Tao and the Law
'Tao and the Law' is the first text from nine that are called 'Lead to Law'.
The ten verses of this text contain the summary of the philosophy in a very 
logical order. It shows the road from the birth of the Law from Tao to the level 
of pure insight.


1.1   Birth 
The Law is born from Tao
That is the lead, straight as an arrow
Between success and failure
It shows what is wrong and right.  
So, what controls Tao
Gives birth to the Law
And does not dare to resist it;
Once the Law is established
One does not dare
To abolish it.  
Only who is able from his heart
To lead himself straight as an arrow
By the Law, 
He has a clear insight 
In the World 
And is free from uncertainty. 


1.2   Words
Empty without Shape
With a backbone deep and dark
From which all surrounding things
Are born into this World.  
Being born knows dangers:
They are: Desire and Discontent.
Being born cannot be without movement 
And movement knows dangers
They are: The lack of notion of the right moment
And the notion of the moment but yet wrong.
Movements does not work 
Without performing tasks
Tasks cannot exist without words
And words causes several dangers:
-Unreliability
- Insufficient notion of effects of others
- Creating exaggerated expectations of yourself
- Show off with success which is not yours.
That is to say, converting gaps in remains. 


1.3 Counterparts
So, without difference, everything arises
From the deep and dark
The one is dieing through that,
Another is born through that,
The one is failing through that
Another is succeeding through that.
Disaster or good luck shares both
The same Tao and nobody 
Knows what the cause of that is. 


1.4  Tasks
The Tao that leads to Insight
Is nothing else than 
Emptiness and Nothingness
Even in the smallest things.
Besides that, it is inevitable
That it receives a Shape and Name.
When Shape and Name are certain
Than is the division between
Black and white completed.

So he who has Tao in his hands
When he is reviewing the World
He does not take any point of view
And does not interfere 
And does not allow self interest
To play a part.

Therefore there is no task on Earth
Or it gets a Shape, a Name, a Reputation 
And a Title, all by its self.
When Shape and Name are fixed
And Name and reputation are standing firm,
There is no possibility to wipe the traces
Or to obscure the right things.


1.5  Example
He who shows respect to common interest,
Has a clear insight.
He who has the highest insight,
Gains the victory.
He who attains the highest right,
Is imperturbable.
He who attains the highest imperturbability,
Is a Holy Sage.
He who does not consider 
His own preferences,
Shows knowledge.
He who shows the highest knowledge,
Is an example for the World. 


1.6  Judging Things
He who is weighing with scale and balance
involves the natural things to it
Thus, no task on Earth is left
without examination for affectivity.

Tasks are to compare with
straightening a piece of wood
their number with the grain of corn
stored in a warehouse.

Once ladle and weights are ready,
than is there no way
to avoid the spirit of a thing.

Therefore is written:
When measures and weights are certain
they keep retained and used.


1.7  Eternity
It is broken but yet
It continues itself.
It has disappeared and yet
It is further retained.
Who understands the spirit of that?

It dies and is coming to life again
It changes disaster into prosperity
Who understand the utmost of That?
He asks it to what has no shape.


1.8  Invariability
Tao that is settling itself on change, means:
Finding balance.
And then: do not go any further.
A situation in which the weights
do not meet expectations, means:
Losing Tao.

For ranks and classes 
Apply invariable positions.
To teach a counselor
Apply invariable Tao.
To launch the people
Apply invariable standards.


1.9    The Four laws
The four invariable laws
Of Heaven and Earth are:
The four seasons,
Light and darkness,
To present life and to kill,
Soft and hard.

The invariable tasks
Of the people are:
That the men are working on the land
And that the women are weaving.

The invariable positions
Of ranks and classes are:
That wise and foolish 
Do not go together.

The invariable way
To teach counselors is:
To appoint who fits the best
But in such a way that their skills
Are not exceeded.

The invariable way
To launch the people is:
To eliminate self interest
And to give precedence
To the common interest.

That what deviates from invariability
And what exceeds the standard
should be kept in mutual balance
As an exceptional thing.


1.10  Pure Insight
The right and the exceptional
Take both their places
Without elimination of
Their Name and Shape.

Always, in spite of the size of tasks
All things search themselves a shelter
Disobedient or obedient,
Death or alive.

Spontaneously every thing
Gives itself a name.
Once Form and Name are given
Than every thing is molding
Itself to the right. 

So only who can lay his hand on Tao
Can get a clear sight 
Of the Heaven swinging around
Above his head,
And look around himself and see
What separates a ruler from a counselor
And keeps trace for himself
What is turning the things
In their eternal circles, 
Without trying to take over the control.

So he can attain
The highest level of purity
The highest level of pure insight
And develop oneself in all directions
And yet stay without Shape
And only then one can become
The Right One for the World.