Our oldest son Auggie welcomes our nephew Luca into the world. We wouldn’t normally include images of minors, but the lad is now a public figure with his own Instagram handle and modeling career.

10.

Can you balance

your mind and body

and grasp the unity

of everything?

Can you soften your breath

and become like a sleeping baby?

Can you rinse from your eyes

whatever is clouding your vision?

Can you lovingly lead people,

instead of trying to control them?

Can you open and close

the door to heaven

like a woman giving birth?

Can you bring light to others,

rather than trying to force them

to become enlightened?

Give birth, suckle, and

rear offspring, but

do not try to own them.

Do something great but don’t brag about it.

Cultivate without crushing.

Mastering this

is profound Te.

Reflection

This is a curious chapter for us. In one sense, we think our rendering perfectly captures the ideas of each verse. On the other hand, we don’t stick too closely to the actual vocabulary and statement/question pattern of the verses. It’s faithful and playful at once. But it is also a very important chapter for us. It provides a pause for reflection and physical application of the teachings we’ve explored thus far.

Breathe.

Who is breathing? For our purposes, the breather is the soul, which is exactly how most translate this chapter’s term pò (魄). The reason we don’t use the word soul in the opening lines, though, is that we think that the thinking and physical aspects of our existence in unity is what allows us to live and move and have our being.

The part about the still breath and infant slumber is about bringing one’s vital breath or life-force (the chi) into a state of calm, something important to the popular practice of Tai Chi. It’s not just a Chinese concept, though. The concept of a life force conceptualized as breath is present in cultures around the globe. For instance, the Sanskrit prana (प्राण) Greek pneuma (πνεῦμα) and ruach (רוּחַ) all seem to connect life energy with the air in our lungs.

The idea of “forcing them to be enlightened” could have led us to criticize dogmatism. But then we thought that there have been too many observers who have piled scorn on people who articulate dogma with precision. There is a place for that just as there is a place for people who are good at cleaning the intricate parts of a watch. To be sure, some are better than others at their delicate art, and some are obviously incompetent. It seems to us that the negative connotation of “dogmatism” is not so much the focused concepts but the aggressiveness and inflexibility of those who want to convince others of the truth they’ve encountered. We chose our particular approach to translating this chapter with an emphasis on mitigating those—some liberals and others conservatives—who get in their own way by trying to force their insights on others without letting them settle in and make sense.

Of all the images in this chapter, our favorite is that of a supple, calm baby. Our firstborn (depicted above) was a bit colicky, through no fault of his own. His cries made his gentle slumbers all the more valuable. After all these years, we realize much of life involves struggles with insomnia, real or figurative. Perhaps this is why Jesus taught us to “have faith like a child.” Similarly, remember too what Jesus said about the meek: They are blessed, for they shall inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5). They don’t get the earth as a reward for hard work. They simply receive the gifts of the earth with open hands, striving for nothing. They are yin. They are receptive. And they are eternal.

Soften Your Breath (Tao Te Ching 10)