Indian stream·Tao Te Ching·Chapter 54 — Cultivation in Self and Beyond
What is well-planted is not uprooted
What is well-planted is not uprooted; what is well-embraced cannot slip away. Cultivate the Tao in the self — virtue becomes real. In the family — virtue overflows. In the village — virtue endures. In the state — virtue abounds. In the world — virtue is universal.
Source context
- Theme
- rooted virtue propagating outward through family, community, and civilization
- Soul-faculty
- Consciousness Soul
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Daoist cosmologyChapter 54 presents Te (virtue/power) as a force that, when firmly planted in the self, extends organically through successive social wholes — household, village, kingdom, world — a structural analog to the Daoist principle that inner alignment with Tao radiates outward without coercion.
- Vedantic concept of dharmic expansionThe chapter's image of virtue propagating from individual to cosmic scale shows cross-tradition congruence with Vedantic teaching that inner realization of the Atman-Brahman identity naturally expresses itself in right conduct at every level of social existence.
- Pythagorean-Platonic ethicsThe movement from well-ordered individual to well-ordered state in Chapter 54 shows cross-tradition congruence with Platonic political philosophy, which grounds justice in the city in the justice first established within the tripartite soul.
Chapter 54
What (Tao's) skilful planter plants Can never be uptorn; What his skilful arms enfold, From him can ne'er be borne. Sons shall bring in lengthening line, Sacrifices to his shrine.
Tao when nursed within one's self, His vigour will make true; And where the family it rules What riches will accrue! The neighbourhood where it prevails In thriving will abound; And when 'tis seen throughout the state, Good fortune will be found. Employ it the kingdom o'er, And men thrive all around.
In this way the effect will be seen in the person, by the observation of different cases; in the family; in the neighbourhood; in the state; and in the kingdom.
How do I know that this effect is sure to hold thus all under the sky? By this (method of observation).