Chapter 56

He who knows (the Tao) does not (care to) speak (about it); he who is (ever ready to) speak about it does not know it. He (who knows it) will keep his mouth shut and close the portals (of his nostrils). He will blunt his sharp points and unravel the complications of things; he will attemper his brightness, and bring himself into agreement with the obscurity (of others). This is called 'the Mysterious Agreement.' (Such an one) cannot be treated familiarly or distantly; he is beyond all consideration of profit or injury; of nobility or meanness:--he is the noblest man under heaven.

Commentary

THE VIRTUE OF THE MYSTERIOUS. 1. One who knows does not talk. One who talks does not know. Therefore the sage keeps his mouth shut and his sense-gates closed. p. 113 2. "He will blunt his own sharpness, His own tangles adjust; He will dim his own radiance, And be one with his dust." 3. This is called profound identification. 4. Thus he is inaccessible to love and also inaccessible to enmity. He is inaccessible to profit and inaccessible to loss. He is also inaccessible to favor and inaccessible to disgrace. Thus he becomes w...

Sources: Paul Carus (1913) - Chapter heading; Paul Carus (1913) - Canon of Reason and Virtue