Their meaning is roughly this: in all the world – in wind and rain, in plants and animals, in the passage from day to night,它們的內(nèi)容大致如下:整個(gè)世界——風(fēng)和雨,植物和動(dòng)物,白晝和黑夜的交替,in the movements of the stars – everything acts in accordance with one great law.
星星的旋轉(zhuǎn)——都受一個(gè)重要的法則主宰。
This he calls the 'Tao', which means the Way, or the Path.
他稱這個(gè)法則為“道”,意為方法或道路。
Only man in his restless striving, in his many plans and projects, even in his prayers and sacrifices, resists,可是浮躁不安、忙忙碌碌、孜孜的人,甚至也包括獻(xiàn)祭品做祈禱的人不理會(huì)這個(gè)法則,as it were, this law, obstructs1 its path and prevents its fulfilment.
他們不讓這個(gè)法則生效,他們干擾這個(gè)法則的運(yùn)行。
Therefore the one thing we must do, said Lao-tzu, is: do nothing. Be still within ourselves.
因而老子認(rèn)為人們必須做的一件事就是:什么事也不做。
Neither look nor listen to anything around us, have no wishes or opinions.
保持我們內(nèi)心平靜,不到處張望、不到處打聽我們周圍的事物,沒有任何意欲。
Only when a person has become like a tree or a flower, empty of all will or purpose,只有一個(gè)人變得像一棵樹或者像一朵花,毫無企圖和毫無意愿,will he begin to feel the Tao – that great universal law which makes the heavens turn and brings the spring – begin to work within him.
他才能開始領(lǐng)悟“道”——讓天空轉(zhuǎn)動(dòng)并引來春天的這個(gè)偉大的普遍性法則。
This teaching, as you see, is hard to grasp and harder still to follow.
這一學(xué)說,這一點(diǎn)你定會(huì)認(rèn)識(shí)到,它難以理解,更難以遵循。
Perhaps, in the solitude2 of the distant mountains, Lao-tzu was able to take 'doing nothing' so far that the law began to work within him in the way he described.
也許,老子在遠(yuǎn)方孤寂的群山中已經(jīng)達(dá)到這個(gè)境界,可以像他所說的那樣“無為而治”