Translation by Sifu John A. Fey
TTC
1 the tao source of life is an empty vessel vast within vast without
possessed of transcendental space
2 it seems able to hold anything and everything
3 yet it is also a force
4 file down the sharpest edge with it
5 untie any knot and unknot any tangle
6 soften the harshest glare and settle unwanted dust
7 it is easy to secret away until needed because it is already hidden away
8 but even in subtle storage it seems to have a life all its own
9 nativity unknown
it was here before the parents of humanity traversed the sky
COMMENTARY
1-2 MIND and HAND: This is how you should view or hold the Tao in your mind. These are also specific instructions for Taoist meditation. The Cultivator sits or stands in a specific meditative pose and sees the totality of himself as a completely empty vessel that is both vast within and vast without, stretching outward in all directions to encompass the entire universe.
3 MIND: This force is one of change and balancing.. 4 MIND and BODY: The "sharpest edge" refers to the abruptness of life that you encounter.. 5 MIND and BODY: "Knots and tangles" refer to problems and worries.. 6 MIND and BODY: "Harshest glare" represents things that you see that disturb your shen, or spirit.
"Unwanted dust" refers to chaotic thinking.
7 MIND and HAND: "Secret away" refers to taking your cultivation-everything you do, everything you feel and meditate- and placing it to your dantien, which is a focal point located three-and-a-half inches below the navel and inward. Taoist Cultivators of old placed their meditation, their wisdom, everything, down into this part of their anatomy. During intermediate Taoist mediation, you feel as if you are thinking from this place. While not specifically being the navel, it is related closely to the umbilicus.
This stanza is also an injunction to regard all of your Taoist ideals, disciplines, and your cultivation of the Taoist life as a private matter; to hold it out for the whole world to see will disrupt the balance and make cultivating the Tao almost impossible.
8 MIND and BODY: A Taoist has his cultivation life, or his formal practice, which he puts away, or stores, inside himself; yet the rest of his life becomes an informal practice where his mind, his personality, and his spirit are being refined because of the regular occurrence of formal practice. Said another way, the momentum of regular formal practice continues to move through the Cultivator after the formal session.
Intermediate and advanced Taoist Cultivators talk about actually feeling the Tao, the yin and yang of the Tao, turning inside the bodymind as they're going about their day-to-day activities. Once engaged, Taoist cultivation continues working even when you're not aware of it.
9 HEART: The Tao has existed forever. Parents of humanity refer to the inhabitants of the mythical city of Wu, which is an ancient pre-Taoist creation myth preserved in the oral tradition. These parents of humanity, known as the emperors and empresses, flew between the heavens and the earth in sky chariots, and thus kept the two united.