By knowing the constant we can accept things as they are.
By accepting things as they are, we become impartial.
By being impartial, we become one with Heaven.
By being one with Heaven, we become one with Tao.
Being one with Tao, we are no longer concerned about
loosing our life because we know the Tao is constant
and we are one with Tao.
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17
The best leaders are those the people hardly know exist.
The next best is a leader who is loved and praised.
Next comes the one who is feared.
The worst one is the leader that is despised.
If you don't trust the people,
they will become untrustworthy.
The best leaders value their words, and use them sparingly.
When she has accomplished her task,
the people say, "Amazing:
we did it, all by ourselves!"
18
When the great Tao is abandoned,
charity and righteousness appear.
When intellectualism arises,
hypocrisy is close behind.
When there is strife in the family unit,
people talk about 'brotherly love'.
When the country falls into chaos,
politicians talk about 'patriotism'.
19
Forget about knowledge and wisdom,
and people will be a hundred times better off.
Throw away charity and righteousness,
and people will return to brotherly love.
Throw away profit and greed,
and there won't be any thieves.
178
These three are superficial and aren't enough
to keep us at the center of the circle, so we must also:
Embrace simplicity.
Put others first.
Desire little.
20
Renounce knowledge and your problems will end.
What is the difference between yes and no?
What is the difference between good and evil?
Must you fear what others fear?
Nonsense, look how far you have missed the mark!
Other people are joyous,
as though they were at a spring festival.
I alone am unconcerned and expressionless,
like an infant before it has learned to smile.
Other people have more than they need;
I alone seem to possess nothing.
I am lost and drift about with no place to go.
I am like a fool, my mind is in chaos.
Ordinary people are bright;
I alone am dark.
Ordinary people are clever;
I alone am dull.
Ordinary people seem discriminating;
I alone am muddled and confused.
I drift on the waves on the ocean,
blown at the mercy of the wind.
Other people have their goals,
I alone am dull and uncouth.
I am different from ordinary people.
I nurse from the Great Mother's breasts.
21
179
The greatest virtue you can have
comes from following only the Tao;
which takes a form that is intangible and evasive.
Even though the Tao is intangible and evasive,
we are able to know it exists.
Intangible and evasive, yet it has a manifestation.
Secluded and dark, yet there is a vitality within it.
It's vitality is very genuine.
Within it we can find order.
Since the beginning of time, the Tao has always existed.
It is beyond existing and not existing .
How do I know where creation comes from?
I look inside myself and see it.
22
If you want to become whole,
first let yourself become broken.
If you want to become straight,
first let yourself become twisted.
If you want to become full,
first let yourself become empty.
If you want to become new,
first let yourself become old.
Those whose desires are few gets them,
those whose desires are great go astray.
For this reason the Master embraces the Tao,
as an example for the world to follow.
Because she isn't self centered,
people can see the light in her.
Because she does not boast of herself,
she becomes a shining example.
Because she does not glorify herself,
she becomes a person of merit.
Because she wants nothing from the world,
the world can not overcome her.
When the ancient Masters said,
"If you want to become whole,
then first let yourself be broken,"
they weren't using empty words.
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All who do this will be made complete.
23
Nature uses few words:
when the gail blows, it will not last long;
when it rains hard, it lasts but a little while;
What causes these to happen? Heaven and Earth.
Why do we humans go on endlessly about little
when nature does much in a little time?
If you open yourself to the Tao,
you and Tao become one.
If you open yourself to Virtue,
then you can become virtuous.
If you open yourself to loss,
then you will become lost.
If you open yourself to the Tao,
the Tao will eagerly welcome you.
If you open yourself to virtue,
virtue will become a part of you.
If you open yourself to loss,
the lost are glad to see you.
"When you do not trust people,
people will become untrustworthy."
24
Those who stands on tiptoes
do not stand firmly.
Those who rush ahead
don't get very far.
Those who try to out shine others
dim their own light.
Those who call themselves righteous
can't know how wrong they are.
181
Those who boast of their accomplishments
diminishes the things they have done.
Compared to the Tao, these actions are unworthy.
If we are to follow the Tao,
we must not do these things.
25
Before the universe was born
there was something in the chaos of the heavens.
It stands alone and empty,
solitary and unchanging.
It is ever present and secure.
It may be regarded as the Mother of the universe.
Because I do not know it's name,
I call it the Tao.
If forced to give it a name,
I would call it 'Great'.
Because it is Great means it is everywhere.
Being everywhere means it is eternal.
Being eternal means everything returns to it.
Tao is great.
Heaven is great.
Earth is great.
Humanity is great.
Within the universe, these are the four great things.
Humanity follows the earth.
Earth follows Heaven.
Heaven follows the Tao.
The Tao follows only itself.
26
Heaviness is the basis of lightness.
Stillness is the standard of activity.
Thus the Master travels all day
182
without ever leaving her wagon.
Even though she has much to see,
is she at peace in her indifference.
Why should the lord of a thousand chariots
be amused at the foolishness of the world?
If you abandon yourself to foolishness,
you lose touch with your beginnings.
If you let yourself become distracted,
you will lose the basis of your power.
27
A good traveler leaves no tracks,
and a skillful speaker is well rehearsed.
A good bookkeeper has an excellent memory,
and a well made door is easy to open and needs no locks.
A good knot needs no rope and it can not come undone.
Thus the Master is willing to help everyone,
and doesn't know the meaning of rejection.
She is there to help all of creation,
and doesn't abandon even the smallest creature.
This is called embracing the light.
What is a good person but a bad person's teacher?
What is a bad person but raw materiel for his teacher?
If you fail to honor your teacher or fail to enjoy your student,
you will become deluded no matter how smart you are.
It is the secret of prime importance.
28
Know the masculine,
but keep to the feminine:
and become a watershed to the world.
If you embrace the world,
the Tao will never leave you
and you become as a little child.
Know the white,
yet keep to the black:
183
be a model for the world.
If you are a model for the world,
the Tao inside you will strengthen
and you will return whole to your eternal beginning.
Know the honorable,
but do not shun the disgraced:
embracing the world as it is.
If you embrace the world with compassion,
then your virtue will return you to the uncarved block.
The block of wood is carved into utensils
by carving void into the wood.
The Master uses the utensils, yet prefers to keep to the block
because of its limitless possibilities.
Great works do not involve discarding substance.
