Original Text
Attain the ultimate emptiness and maintain the utmost stillness. Amidst the flourishing growth of all things, I observe their cycles of return. Though countless beings arise in profusion, each eventually returns to its root. Returning to the root is called stillness, and stillness is called returning to one's true nature. Returning to one's true nature is the constant law of all movement and change. To understand this constant law is called enlightenment. To act rashly without knowing this constant law brings danger. One who knows this constant law becomes tolerant; being tolerant, they become impartial; being impartial, they become all-encompassing; being all-encompassing, they align with nature; aligning with nature, they align with the Way; embodying the Way, they endure long, free from peril throughout their life.
Guide
All things in the universe cycle from movement to stillness, from life to death, and from death back to life. Yet only the enlightened one who attains the ultimate emptiness and stillness can perceive this eternal and unchanging natural law. Laozi hopes that people observe all things in the world from a state of emptiness and tranquility, for only then can they grasp the true essence of the Tao, follow the Tao in dealing with things, and achieve a state of being free from danger until the end of their lives.
Analysis
This chapter expounds the essence of the Tao, revealing the highest state of cultivation. The Great Tao is empty as its constant, and existence as its change; stillness is its constant, and movement as its change. Existence and movement ultimately must return to non-existence and non-movement. Therefore, by holding fast to the constant Tao, though all things are in turmoil, one only needs to embrace existence with emptiness, await movement with stillness, and see neither existence nor movement, then one will not change with the changes of things, remaining in a state of eternal peace and bliss.
Laozi believed that the essence of the Tao and the highest state of cultivation is to reach the ultimate emptiness and reverently abide in stillness, thus he proposed concepts such as extreme emptiness, steadfast stillness, stillness, constancy, clarity, and tolerance.
"Attain the ultimate emptiness, abide in genuine stillness." To attain means to devote oneself completely, placing oneself in the boundless void of silence. This describes a state of self-awakening in spiritual practice, difficult for non-practitioners to truly comprehend. In cultivation, the practitioner merges body and mind into the great void, reaching a state where both self and objects are forgotten.
Returning to the root is called stillness, and stillness is called returning to life. Knowing the constant is called enlightenment. Not knowing the constant leads to reckless actions and misfortune. Stillness is the foundation, the essence of life; returning to this foundation is the constant. The constant is emptiness and stillness. Knowing this principle is enlightenment. Enlightenment is wisdom, understanding, and attaining the Way. Not knowing emptiness and stillness leads to reckless behavior, causing harm to oneself. Laozi warns: "The birth and death of all things follow the law of the Way. Knowing this without interference is wisdom. If one interferes recklessly based on one's own understanding, disaster will surely follow."
"Knowing constancy leads to tolerance, tolerance leads to impartiality, impartiality leads to completeness, completeness leads to heaven, heaven leads to the Way, the Way leads to enduring, and one will not encounter danger throughout life." When practicing the Way, one must know what is normal and reasonable; its form is fairness and reasonableness, which alone ensures preservation, and preservation is the supreme principle. Only by understanding the laws and patterns of the Way of Heaven can one embrace all without relying on supernatural powers to interfere. Achieving such embrace leads to selflessness and desirelessness; selflessness and desirelessness enable vast and profound spirit; vast and profound spirit allows merging with the great void; merging with the great void leads to returning to the source of life, and only by returning to that source can one exist eternally without ceasing.