In pursuit of knowledge,
every day something is added.
In the practice of the Tao,
every day something is dropped.
Less and less do you need to force things,
until finally you arrive at non-action.

(1) nothing (2) done (3) and (4) nothing (5) not (6) done

When nothing is done,
nothing is left undone.

True mastery can be gained
by letting things go their own way.*
It can't be gained by interfering.

^{---
(*) ELLEN M. CHEN comments:
"Simone Weil says that if God's process of making the
world is creation, our process of getting back to God is
uncreation."}

One who seeks knowledge learns something
      new every day.
One who seeks the Tao unlearns something
      new every day.
Less and less remains until you arrive at non-action.*
When you arrive at non-action,
nothing will be left undone.

Mastery of the world is achieved
by letting things take their natural course.**
You cannot master the world by changing the
      natural way.

^{---
(*) HO-SHANG-KUNG [an ancient commentator] says:
"The decrease is the decrease of desire.
The repeated decrease is that by which
it slowly vanishes."
---
(**) TS'AO TAO-CH'UNG [Taoist nun] comments:
"When someone rules by means of the Tao,
the world follows without thinking. The world
refers to the ten thousand things."}

Gaining knowledge, one increases daily.
Realizing the Tao, one decreases daily.
By decreasing and decreasing,
one abandons all greed.
When one is free of greed,
there is nothing one is lacking.

^---
One attains understanding of the world by not grasping it.
Grasping for it,
one cannot attain it.

^---

Someone seeking learning, knows more and more.
Someone seeking Tao, knows less and less.
Less and less until
things just
are what
they
are
•
 By simply being, 
everything gets done.
 Get things done 
by letting them happen.
 Struggling all the time, 
gets you nowhere.

^---

The student learns by daily increment.
The Way is gained by daily loss,
Loss upon loss until
At last comes rest.

By letting go, it all gets done;
The world is won by those who let it go!
But when you try and try,
The world is then beyond the winning.

^---

By activity in learning we are daily enriched.
By activity of Tao we are daily diminished,
      diminished and yet more diminished,
      until we arrive at activity of Inner Life,
      and activity of Inner Life becomes
            stillness of Inner Life.*

By the practice of Inner Life stillness
      we can continually conquer all things.
By the practice of returning to possessions,
      nothing that we conquer will be
            sufficient for us.

^{---
(*) ISABELLA MEARS comments:
"An illustration of activity in stillness is in the spinning of a top. At its greatest speed there is most apparent stillness, and we say the top is then 'asleep.'"}