29
Do you want to rule the world and control it?
I don't think it can ever be done.
The world is sacred vessel
and it can not be controlled.
You will only it make it worse if you try.
It may slip through your fingers and disappear.
Some are meant to lead,
and others are meant to follow;
Some must always strain,
and others have an easy time;
Some are naturally big and strong,
and others will always be small;
Some will be protected and nurtured,
and others will meet with destruction.
The Master accepts things as they are,
and out of compassion avoids extravagance,
excess and the extremes.
30
184
Those who lead people by following the Tao
don't use weapons to enforce their will.
Using force always leads to unseen troubles.
In the places where armies march,
thorns and briars bloom and grow.
After armies take to war,
bad years must always follow.
The skillful commander
strikes a decisive blow then stops.
When victory is won over the enemy through war
it is not a thing of great pride.
When the battle is over,
arrogance is the new enemy.
War can result when no other alternative is given,
so the one who overcomes an enemy should not dominate them.
The strong always weakened with time.
This is not the way of the Tao.
That which is not of the Tao will soon end.
31
Weapons are the bearers of bad news;
all people should detest them.
The wise man values the left side,
and in time of war he values the right.
Weapons are meant for destruction,
and thus are avoided by the wise.
Only as a last resort
will a wise person use a deadly weapon.
If peace is her true objective
how can she rejoice in the victory of war?
Those who rejoice in victory
delight in the slaughter of humanity.
Those who resort to violence
will never bring peace to the world.
The left side is a place of honor on happy occasions.
The right side is reserved for mourning at a funeral.
When the lieutenants take the left side to prepare for war,
the general should be on the right side,
because he knows the outcome will be death.
The death of many should be greeted with great sorrow,
185
and the victory celebration should honor those who have died.
32
The Tao is nameless and unchanging.
Although it appears insignificant,
nothing in the world can contain it.
If a ruler abides by its principles,
then her people will willingly follow.
Heaven would then reign on earth,
like sweet rain falling on paradise.
People would have no need for laws,
because the law would be written on their hearts.
Naming is a necessity for order,
but naming can not order all things.
Naming often makes things impersonal,
so we should know when naming should end.
Knowing when to stop naming,
you can avoid the pitfall it brings.
All things end in the Tao
just as the small streams and the largest rivers
flow through valleys to the sea.
33
Those who know others are intelligent;
those who know themselves are truly wise.
Those who master others are strong;
those who master themselves have true power.
Those who know they have enough are truly wealthy.
Those who persist will reach their goal.
Those who keep their course have a strong will.
Those who embrace death will not perish,
but have life everlasting.
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34
The great Tao flows unobstructed in every direction.
All things rely on it to conceive and be born,
and it does not deny even the smallest of creation.
When it has accomplishes great wonders,
it does not claim them for itself.
It nourishes infinite worlds,
yet it doesn't seek to master the smallest creature.
Since it is without wants and desires,
it can be considered humble.
All of creation seeks it for refuge
yet it does not seek to master or control.
Because it does not seek greatness;
it is able to accomplish truly great things.
35
She who follows the way of the Tao
will draw the world to her steps.
She can go without fear of being injured,
because she has found peace and tranquility in her heart.
Where there is music and good food,
people will stop to enjoy it.
But words spoken of the Tao
seem to them boring and stale.
When looked at, there is nothing for them to see.
When listen for, there is nothing for them to hear.
Yet if they put it to use, it would never be exhausted.
36
If you want something to return to the source,
you must first allow it to spread out.
If you want something to weaken,
you must first allow it to become strong.
If you want something to be removed,
you must first allow it to flourish.
If you want to possess something,
187
you must first give it away.
This is called the subtle understanding
of how things are meant to be.
The soft and pliable overcomes the hard and inflexible.
Just as fish remain hidden in deep waters,
it is best to keep weapons out of sight.
37
The Tao never acts with force,
yet there is nothing that it can not do.
If rulers could follow the way of the Tao,
then all of creation would willingly follow their example.
If selfish desires were to arise after their transformation,
I would erase them with the power of the Uncarved Block.
By the power of the Uncarved Block,
future generations would loose their selfish desires.
By loosing their selfish desires,
the world would naturally settle into peace.
38
The highest good is not to seek to do good,
but to allow yourself to become it.
The ordinary person seeks to do good things,
and finds that they can not do them continually.
The Master does not force virtue on others,
thus she is able to accomplish her task.
The ordinary person who uses force,
will find that they accomplish nothing.
The kind person acts from the heart,
and accomplishes a multitude of things.
The righteous person acts out of pity,
yet leaves many things undone.
The moral person will act out of duty,
188
and when no one will respond
will roll up his sleeves and uses force.
When the Tao is forgotten, there is righteousness.
When righteousness is forgotten, there is morality.
When morality is forgotten, there is the law.
The law is the husk of faith,
and trust is the beginning of chaos.
Our basic understandings are not from the Tao
because they come from the depths of our misunderstanding.
The master abides in the fruit and not in the husk.
She dwells in the Tao,
and not with the things that hide it.
This is how she increases in wisdom.
39
The masters of old attained unity with the Tao.
Heaven attained unity and become pure.
The earth attained unity and found peace.
The spirits attained unity so they could minister.
The valleys attained unity that they might be full.
Humanity attained unity that they might flourish.
Their leaders attained unity that they might set the example.
This is the power of unity.
Without unity, the sky becomes filthy.
Without unity, the earth becomes unstable.
Without unity, the spirits become unresponsive and disappear.
Without unity, the valleys become dry as a desert.
Without unity, human kind can't reproduce and becomes extinct.
Without unity, our leaders become corrupt and fall.
The great view the small as their source,
and the high takes the low as their foundation.
Their greatest asset becomes their humility.
They speak of themselves as orphans and widows,
thus they truly seek humility.
Do not shine like the precious gem,
but be as dull as a common stone.
189
40
All movement returns to the Tao.
Weakness is how the Tao works.
All of creation is born from substance.
Substance is born of nothing-ness.
41
When a superior person hears of the Tao,
She diligently puts it into practice.
When an average person hears of the Tao,
he believes half of it, and doubts the other half.
When a foolish person hears of the Tao,
he laughs out loud at the very idea.
If he didn't laugh,
it wouldn't be the Tao.
