"The longer you travel, the less you know."

Tao Te Ching - Chapter 47

The Taoist Classic by Lao Tzu
Translated and Explained

47

Immanuel Kant, who lived in the 18^th century, was one of the foremost of Western philosophers. He was born in the town Königsberg, and stayed there all his life. He had profound thoughts on god, life, peace, and just about everything else. As his philosophy got known around the world, everyone was amazed that so much could come out of a man who never in his life traveled more than ten miles from his home town.

       Lao Tzu would have applauded his lifestyle. There is no need to explore every little corner of the world in order to understand how it works. There is not even a need to glare at it much. Its essence is obvious to anyone who is open to it.

       You have it in yourself, too, so why go any further? Those who insist on searching it elsewhere are most likely to get lost.

       We live in an era where science progresses by experimenting on things around us, as if our own beings and our own minds had nothing to do with it. But what is our world, without our presence in it? What does it look like through other eyes than ours?

       Truly, whatever we discover about the universe and its mechanisms, it's still bound by how we experience it. Without our experience, we would not even be aware of the world around us.

       In the time of Lao Tzu, and many centuries on, man was not removed from the world as if he were a mere observer of it. That makes sense. We are part of it, even when we observe it. So, our observations and conclusions depend on what we are, what we can see, and what we want everything to be. Science is completely objective only where its findings are of no importance to us.

       So, Lao Tzu joins with Immanuel Kant, exploring the world through his mind and admitting it. Therefore, extensive travel is uncalled for. Wherever you travel, your mind follows. Actually, it's doing the traveling, so it leads. If you forget that, you flee from it. Then, what can you ever hope to understand?

       This exploration, taking place inside instead of outside of us, is indeed another way of completing without acting. We find the truth by contemplation, not by chasing it with our instruments. Our present science will reach a point when this is again realized to be necessary.

       Some scientific paradoxes, like those in Einstein's relativity and quantum physics, suggest that we have already gotten there.

       As for Lao Tzu's use of the expression Heaven's Way instead of just the Way, see my comments on chapter 73.

© Stefan Stenudd.

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Tao Te Ching Explained

Preface

Introduction

Literature

The 81 Chapters of Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
translated and explained by Stefan Stenudd.

1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30
31	32	33	34	35	36
37	38	39	40	41	42
43	44	45	46	47	48
49	50	51	52	53	54
55	56	57	58	59	60
61	62	63	64	65	66
67	68	69	70	71	72
73	74	75	76	77	78
79	80	81

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Tao Te Ching Explained

James Legge's Tao Te Ching

Aleister Crowley's Tao Te Ching

The 1st Chapter of Tao Te Ching in 76 Versions

Lao Tzu - Legendary Author of Tao Te Ching

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