Tao Te Ching

Chapter 48
[Original text]

Know the world without leaving home [1]; see the way of heaven without peeking at [2] or [3].The farther it travels, the less knowledge it has.

It is because the sage knows without doing, understands without seeing, and achieves without doing.

【Note】

[1] Household: portal, here refers to the gate.

[2] Peep (kuī): peep.

[3] 牖 (yǒu): window.

[4] Mi: more, more.

【Analysis】

You can know the world's affairs without going out of the door; you can know the laws of nature without looking out the window secretly.In fact, sometimes the farther you go, the less you know.

Therefore, the sage knows many things without traveling, understands the truth without seeing it, and achieves something without doing anything.

To know a thing, it is not enough to only rely on one's own eyes, ears, hands and other sense organs, because it is impossible to go deep into the inner part of the thing to understand its "soul".Understanding things should rely on "self-examination", to comprehend the "Tao", and to know the laws of movement and change of all things in the world, so as to truly penetrate into the soul of things.

【Explanation by Famous Artists】

Mr. He Shang:
A sage knows the world without leaving his home, he knows people through his own body, and he knows others through his own family, so he sees the world.The way of heaven and the way of humanity are the same, the heaven and man are interlinked, and the essence and energy are interlinked.A person is pure, and the weather is self-righteous; a person is full of desires, and the weather is turbid.Good or bad, good or bad, all because of oneself.It is said that when one goes to one's house to observe others, one goes to one's body to observe the person's body, what one sees is farther away, and what one sees is less.

A sage does not go to heaven or enter the abyss, but he who can know the world knows it with his heart.The best way is good, and the best virtue is good;The sage knows the big from the small, observes the inside and knows the outside.If the top does nothing, then the bottom will have nothing to do, the family will be satisfied, and all things will be self-transformed.

(End of this chapter)