First, the original (pass)
Know the world without leaving home; Don't look at yǒu, look at heaven. It is far away, but it knows very little.
Knowing that a saint can't do it, he doesn't see it.
Second, translation.
You can infer world events without leaving home; Without looking out of the window, you can understand the natural laws of the movement of the sun, the moon and the stars. As far as seeking Tao is concerned, the farther you go, the less you know.
Therefore, a saint can infer what's going on in the world without leaving home, but he knows justice without seeing it with his own eyes and achieves something without making a move.
Third, expand thinking.
This chapter seems mysterious, but in fact it is still about the truth of "doing nothing without doing anything"
0 1: Learn about the world without leaving home.
You can know what's going on in the world without leaving home. Some people take Laozi out of context and say that he is an idealist, but he is not. Obviously, this sentence has a premise, that is, in the state of knowing heaven, we can realize "knowing the world without leaving home" Perhaps I was worried that others might misunderstand me, so I wrote another sentence, "Don't peek, see the light of day."
"Knowing the world without leaving home" sounds a bit exaggerated, but in fact, Lao Tzu is talking about the realm of an enlightened person. Chapter 27 also has a similar description, "Good deeds, no trace; Good words are flawless; Good numbers don't need to be raised. "
02: He is far away, but he knows very little.
Laozi said, "The farther you go, the less you know." This sentence sounds illogical. We often say, "Good people are rewarded" and "Learn from thousands of books and follow Wan Li Road". Why did it become "as far away as possible"?
In fact, Lao Tzu is standing from the perspective of a monk. Faced with all kinds of desires, a person is easy to lose his nature, become eager for quick success and instant benefit, and become impetuous. The farther he goes, the farther he is from Tao, and eventually his understanding of Tao will become less and less.
Besides, does this sentence refer to Confucius? Confucius traveled around the world for fourteen years, pursuing benevolent policies and returning in vain. Maybe I think too much.
03: Be quiet, don't do it.
Only by abstaining from lust, quietism, conforming to nature and having good thoughts can we realize knowing what we can't do and knowing what we can't do.
Laozi is the founder of the Taoist school, and the Tao Te Ching is about 0.5 million words. The Analects of Confucius is about1.2000 words; Mencius is about 3.5 words; Zhuangzi is about 80,000 words.
Laozi said that "the argument is not good enough, and there are not many words", so he only wrote more than 5,000 words in Tao Te Ching. Although the number of words is small, it does not affect its becoming a classic.
Why can Lao Tzu write the all-encompassing Tao Te Ching? Personally, I think this chapter can be used for reference.
Laozi is the keeper of the Tibetan room in the Zhou Dynasty. He served for about twenty-three years. In this position, he can get in touch with all kinds of ancient books and the history of various vassal States. Laozi's profound knowledge laid a solid foundation for writing Tao Te Ching.
The decline of the royal family, social chaos and my own predicament have deeply touched Lao Tzu. He made a comparative analysis of the history, the Spring and Autumn Rebellion and natural phenomena of each dynasty, and sorted out the natural laws such as "weakness is better than strength", "doing nothing without doing anything" and "moving against the Tao". Laozi rose from perceptual knowledge to rational knowledge.
This is a long-term process, which is formed by Laozi's constant self-denial and self-dialectics.
Maybe Lao Tzu achieved the goal of "knowing the world without leaving home"; Look at heaven without peeking. "It is natural to write down the Tao Te Ching.
The pictures in this article come from the Internet.