Tao te ching: chapter 79
Sep 23rd, 2008 by katesaltfleet
I was looking for something else and the book fell open at this page. Rather appropriate, given what I wrote in the previous post.
Failure is an opportunity.
If you blame someone else there is no end to the blame.
Therefore, the Master fulfills her own obligations, and corrects her own mistakes.
She does what she needs to do and demands nothing of others.
Yep, the universe know what it’s doing all right!
I love that your translation the main character is female
I’m pretty sure that’s not how it is in the original, but hey, why not translate like that in the 21st century.
We have a very large collage on the wall in one of the edit bays where I work. That was one of the first passages from the Tao Te Ching to go up on it!
@ Katinka - My version is the Stephen Mitchell one, in the notes he says that Chinese does not make a distinction between he and she. He has used both pronouns in the text, so in some verses the “Master” is male, in others female. I think that’s pretty cool.
@Veronica - yeah it’s good one for work where we need a bit of perspective sometimes.