Friday, April 15, 2005

Lao-Tzu

put it this way

When a country is in harmony with the Tao,
the factories make trucks and tractors.
When a country goes counter to the Tao,
warheads are stockpiled outside the cities.

There is no greater illusion than fear,
no greater wrong than preparing to defend yourself,
no greater misfortune than having an enemy.

Whoever can see through all fear
will always be safe.

I am not all that wild about trucks and tractors but I can't improve on the insight.

This is from Steven Mitchell's somewhat modernized translation of 2300 year old words,
the Tao te Ching of Lao-Tzu.