tao 38 isn't as profound as i earlier thought, because it deals with social orders, a somewhat "low" and practical subject (he put this verse in the 2nd half of the book himself too). what it says is, don't fool yourself and pretend to be "good". something like that. but the text it is very poignant, and well written. ancient chinese text is always a joy to read, because each character carries a lot more meanings and clarity and ambiguity (at the same time) than modern characters, and much more so than western languages. chinese text are known to be vague and open to interpretation. since one cannot be perfectly precise with words anyway, perhaps the chinese way is better in training people not to get so stuck with words and concepts and such.

dunno.

Part of being a student of the tao is that I write or rewrite one of the
chapters everyday, then I try to live it, my teacher of the tao spoke and
read very well - he said what you say so I think it must be great for poetry
anyway this is what I think , also this is one of my favorties, like all art
lao my have meant one thing but it can mean several things, which is like
the tao too

yes, chinese language is very good for poetry. my teacher (thesis advisor, but he is a better taoist than a thesis advisor) also said the same thing. western languages are better at scientific and philosophical inquiries because of its higher degree of preciseness (although nothing can be truly precise unless you want to say what is not). but then, science seems to be much narrower than poetry. western learning starts from the specific and aims to understand the whole. eastern understanding starts from the whole and aims to live the specific. guess we each have to pick what suits our own temperament.

the english translation from gia-fu feng is misleading in two lines--"A truly good man does nothing, / Yet leaves nothing undone. / A foolish man is always doing, / Yet much remains to be done." although i like what it says, it's quite different from what lao tsu tries to say, even if it's open to interpretation. a more literally translation is something like, "a superior good people does the do-nothing-deliberately (i.e. goodness) but it is done (i.e. the not-doing is done); a inferior good people does the do-nothing-deliberately (or goodness), but he actually does it (deliberately)." ok, i know my style of writing is not being concise. maybe i am just too kind.

today i saw another translation but it was not good at all--very persuasive. only people have true understanding of tao should be allowed to publish their translations/interpretations. you are right that lao zi (lao tsu) is a poet. we can say that zhuang zi is a humorist or a story teller. people always want to mark them as philosophers or thinkers. i think anyone who has reached tao would not be satisfied to just be a philosopher; he is more likely to put his understanding back in whatever he chooses to do in life, be a poet, a story teller, a bum, a scientist, or whatever.

why am i being so insightful? all i want is to sit on my porch and drink beer and read a good book.

-- email conversation with ST.