Indian stream·Tao Te Ching·Chapter 81 — Closing — True Words Are Not Beautiful
True words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not true
True words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not true. The good are not argumentative; the argumentative are not good. The knowing are not learned; the learned are not knowing. The sage does not hoard. The more he does for others, the more he has himself; the more he gives to others, the more he possesses. Heaven's Way: benefit, not harm. The sage's Way: act, not contend.
Source context
- Theme
- non-contention, authentic teaching, and the sage's paradoxical virtue of giving without loss
- Soul-faculty
- Consciousness Soul
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Vedanta / Bhagavad GitaThe Gita's doctrine of nishkama karma — acting without attachment to results — exhibits cross-tradition congruence with the Tao Te Ching's closing assertion that the sage benefits others yet does not accumulate, and strives without contention.
- Buddhist ethics (dana-paramita)The Buddhist perfection of giving (dana-paramita), in which genuine generosity leaves the giver spiritually enriched rather than diminished, displays cross-tradition congruence with the chapter's claim that the sage's giving increases rather than depletes.
- Socratic / Platonic dialecticSocrates' insistence in the Apology and Meno that true knowledge cannot be reduced to persuasive rhetoric exhibits cross-tradition congruence with the chapter's contrast between beautiful words and truthful words, and between the knower and the disputant.
Chapter 81
Sincere words are not fine; fine words are not sincere. Those who are skilled (in the Tao) do not dispute (about it); the disputatious are not skilled in it. Those who know (the Tao) are not extensively learned; the extensively learned do not know it.
The sage does not accumulate (for himself). The more that he expends for others, the more does he possess of his own; the more that he gives to others, the more does he have himself.
With all the sharpness of the Way of Heaven, it injures not; with all the doing in the way of the sage he does not strive.