The Sayings of Laozi

For hard and stiff, read impervious and intransigent. For soft and weak, read yielding and vulnerable. Life is full of movement and freshness. Trees can survive the gales if they sway in the wind.

Laozi's message – If you are a king, watch your back. If you are a subject, hold the king to account.

Here, Laozi is saying, if you push people to the limits of their tolerance, then they no longer fear death. Your so called weapon of last resort, death, no longer works. Result: chaos.

The net of Heaven spreads far and wide. In English we sometimes say ‘the long arm of the law,’ meaning punishment is inescapable.

Laozi implores rulers to follow the ways of the Dao. Don't get too comfortable in the hot seat, he chides ... nothing is forever. You ignore the lives and livelihoods of the people at your peril.

True wisdom is knowing that there is so much that you do not know, so much more to learn. Anyone who claims otherwise is self-defeating or misguided, or in Laozi's words, sick.

Whilst he is revered now as a great sage, there may have been few people in his day and age who actually understood enough about him to carry on the message. Like Dao however, Laozi gave his message simply and without expectation.

For Laozi, war and conflict is failure. To get to that point shows that both sides have moved very far away from the principal of Dao, and so there will likely be no winners.

On the surface it may seem as though Laozi is giving advice to warriors, but his words are just as applicable to rulers, leaders, and those in charge generally. More importantly for a good leader, Laozi suggests, is knowing how to best use the people and resources that one has.

The key part of this verse is Laozi's focus on Compassion, Frugality and lack of Ambition – what he describes as his three treasures.

Laozi wants to make the analogy with a sage wishing to show leadership. Not from above or in front, but below and behind… like water weaving its way through difficult terrain, through a valley.

Laozi mentioned that if you overregulated the people then they would use their ingenuity to find ways to subvert your rule. So - in the spirit of Non-doing, wouldn't it be better to govern with openness, simplicity and honesty?

This verse contains one of the best known sayings, if not THE best known saying of Laozi, which most people in the West know as ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.’

In this verse, Laozi is warning against complacency. He would have made a pretty good project manager or life coach in the 21st century.

Let's remind ourselves that Dao is the ultimate. It is all forgiving and values everything equally – the good and the not so good. It is a sanctuary for all.

In this verse, Laozi is dipping into foreign affairs. He is playing with the concept of No-Win, Zero Sum and Win-Win scenarios. This is Game Theory – millenia before it was invented.

Just as you can't be heavy handed in cooking a small fish, so too a light touch is the best way to govern a large state. Laozi invokes Dao to make the point that its natural state is non-doing, non-action.

This verse is about knowing how to act and when to act, also how much to act. Lead in this way, and the people will follow.

Our philosopher has advice for anyone who would become a sage. Be sharp, but don't cut. Be pointed but don't pierce. Be outspoken, but don't offend. Lead by example, but then let your audience decide for themselves.

In this verse our philosopher has what seems to be advice to rulers. Keep things nicely down the middle – ‘the proper norm.’

Here Laozi is saying, live a simple life, and turn your back on personal gain, personal relations and social status. Be content with your progress on the journey. No need to shout about it. Nothing to see here.

Laozi warns against squandering Qi. It's almost as though he is saying that there is a limited amount in our bodies. Use it up, and you will grow old too soon and die young.

Laozi is saying that you don't need to look far to understand the actions of others, family, villages, states and even the way of the universe. Start by understanding yourself. Understanding starts by observing yourself.

Who needs all these fancy things, when you have the most wonderous thing of all – Dao.

There is nothing to be gained from the outside world. Do the opposite and you will be troubled by strife for all your days. Back to the essential message. Find the answer in the small… the fragile … the near at hand.

For Laozi, everything is simply in some form of process, still part of the lifecycle. See it as a vast family tree that leads all the way back from the Ten Thousand things, right back to the One.

Laozi's advice is not dissimilar to contemporary views that sometimes you make you yourself so busy that you don’t have time to enjoy yourself, to truly enjoy existence.

It's the exact same process of setting aside your own needs and desires in favour of others. And if they do wrong then you forgive them. You turn the other cheek. You are teaching by example.

For Laozi there is danger in too much knowledge. It can fill up the mind, and trap you into certain beliefs and actions.

Don't confuse your mind with things that don't matter. Seek the tranquility of inner peace and knowledge. Hence – the farther you travel, the less you know.

Laozi is returning to the concept of the triumph of need over want. It's vitally important to know when enough is enough.

Laozi says that we often have a flawed view of what we see, maybe because we choose to see things that way.

If you have more than you truly need, then you have more to lose. Humility and restraint are the key.

Here Laozi is suggesting that sometimes the best course of action is to do nothing.

All things stem from Dao. And everything created is connected and interdependent.

Don't try to put your finger on Dao – it's not possible. Just remember that it is bountiful and leads us to everything.

Here Laozi comes back to the concept of Non-being. Everything we see around us has a pedigree. But there was a time when something came from nothing. The cycle had to begin.

No man is an Island, entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent… send not to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.

Laozi is offering us a warning about the future. Or rather, he is saying – live in the now. Dao isn't about the future – it's about the here and now.

Greed, hunger for power, for fame and fortune are all desires, but not needs. For Laozi, nothing is to be gained by giving in to your desires.

Here Laozi is trying to get across the truism that when something reaches an extreme, it is self-defeating. He sees it as an inevitable law of opposites.

In this verse Laozi is asking us to trust him, as a sage, who is showing us the way, even though we may not sense it in any way. Stop trying to ascribe attributes to Dao. That’s very human. Just be aware of its bounty.

The answers Laozi so often suggests are to be found within, through the cultivation of our thoughts rather than practical deeds.

In this verse, we have a very handy little guide to living a fulfilled life. But it's important to tread carefully to understand the nuances of his message.

It is about the nature of Dao. A little like the endless circularity of the water cycle – the sea creates clouds which drift over mountains, which cause the water within to be released, which becomes streams and rivers that ultimately flow back into the sea, and so it all starts again.