Thus it is said:
The brightness of the Tao seems like darkness,
the advancement of the Tao seems like retreat,
the level path seems rough,
the superior path seem empty,
the pure seems to be tarnished,
and true virtue doesn't seem to be enough.
The virtue of caution seems like cowardice,
the pure seems to be polluted,
the true square seems to have no corners,
the best vessels take the most time to finish,
the greatest sounds cannot be heard,
and the greatest image has no form.
The Tao hides in the unnamed,
Yet it alone nourishes and completes all things.
42
The Tao gave birth to One.
The One gave birth to Two.
The Two gave birth to Three.
The Three gave birth to all of creation.
190
All things carry Yin
yet embrace Yang.
They blend their life breaths
in order to produce harmony.
People despise being orphaned, widowed and poor.
But the noble ones take these as their titles.
In loosing, much is gained,
and in gaining, much is lost.
What others teach I too will teach:
"The strong and violent will not die a natural death."
43
That which offers no resistance,
overcomes the hardest substances.
That which offers no resistance
can enter where there is no space.
Few in the world can comprehend
the teaching without words,
or understand the value of non-action.
44
Which is more important, your honor or your life?
Which is more valuable, your possessions or your person?
Which is more destructive, success or failure?
Because of this, great love extracts a great cost
and true wealth requires greater loss.
Knowing when you have enough avoids dishonor,
and knowing when to stop will keep you from danger
and bring you a long, happy life.
45
191
The greatest accomplishments seems imperfect,
yet their usefulness is not diminished.
The greatest fullness seems empty,
yet it will be inexhaustible.
The greatest straightness seems crooked.
The most valued skill seems like clumsiness.
The greatest speech seems full of stammers.
Movement overcomes the cold,
and stillness overcomes the heat.
That which is pure and still is the universal ideal.
46
When the world follows the Tao,
horses run free to fertilize the fields.
When the world does not follow the Tao,
war horses are bread outside the cities.
There is no greater transgression
than condoning peoples selfish desires,
no greater disaster than being discontent,
and no greater retribution than for greed.
Whoever knows contentment will be at peace forever.
47
Without opening your door,
you can know the whole world.
Without looking out your window,
you can understand the way of the Tao.
The more knowledge you seek,
the less you will understand.
The Master understands without leaving,
sees clearly without looking,
accomplishes much without doing anything.
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48
One who seeks knowledge learns something new every day.
One who seeks the Tao unlearns something new every day.
Less and less remains until you arrive at non-action.
When you arrive at non-action,
nothing will be left undone.
Mastery of the world is achieved
by letting things take their natural course.
You can not master the world by changing the natural way.
49
The Master has no mind of her own.
She understands the mind of the people.
To those who are good she treats as good.
To those who aren't good she also treats as good.
This is how she attains true goodness.
She trusts people who are trustworthy.
She also trusts people who aren't trustworthy.
This is how she gains true trust.
The Master's mind is shut off from the world.
Only for the sake of the people does she muddle her mind.
They look to her in anticipation.
Yet she treats them all as her children.
50
Those who leave the womb at birth
and those who enter their source at death,
of these; three out of ten celebrate life,
three out of ten celebrate death,
and three out of ten simply go from life to death.
What is the reason for this?
Because they are afraid of dying,
therefore they can not live.
I have heard that those who celebrate life
walk safely among the wild animals.
193
When they go into battle, they remain unharmed.
The animals find no place to attack them
and the weapons are unable to harm them.
Why? Because they can find no place for death in them.
51
The Tao gives birth to all of creation.
The virtue of Tao in nature nurtures them,
and their family give them their form.
Their environment then shapes them into completion.
That is why every creature honors the Tao and its virtue.
No one tells them to honor the Tao and its virtue,
it happens all by itself.
So the Tao gives them birth,
and its virtue cultivates them,
cares for them,
nurtures them,
gives them a place of refuge and peace,
helps them to grow and shelters them.
It gives them life without wanting to posses them,
and cares for them expecting nothing in return.
It is their master, but it does not seek to dominate them.
This is called the dark and mysterious virtue.
52
The world had a beginning
which we call the Great Mother.
Once we have found the Mother,
we begin to know what Her children should be.
When we know we are the Mothers child,
we begin to guard the qualities of the Mother in us.
She will protect us from all danger
even if we lose our life.
194
Keep your mouth closed
and embrace a simple life,
and you will live care-free until the end of your days.
If you try to talk your way into a better life
there will be no end to your trouble.
To understand the small is called clarity.
Knowing how to yield is called strength.
To use your inner light for understanding
regardless of the danger
is called depending on the Constant.
53
If I understood only one thing,
I would want to use it to follow the Tao.
My only fear would be one of pride.
The Tao goes in the level places,
but people prefer to take the short cuts.
If too much time is spent cleaning the house
the land will become neglected and full of weeds,
and the granaries will soon become empty
because there is no one out working the fields.
To wear fancy clothes and ornaments,
to have your fill of food and drink
and to waste all of your money buying possessions
is called the crime of excess.
Oh, how these things go against the way of the Tao!
54
That which is well built
will never be torn down.
That which is well latched
can not slip away.
Those who do things well
will be honored from generation to generation.
If this idea is cultivated in the individual,
then his virtue will become genuine.
195
If this idea is cultivated in your family,
then virtue in your family will be great.
If this idea is cultivated in your community,
then virtue will go a long way.
If this idea is cultivated in your country,
then virtue will be in many places.
If this idea is cultivated in the world,
then virtue will be with everyone.
Then observe the person for what the person does,
and observe the family for what it does,
and observe the community for what it does,
and observe the country for what it does,
and observe the world for what it does.
How do I know this saying is true?
I observe these things and see.
55
One who is filled with the Tao
is like a newborn child.
The infant is protected from
the stinging insects, wild beasts, and birds of prey.
Its bones are soft, its muscles are weak,
but its grip is firm and strong.
It doesn't know about the union
of male and female,
yet his penis can stand erect,
because of the power of life within him.
It can cry all day and never become hoarse.
This is perfect harmony.
To understand harmony is to understand the Constant.
To know the Constant is to be called 'enlightened'.
To unnaturally try to extend life is not appropriate.
To try and alter the life-breath is unnatural.
The master understands that when something reaches its prime
it will soon begin to decline.
Changing the natural is against the way of the Tao.
Those who do it will come to an early end.
56
196
Those who know do not talk.
