I've read the Tao Te ching: A Book About the Way and the Power of Way by Lao Tzu, translated by Ursula K. LeGuin from cover to cover. This is just a post about some of the themes I saw coming up again and again throughout the text.
A note though: this is my interpretation, what I gained from reading the material. Therefore this is being filtered through my positionality, as someone from a colonized place, and being of colonizer ancestry. Nor am I a scholar that has spent time doing translations or comparing translations. I did want to, for myself, put together a summary of themes as the text is rich and varied and apart from pretty much just sharing every single chapter, I needed to also have some kind of summary as I continue to compare this wisdom and writing to the Art of War.
Themes:
Naming: how naming and identifying can lead to loss of understanding and loss of clear observation
The criticality of the whole and avoiding steps that remove that deeper connection to wholeness
Less talking, identifying/naming, more listening (this includes even within my own head to myself)
Doing without effort where possible, minimizing efforting
Doing things with care to the self - you are included in the wholeness, and must be for the wholeness to remain whole
Looking to nature: the flow of water and how nature operates
Where can there be effective emptiness and non action?
Trying to "have" in however that manifests, goes the wrong direction: favor, blame, riches beauty, wherever the needing to "have" (including what you don't want to have)
Attachment to ego and efficacy of not centering the ego
But also sanctity of the self (13)
Eyes on the horizon - know what endures (16)
The invisible leader - it's not about you even though you are personally invested
Community and ancestors
Focus on what is eternal
Knowing but not broadcasting
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