Most of the Tao Te Ching doesn’t make sense. I read it every year anyway, and I’ve no plans to stop.
It’s old. Very old. Nobody’s quite sure when it was written, or even whether Lao Tzu was one person. What you get is 81 short verses about the Tao, which roughly translates as the Way. Living simply. Staying in balance. Letting things happen instead of forcing them.
Even the title takes a bit of unpacking. Tao is the Way, Te is usually translated as virtue or power, and Ching just means a classic book. So you could call it the book of the Way and how to live it. That still doesn’t tell you much, and I suspect that’s deliberate.
It’s full of paradox, and it makes you think, it helps you find yourself and it makes you laugh. That’s the best way I can put it.
Some verses read like riddles, and some seem to argue with the one before. The more you grab at something, the more it slips away. The people who really know don’t say much, and the ones who say the most don’t know. Water is the softest thing there is, and it still wears away rock. You read a verse twice and you’re still not sure what it means. That’s half the fun.
One of the big ideas is wu wei, often translated as doing without doing. It sounds like an excuse to sit on the sofa. It’s closer to what happens when you’re so in tune with something that it feels effortless. Anyone who’s DJed knows the feeling of a mix that just works because you stopped wrestling the records and listened.
“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.”
That’s from Stephen Mitchell’s translation. Translations vary a lot, so if one leaves you cold, try another. It reads almost like a different book.
Most of us are far better at reading other people than reading ourselves. We can spot a mate’s bad habit from across the room and miss our own for years. The Tao Te Ching keeps turning you round to look in the mirror, and that’s what it does best.
There’s plenty in there about leadership too. One verse says that when the best leader’s work is done, the people say they did it themselves. That’s about as good a description of leadership as you’ll find in one line. The best leaders make people feel capable, and then get out of the way.
Not forcing it, and still getting it done
You’d think a book about not forcing things would sit awkwardly next to a book called Done Beats Perfect. I’ve found they get on fine.
Lao Tzu turns up in my own book more than once. One line I used is about self-acceptance: when you’re content with yourself, you stop needing other people’s approval. When I wrote about willpower, I said most of it is us fighting things we can’t change. Acceptance works better. That’s very Tao.
And on my 2016 advent videos, I leaned on his idea that a walk of a thousand miles starts with a single step. So many people are scared of taking that step that they don’t move at all. You might be judging yourself by your intentions, but the rest of the world judges you by your actions.
Put those together and it makes sense to me. Stop fighting the stuff you can’t change. Take the small step you can. Let the rest settle.
There’s a verse about muddy water that says the same thing. Leave it alone and the mud settles until the water’s clear. Keep stirring it and it never will.
It also suits my reading rule. My rule is at least one page a day, and it’s what got me reading again after years of not reading at all. Most verses in the Tao Te Ching fit comfortably on a page. Read one a day and you’ll get through the lot in under three months, then you can start again.
Reading it every year is a bit like a check-up. The verses stay the same. The person reading them doesn’t.
You’ll find it in my free guide, 50 Books That Shaped Me, next to the other books I reread every year.
You don’t have to understand it to get something from it. Most years, I don’t.