Those who talk do not know.
Stop talking,
meditate in silence,
blunt your sharpness,
release your worries,
harmonize your inner light,
and become one with the dust.
Doing this is the called the dark and mysterious identity.
Those who have achieved the mysterious identity
can not be approached, and they can not be alienated.
They can not be benefited nor harmed.
They can not be made noble nor to suffer disgrace.
This makes them the most noble of all under the heavens.
57
Govern your country with integrity,
Weapons of war can be used with great cunning,
but loyalty is only won by not-doing.
How do I know the way things are?
By these:
The more prohibitions you make,
the poorer people will be.
The more weapons you posses,
the greater the chaos in your country.
The more knowledge that is acquired,
the stranger the world will become.
The more laws that you make,
the greater the number of criminals.
Therefore the Master says:
I do nothing,
and people become good by themselves.
I seek peace,
and people take care of their own problems.
I do not meddle in their personal lives,
and the people become prosperous.
I let go of all my desires,
and the people return to the Uncarved Block.
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58
If a government is unobtrusive,
the people become whole.
If a government is repressive,
the people become treacherous.
Good fortune has its roots in disaster,
and disaster lurks with good fortune.
Who knows why these things happen,
or when this cycle will end?
Good things seem to change into bad,
and bad things often turn out for good.
These things have always been hard to comprehend.
Thus the Master makes things change
without interfering.
She is probing yet causes no harm.
Straightforward, yet does not impose her will.
Radiant, and easy on the eye.
59
There is nothing better than moderation
for teaching people or serving Heaven.
Those who use moderation
are already on the path to the Tao.
Those who follow the Tao early
will have an abundance of virtue.
When there is an abundance of virtue,
there is nothing that can not be done.
Where there is limitless ability,
then the kingdom is withing your grasp.
When you know the Mother of the kingdom,
then you will be long enduring.
This is spoken of as the deep root and the firm trunk,
the Way to a long life and great spiritual vision.
198
60
Governing a large country
is like frying small fish.
Too much poking spoils the meat.
When the Tao is used to govern the world
then evil will loose its power to harm the people.
Not that evil will no longer exist,
but only because it has lost its power.
Just as evil can loose its ability to harm,
the Master shuns the use of violence.
If you give evil nothing to oppose,
then virtue will return by itself.
61
A large country should take the low place like a great watershed,
which from its low position assumes the female role.
The female overcomes the male by the power of her position.
Her tranquility gives rise to her humility.
If a large country takes the low position,
it will be able to influence smaller countries.
If smaller countries take the lower position,
then they can allow themselves to be influenced.
So both seek to take the lower position
in order to influence the other, or be influenced.
Large countries should desire to protect and help the people,
and small countries should desire to serve others.
Both large and small countries benefit greatly from humility.
62
The Tao is the tabernacle of creation,
it is a treasure for those who are good,
and a place of refuge for those who are not.
How can those who are not good be abandoned?
Words that are beautiful are worth much,
199
but good behavior can only be learned by example.
When a new leader takes office,
don't give him gifts and offerings.
These things are not as valuable
as teaching him about the Tao.
Why was the Tao esteemed by the ancient Masters?
Is it not said: "With it we find without looking.
With it we find forgiveness for our transgressions."
That is why the world can not under stand it.
63
Act by not acting;
do by not doing.
Enjoy the plain and simple.
Find that greatness in the small.
Take care of difficult problems
while they are still easy;
Do easy things before they become too hard.
Difficult problems are best solved while they are easy.
Great projects are best started while they are small.
The Master never takes on more than she can handle,
which means that she leaves nothing undone.
When an affirmation is given too lightly,
keep your eyes open for trouble ahead.
When something seems too easy,
difficulty is hiding in the details.
The master expects great difficulty,
so the task is always easier than planned.
64
Things are easier to control while things are quiet.
Things are easier to plan far in advance.
Things break easier while they are still brittle.
Things are easier hid while they are still small.
Prevent problems before they arise.
200
Take action before things get out of hand.
The tallest tree
begins as a tiny sprout.
The tallest building
starts with one shovel of dirt.
A journey of a thousand miles
starts with a single foot step.
If you rush into action, you will fail.
If you hold on too tight, you will loose your grip.
Therefore the Master lets things take their course
and thus never fails.
She doesn't hold on to things
and never looses them.
By pursing your goals too relentlessly,
you let them slip away.
If you are as concerned about the outcome
as you are about the beginning,
then it is hard to do things wrong.
The master seeks no possessions.
She learns by unlearning,
thus she is able to understand all things.
This gives her the ability to help all of creation.
65
The ancient Masters
who understood the way of the Tao,
did not educate people, but made them forget.
Smart people are difficult to guide,
because they think they are too clever.
To use cleverness to rule a country,
is to lead the country to ruin.
To avoid cleverness in ruling a country,
is to lead the country to prosperity.
Knowing the two alternatives is a pattern.
Remaining aware of the pattern is a virtue.
This dark and mysterious virtue is profound.
201
It is opposite our natural inclination,
but leads to harmony with the heavens.
66
Rivers and seas are rulers
of the streams of hundreds of valleys
because of the power of their low position.
If you want to be the ruler of people,
you must speak to them like you are their servant.
If you want to lead other people,
you must put their interest ahead of your own.
The people will not feel burdened,
if a wise person is in a position of power.
The people will not feel like they are being manipulated,
if a wise person is in front as their leader.
The whole world will ask for her guidance,
and will never get tired of her.
Because she does not like to compete,
no one can compete with the things she accomplishes.
67
The world talks about honoring the Tao,
but you can't tell it from their actions.
Because it is thought of as great,
the world makes light of it.
It seems too easy for anyone to use.
There are three jewels that I cherish:
compassion, moderation, and humility.
With compassion, you will be able to be brave,
With moderation, you will be able to give to others,
With humility, you will be able to become a great leader.
To abandon compassion while seeking to be brave,
or abandoning moderation while being benevolent,
or abandoning humility while seeking to lead
will only lead to greater trouble.
The compassionate warrior will be the winner,
and if compassion is your defense you will be secure.
202
Compassion is the protector of Heavens salvation.
68
The best warriors
do not use violence.
The best generals
do not destroy indiscriminately.
The best tacticians
try to avoid confrontation.
The best leaders
becomes servants of their people.
This is called the virtue of non-competition.
