I see no reason to segregate scientific and technical posts from humanistic ones. In my life, scientific concerns mix with ethical ones, and they shade into a philosophical interest in the nature of cognition and the nature of people. Doing science is as creative as writing fiction, and I get inspiration for both from the same gods.
You will find little here on current politics. I'm activist, but in causes not symptoms. Experience in martial arts shows me that the sure way to lose is reactivity; but if you stay cool and remember your training and what you're there for then you achieve goals and, when conflict is unavoidable, you fight and win. The idea of the liberal arts I was brought up in is that broad understanding of cultures and ideas gives you deeper, better goals -- making success more likely and more satisfying. Negatively, the hysteria since 9/11 shows how a country frightened and reactive can destroy itself more than an enemy can. I'm trying to contribute by changing the terms of discourse. See 
One fact shouldn't require special mention; but -- given the nature of the society in which I've grown up and lived -- it often does: namely that I'm gay. You'll see it in some posts and in some links below. I'm proud of being gay and do not hide; more about this on the 
Tao Te Ching —
The Classic about Ways And Instances
Lao Tzu
(Translated, with comments, by William P. Coleman)
Chapter 5
Heaven and earth have no favorites;
they treat all things like straw dogs.
The sage has no favorites;
he treats everyone like straw dogs.
The space between heaven and earth is like a bellows
—indeed, like the pipe of a bellows.
It is empty, but never exhausted;
it works, and still can produce more.
Too many words soon reach an end:
they cannot hold to the center.
| < — Chapter 4 |
Chapter 6 — > |
my comments:
Perhaps this chapter should be read starting at the last part.
If I live my life goal-oriented — if my purpose is to finish, to complete, to get it all — then I’ll stop early, having run out of words to say, out of things to do, having run out of imagination.
But if my purpose is to keep running, then I can continue in the center of the path indefinitely. At each moment, I step forward — coming out of my past, asking for what I want then — and the world meets and accepts — out of the reality of what it has, out of its richness. These steps can go on forever.
The world itself works that way: it’s empty but never exhausted.
The world doesn’t play favorites; it continues realities. I may love — things and especially people — but I love someone out of what I have, not out of my prior prejudice. I love out of who I am, not what I imagine to be the case. Love like that can be kept up forever.
For comparison, I’m including the translation by Lin Yutang, which I always love and respect, even when I disagree:
5. Nature
Nature is unkind:
The Sage is unkind:
How the universe is like a bellows!
By many words is wit exhausted.
Rather, therefore, hold to the core.
Tags: Ancient China, Being human, Lao Tse, Lao Tze, Lao Tzu, Laotse, Laozi, life, Lin Yutang, Tai Chi, Tao Te Ching, Taoism, Taoism and Tai Chi, The Classic about Ways and Instances, thoughts, translation
21 December 2007 at 4:00 am
Loved ur blog,really excellent.i recently read another blog on the teachings of Lao Tzu at dailylight.wordpress.com.
you may check it out.
28 December 2007 at 5:51 pm
I read this in college and have to admit that I struggled with it. My Asian genes did not kick in and help elucidate all the passages for me. I enjoy your perspectives and interpretations on it.
1 January 2008 at 4:20 am
Amateurish, Asian genes are of little help with this or else I would have “gotten it” right along with you. ;) As it is I find something new every time I open Laozi’s little book.
Mr. Coleman, I’m no scholar of Chinese, but I prefer your translation—it sounds to me like you left it closer to the original text (“Heaven-and-Earth” vs. “Nature”; “the space between” instead of “the universe”, etc.), which is usually a wise decision in my mind. I think your commentary here is quite insightful.
I do have one question, though—-I notice you translate de, often translated as “Power” or “Virtue” or sometimes even left untranslated, as “Instance”. I’d be curious to see your take on De as instance, since I have never considered it in that light before.