This is called the power to manage others.
This is called attaining harmony with the heavens.
69
There is an old saying:
"It is better to become the passive
in order to see what will happen.
It is better to retreat a foot
than to advance only an inch."
This is called
being flexible while advancing,
pushing back without using force,
and destroying the enemy without engaging him.
There is no greater disaster
than underestimating your enemy.
Underestimating your enemy
means loosing your greatest assets.
When equal forces meet in battle,
victory will go to the one
that enters with the greatest sorrow.
70
203
My words are easy to understand
and easier to put into practice.
Yet no one in the world seem to understand them,
and are not able to apply what I teach.
My teachings come from the ancients,
the things I do are done for a reason.
Because you do not know me,
you are not able to understand my teachings.
Because those who know me are few,
my teachings become even more precious.
71
Knowing you don't know is wholeness.
Thinking you know is a disease.
Only by recognizing that you have an illness
can you move to seek a cure.
The Master is whole because
she sees her illnesses and treats them,
and thus is able to remain whole.
72
When people become overly bold,
then disaster will soon arrive.
Do not meddle with peoples livelihood;
by respecting them they will in turn respect you.
Therefore, the Master knows herself but is not arrogant.
She loves herself but also loves others.
This is how she is able to make appropriate choices.
73
Being over bold and confidant is deadly.
The wise use of caution will keep you alive.
204
One is the way to death,
and the other is the way to preserve your life.
Who can understand the workings of Heaven?
The Tao of the universe
does not compete, yet wins;
does not speak, yet responds;
does not command, yet is obeyed;
and does act, but is good at directing.
The nets of Heaven are wide,
but nothing escapes its grasp.
74
If you do not fear death,
then how can it intimidate you?
If you aren't afraid of dying,
there is nothing you can not do.
Those who harm others
are like inexperienced boys
trying to take the place of a great lumberjack.
Trying to fill his shoes will only get them seriously hurt.
75
When people go hungry,
the governments taxes are too high.
When people become rebellious,
the government has become too intrusive.
When people begin to view death lightly,
wealthy people have too much
which causes others to starve.
Only those who do not cling to their life can save it.
205
76
The living are soft and yielding;
the dead are rigid and stiff.
Living plants are flexible and tender;
the dead are brittle and dry.
Those who are stiff and rigid
are the disciple of death.
Those who are soft and yielding
are the disciples of life.
The rigid and stiff will be broken.
The soft and yielding will overcome.
77
The Tao of Heaven works in the world
like the drawing of a bow.
The top is bent downward;
the bottom is bent up.
The excess is taken from,
and the deficient is given to.
The Tao works to use the excess,
and gives to that which is depleted.
The way of people is to take from the depleted,
and give to those who already have an excess.
Who is able to give to the needy from their excess?
Only some one who is following the way of the Tao.
This is why the Master gives
expecting nothing in return.
She does not dwell on her past accomplishments,
and does not glory in any praise.
78
Water is the softest and most yielding substance.
Yet nothing is better than water,
for overcoming the hard and rigid,
206
because nothing can compete with it.
Everyone knows that the soft and yielding
overcomes the rigid and hard,
but few can put this knowledge into practice.
Therefore the Master says:
"Only he who is the lowest servant of the kingdom,
is worthy to become its ruler.
He who is willing tackle the most unpleasant tasks,
is the best ruler in the world."
True sayings seem contradictory.
79
Difficulties remain, even after solving a problem.
How then can we consider that as good?
Therefore the Master
does what she knows is right,
and makes no demands of others.
A virtuous person will do the right thing,
and persons with no virtue will take advantage of others.
The Tao does not choose sides,
the good person receives from the Tao
because she is on its side.
80
Small countries with few people are best.
Give them all of the things they want,
and they will see that they do not need them.
Teach them that death is a serious thing,
and to be content to never leave their homes.
Even though they have plenty
of horses, wagons and boats,
they won't feel that they need to use them.
Even if they have weapons and shields,
they will keep them out of sight.
207
Let people enjoy the simple technologies,
let them enjoy their food,
let them make their own clothes,
let them be content with their own homes,
and delight in the customs that they cherish.
Although the next country is close enough
that they can hear their roosters crowing and dogs barking,
they are content never to visit each other
all of the days of their life.
81
True words do not sound beautiful;
beautiful sounding words are not true.
Wise men don't need to debate;
men who need to debate are not wise.
Wise men are not scholars,
and scholars are not wise.
The Master desires no possessions.
Since the things she does are for the people,
she has more than she needs.
The more she gives to others,
the more she has for herself.
The Tao of Heaven nourishes by not forcing.
The Tao of the Wise person acts by not competing.
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~stwright/rel/tao/TaoTeChing.html
208
Bhagavad-Gita@
(Selections)
http://intyoga.online.fr/bg_idx.htm
Chapter 2 SANKHYAYOGA
1. Sanjaya said: To him thus invaded by pity, his eyes full and distressed with tears, his
heart overcome by depression and discouragement, Madhusudana spoke these words.
2. The Blessed Lord said: Whence has come to thee this dejection, this stain and darkness
of the soul in the hour of difficulty and peril, O Arjuna? This is not the way cherished by
the Aryan man: this mood came not from heaven nor can it lead to heaven, and on earth it
is the forfeiting of glory.
3. Fall not from the virility of the fighter and the hero, O Partha! it is not fitting in thee.
Shake off this paltry faintheartedness and arise, O scourge of thine enemy!
4. Arjuna said: How, O Madhusudana, shall I strike Bhishma and Drona with weapons in
battle, they who are worthy of worship?
5. Better to live in this world even on alms than to slay these high-souled Gurus. Slaying
these Gurus, I should taste of blood-stained enjoyments even in this world.
6. Nor do I know which for us is better, that we should conquer them or they conquer us,
- before us stand the Dhritarashtrians, whom having slain we should not care to live.
7. It is poorness of spirit that has smitten away from me my (true heroic) nature, my
whole consciousness is bewildered in its view of right and wrong. I ask thee which may
be the better - that tell me decisively. I take refuge as a disciple with thee, enlighten me.
8. I see not what shall thrust from me the sorrow that dries up the senses, even if I should
attain rich and unrivalled kingdom on earth or even the sovereignty of the gods.
9. Sanjaya said: Gudakesha, terror of his foes, having thus spoken to Hrishikesha, and
said to him, "I will not fight!" became silent.
10. To him thus depressed and discouraged, Hrishikesha, smiling as it were, O Bharata,
spoke these words between the two armies.
11. The Blessed Lord said: Thou grievest for those that should not be grieved for. yet
speakest words of wisdom. The enlightened man does not mourn either for the living or
for the dead.
12. It is not true that at any time I was not, nor thou, nor these kings of men; nor is it true
that any of us shall ever cease to be hereafter.
209
13. As the soul passes physically through childhood and youth and age, so it passes on to
the changing of the body. The self-composed man does not allow himself to be disturbed
and blinded by this.
14. The material touches, O son of Kunti, giving cold and heat, pleasure and pain, things
transient which come and go, these learn to endure, O Bharata.
15. The man whom these do not trouble nor pain O lion-hearted among men, the firm and
wise who is equal in pleasure and suffering, makes himself apt for immortality.
16. That which really is, cannot go out of existence, just as that which is non-existent
cannot come into being. The end of this opposition of 'is' and 'is not' has been perceived
by the seers of essential truths.
17. Know that to be imperishable by which all this is extended. Who can slay the
immortal spirit?
18. Finite bodies have an end, but that which possesses and uses the body is infinite,
illimitable, eternal, indestructible. Therefore fight, O Bharata.
19. He who regards this (the soul) as a slayer, and he who thinks it is slain, both of them
fail to perceive the truth. It does not slay, nor is it slain.
20. This is not born, nor does it die, nor is it a thing that comes into being once and
passing away will never come into being again. It is unborn, ancient, sempiternal; it is not
slain with the slaying of the body.
21. Who knows it as immortal eternal imperishable spiritual existence, how can that man
slay, O Partha, or cause to be slain?
22. The embodied soul casts away old and takes up new bodies as a man changes wornout raiment for new.
23. Weapons cannot cleave it, nor the fire burn, nor do the waters drench it, nor the wind
dry.
24. It is uncleavable, it is incombustible, it can neither be drenched nor dried. Eternally
stable, immobile, all-pervading, it is for ever and for ever.
25. It is unmanifest, it is unthinkable, it is immutable, so it is described (by the Srutis);
therefore knowing it as such, thou shouldst not grieve.
26. Even if thou thinkest of it (the self) as being constantly subject to birth and death,
still, O mighty-armed, thou shouldst not grieve.
27. For certain is death for the born, and certain is birth for the dead, therefore what is
inevitable ought not to be a cause of thy sorrow.
28. Beings are unmanifest in the beginning, manifest in the middle, O Bharata,
unmanifest likewise are they in disintegration. What is there to be grieved at?
29. One sees it as a mystery or one speaks of it or hears of it as a mystery, but none
knows it. That (the Self, the One, the Divine) we look on and speak and hear of as the
wonderful beyond our comprehension, for after all our learning from those who have
knowledge, no human mind has ever known this Absolute.
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30. This dweller in the body of everyone is eternal and indestructible. O Bharata:
therefore thou shouldst not grieve for any creature.
31. Further, looking to thine own law of action thou shouldst not tremble; there is no
greater good for the Kshatriya than righteous battle.
32. When such a battle comes to them of itself like the open gate of heaven, happy are the
Kshatriyas then.
33. But if thou dost not this battle for the right, then hast thou abandoned thy duty and
virtue and thy glory, and sin shall be thy portion.
34. Besides, men will recount thy perpetual disgrace, and to one in noble station,
dishonour is worse than death.
35. The mighty men will think thee fled from the battle through fear, and thou, that wast
highly esteemed by them, will allow a smirch to fall on thy honour.
36. Many unseemly words will bespoken by thy enemies, slandering thy strength; what is
worse grief than that?
37. Slain thou shalt win Heaven, victorious thou shalt enjoy the earth; therefore arise, O
son of Kunti, resolved upon battle.
38. Make grief and happiness, loss and gain, victory and defeat equal to thy soul and then
turn to battle; so thou shalt not incur sin.
39. Such is the intelligence (the intelligent knowledge of things and will) declared to thee
in the Sankhya, hear now this in the Yoga, for if thou art in Yoga by this intelligence, O
son of Pritha, thou shalt cast away the bondage of works.
40. On this path no effort is lost, no obstacle prevails; even a little of this dharma delivers
from the great fear.
41. The fixed and resolute intelligence is one and homogeneous, O joy of the Kurus;
many-branching and multifarious is the intelligence of the irresolute.
42-43. This flowery word which they declare who have not clear discernment, devoted to
the creed of the Veda, whose creed is that there is nothing else, souls of desire, seekers of
Paradise, - it gives the fruits of the works of birth, it is multifarious with specialities of
rites, it is directed to enjoyment and lordship as its goal.
44. The intelligence of those who are misled by that (flowery word), and cling to
enjoyment and lordship, is not established in the self with concentrated fixity.
45. The action of the three gunas is the subject-matter of the Veda; but do thou become
free from the triple guna, O Arjuna; without the dualities, ever based in the true being,
without getting or having, possessed of the self.
46. As much use as there is in a well with water in flood on every side, so much is there
in all the Vedas for the Brahmin who has the knowledge.
47. Thou hast a right to action, but only to action, never to its fruits; let not the fruits of
thy works be thy motive, neither let there be in thee any attachment to inactivity.
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48. Fixed in Yoga do thy actions, having abandoned attachment, having become equal in
failure and success; for it is equality that is meant by Yoga.
49. Works are far inferior to Yoga of the intelligence, O Dhananjaya; desire rather refuge
in the intelligence; poor and wretched souls are they who make the fruit of their works
the object of their thoughts and activities.
50. One whose intelligence has attained to unity, casts away - even here in this world of
dualities - both good doing and evil doing. Therefore strive to be in Yoga; Yoga is skill in
works.
51. The sages who have united their reason and will with the Divine renounce the fruit
which action yields and, liberated from the bondage of birth, they reach the status beyond
misery.
52. When thy intelligence shall cross beyond the whirl of delusion, then shalt thou
become indifferent to Scripture heard or that which thou hast yet to hear.
53. When thy intelligence which is bewildered by the Sruti, shall stand unmoving and
stable in Samadhi, then shalt thou attain to Yoga.
54. Arjuna said: What is the sign of the man in Samadhi whose intelligence is firmly
fixed in wisdom? How does the sage of settled understanding speak, how sit, how walk?
55. The Blessed Lord said: When a man expels, O Partha, all desires from the mind, and
is satisfied in the self by the self, then is he called stable in intelligence.
56. He whose mind is undisturbed in the midst of sorrows and amid pleasures is free from
desire, from whom liking and fear and wrath have passed away, is the sage of settled
understanding.
57. Who in all things is without affection though visited by this good or that evil and
neither hates nor rejoices, his intelligence sits firmly founded in wisdom.
58. Who draws away the senses from the objects of sense, as the tortoise draws in his
limbs into the shell, his intelligence sits firmly founded in wisdom.
59. If one abstains from food, the objects of sense cease to affect, but the affection itself
of the sense, the rasa, remains; the rasa also ceases when the Supreme is seen.
60. Even the mind of the wise man who labours for perfection is carried away by the
vehement insistence of the senses, O son of Kunti.
61. Having brought all the senses under control, he must sit firm in Yoga, wholly given
up to Me; for whose senses are mastered, of him the intelligence is firmly established (in
its proper seat).
62. In him whose mind dwells on the objects of sense with absorbing interest, attachment
to them is formed; from attachment arises desire; from desire anger comes forth.
63. Anger leads to bewilderment, from bewilderment comes loss of memory; and by that
the intelligence is destroyed; from destruction of intelligence he perishes.
64-65. It is by ranging over the objects with the senses, but with senses subject to the self,
freed from liking and disliking, that one gets into a large and sweet clearness of soul and
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temperament in which passion and grief find no place; the intelligence of such a man is
rapidly established (in its proper seat).
66. For one who is not in Yoga, there is no intelligence, no concentration of thought; for
him without concentration there is no peace, and for the unpeaceful how can there be
happiness?
67. Such of the roving senses as the mind follows, that carries away the understanding,
just as the winds carry away a ship on the sea.
68. Therefore, O mighty-armed, one who has utterly restrained the excitement of the
senses by their objects, his intelligence sits firmly founded in calm self-knowledge.
69. That (higher being) which is to all creatures a night, is to the self-mastering sage his
waking (his luminous day of true being, knowledge and power); the life of the dualities
which is to them their waking (their day, their consciousness, their bright condition of
activity) is a night (a troubled sleep and darkness of the soul) to the sage who sees.
70. He attains peace, into whom all desires enter as waters into the sea (an ocean of wide
being and consciousness) which is ever being filled, yet ever motionless - not he who
(like troubled and muddy waters) is disturbed by every little inrush of desire.
71. Who abandons all desires and lives and acts free from longing, who has no "I" or
"mine" (who has extinguished his individual ego in the One and lives in that unity), he
attains to the great peace.
72. This is brahmi sthiti (firm standing in the Brahman), O son of Pritha. Having attained
thereto one is not bewildered; fixed in that status at his end, one can attain to extinction in
the Brahman.
CHAPTER XI
THE VISION OF THE WORLD-SPIRIT
1. Arjuna said: This word of the highest spiritual secret of existence. Thou hast spoken
out of compassion for me; by this my delusion is dispelled.
2. The birth and passing away of existences have been heard by me in detail from Thee,
O Lotus-eyed, and also the imperishable greatness of the divine conscious Soul.
3. So it is, as Thou hast declared Thyself, O Supreme Lord; I desire to see Thy divine
form and body, O Purushottama.
4. If Thou thinkest that it can be seen by me, O Lord, O Master of Yoga, then show me
Thy imperishable Self.
5. The Blessed Lord said: Behold, O Partha, my hundreds and thousands of divine forms,
various in kind, various in shape and hue.
6. Behold the Adityas, the Vasus, the Rudras, the two Aswins and also the Maruts;
behold many wonders that none has beheld, O Bharata.
7. Here, to-day, behold the whole world, with all that is moving and unmoving, unified in
my body, O Gudakesha, and whatever else thou wiliest to see.
8. What thou hast to see, this thy human eye cannot grasp; but there is a divine eye (an
inmost seeing) and that eye I now give to thee. Behold Me in My divine Yoga.
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9-14. Sanjaya said: Having thus spoken, O King, the Master of the great Yoga. Hari,
showed to Partha His supreme Form. It is that of the infinite Godhead whose faces are
everywhere and in whom are all the wonders of existence, who multiplies unendingly all
the many marvellous revelations of His being, a world-wide Divinity seeing with
innumerable eyes, speaking from innumerable mouths, armed for battle with numberless
divine uplifted weapons, glorious with divine ornaments of beauty, robed in heavenly
raiment of deity, lovely with garlands of divine flowers, fragrant with divine perfumes.
Such is the light of this body of God as if a thousand suns had risen at once in heaven.
The whole world multitudinously divided and yet unified is visible in the body of the
God of Gods. Arjuna sees him (God magnificent and beautiful and terrible, the Lord of
souls who has manifested in the glory and greatness of his spirit this wild and monstrous
and orderly and wonderful and sweet and terrible world) and overcome with marvel and
joy and fear he bows down and adores with words of awe and with clasped hands the
tremendous vision.
15. Arjuna said: I see all the gods in Thy body, O God, and different companies of
beings, Brahma the creating Lord seated in the Lotus, and the Rishis and the race of the
divine Serpents.
16. I see numberless arms and bellies and eyes and faces, I see Thy infinite forms on
every side, but I see not Thy end nor Thy middle nor Thy beginning, O Lord of the
universe, O Form universal.
17. I see Thee crowned and with Thy mace and Thy discus, hard to discern because Thou
art a luminous mass of energy on all sides of me, an encompassing blaze, a sun-bright
fire-bright Immeasurable.
18. Thou art the supreme Immutable whom we have to know, Thou art the high
foundation and abode of the universe, Thou art the imperishable guardian of the eternal
laws, Thou art the sempiternal soul of existence.
19. I behold Thee without end or middle or beginning, of infinite force, of numberless
arms, Thy eyes are suns and moons, Thou hast a face of blazing fire and Thou art ever
burning up the whole universe with the flame of Thy energy.
20. The whole space between earth and heaven is occupied by Thee alone, when is seen
this Thy fierce and astounding form, the three worlds are all in pain and suffer, O Thou
mighty Spirit.
21. The companies of the gods enter Thee, afraid, adoring; the Rishis and the Siddhas
crying, "May there be peace and weal", praise Thee with many praises.
22. The Rudras, Adityas, Vasus, Sadhyas, Vishvas, the two Aswins and the Maruts and
the Ushmapas, the Gandharvas, Yakshas, Asuras, Siddhas, all have their eyes fixed on
Thee in amazement.
23. Seeing Thy great form of many mouths and eyes, O Mighty-armed, of many arms,
thighs and feet and bellies, terrible with many teeth, the world and its nations are shaken
and in anguish, as also am I.
24. I see Thee, touching heaven, blazing, of many hues, with opened mouths and
enormous burning eyes, troubled and in pain is the soul within me and I find no peace or
gladness.
25. As I look upon Thy mouths terrible with many tusks of destruction. Thy faces like the
fires of Death and Time, I lose sense of the directions and find no peace. Turn Thy heart
to grace, O God of gods! refuge of all the worlds!
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26-27. The sons of Dhritarashtra, all with the multitude of kings and heroes, Bhishma and
Drona and Kama along with the foremost warriors on our side too, are hastening into Thy
tusked and terrible jaws and some are seen with crushed and bleeding heads caught
between Thy teeth of power.
28. As is the speed of many rushing waters racing towards the ocean, so all these heroes
of the world of men are entering into Thy many mouths of flame.
29. As a swarm of moths with ever-increasing speed fall to their destruction into a fire
that some one has kindled, so now the nations with ever-increasing speed are entering
into Thy jaws of doom.
30. Thou lickest the regions all around with Thy tongues and Thou art swallowing up all
the nations in Thy mouths of burning; all the world is filled with the blaze of Thy
energies; fierce and terrible are Thy lustres and they burn us, O Vishnu.
31. Declare to me who Thou art that wearest this form of fierceness. Salutation to Thee,
O Thou great Godhead, turn Thy heart to grace. I would know who Thou art who wast
from the beginning, for I know not the will of Thy workings.
32. The Blessed Lord said: I am the Time-Spirit, destroyer of the world, arisen hugestatured for the destruction of the nations. Even without thee all these warriors shall be
not, who are ranked in the opposing armies.
33. Therefore arise, get thee glory, conquer thy enemies and enjoy an opulent kingdom.
By me and none other already even are they slain, do thou become the occasion only, O
Savyasachin.
34. Slay, by me who are slain, Drona, Bhishma, Jayad-ratha, Kama and other heroic
fighters; be not pained and troubled. Fight, thou shalt conquer the adversary in the battle.
35. Sanjaya said: Having heard these words of Keshava, Kiriti (Arjuna), with clasped
hands and trembling, saluted again and spoke to Krishna in a faltering voice very much
terrified and bowing down.
36. Arjuna said: Rightly and in good place, O Krishna, does the world rejoice and take
pleasure in Thy name; the Rakshasas are fleeing from Thee in terror to all the quarters
and the companies of the Siddhias bow down before Thee in adoration.
37. How should they not do Thee homage, O great Spirit? For Thou art the original
Creator and Doer of works and greater even than creative Brahma. O Thou Infinite, O
Thou Lord of the gods, O Thou abode of the universe, Thou art the Immutable and Thou
art what in and is not, and Thou art that which is the Supreme.
38. Thou art the ancient Soul and the first and original Godhead and the supreme restingplace of this All; Thou art the knower and that which is to be known and the highest
status; O infinite in form, by Thee was extended the universe.
39-40. Thou art Yama and Vayu and Agni and Soma and Varuna and Prajapati, father of
creatures, and the great-grandsire. Salutation to Thee a thousand times over and again and
yet again salutation, in front and behind and from every side, for Thou art each and all
that is. Infinite in might and immeasurable in strength of action Thou pervadest all and art
everyone.
41-42. For whatsoever I have spoken to Thee in rash vehemence, thinking of Thee only
as my human friend and companion, 'O Krishna, O Yadava, O Comrade,' not knowing
this Thy greatness, in negligent error or in love, and for whatsoever disrespect was shown
by me to Thee in jest, at play, on the couch and the seat and in the banquet, alone or in
Thy presence, O faultless One, I pray forgiveness from Thee, the immeasurable.
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43. Thou art the father of all this world of the moving and unmoving; Thou art one to be
worshipped and the most solemn object of veneration. None is equal to Thee, how then
another greater in all the three worlds, O incomparable in might?
44. Therefore I bow down before Thee and prostrate my body and I demand grace of
Thee the adorable Lord. As a father to his son, as a friend to his friend and comrade, as
one dear with him he loves, so shouldst Thou, O Godhead, bear with me.
45. I have seen what never was seen before and I rejoice, but my mind is troubled with
fear. O Godhead, show me that other form of Thine; turn Thy heart to grace, O Thou
Lord of the gods, O Thou abode of this universe.
46. I would see Thee even as before crowned and with Thy mace and discus. Assume
Thy four-armed shape, O thousand-armed, O Form universal.
47. The Blessed Lord said: This that thou now seest by my favour, O Arjuna, is my
supreme shape, my form of luminous energy, the universal, the infinite, the original
which none but thou amongst men has yet seen. I have shown it by my self-Yoga.
48. Neither by the study of Vedas and sacrifices, nor by gifts or ceremonial rites or severe
austerities, this form of mine can be seen by any other than thyself, O foremost of Kurus.
49. Thou shouldst envisage this tremendous vision without pain, without confusion of
mind, without any sinking of the members. Cast away fear and let thy heart rejoice,
behold again this other form of mine.
50. Sanjaya said: Vasudeva, having thus spoken to Arjuna, again manifested his normal
(Narayana) image; the Mahatman again assuming the desired form of grace and love and
sweetness consoled the terrified one.
51. Arjuna said: Beholding again Thy gentle human form, O Janardana, my heart is filled
with delight and I am restored to my own nature.
52-54. The Blessed Lord said: The greater Form that thou hast seen is only for the rare
highest souls. The gods themselves ever desire to look upon it. Nor can I be seen as thou
hast seen Me by Veda or austerities or gifts or sacrifice, it can be seen, known, entered
into only by that bhakti which regards, adores and loves Me alone in all things.
55. Be a doer of my works, accept Me as the supreme being and object, become my
bhakta, be free from attachment and without enmity to all existences; for such a man
comes to Me, O Pandava.
as translated by
Sri Aurobindo
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