Chapter 32 Summary

Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.

  • The Tao is eternally nameless, says Chapter 32. (Sounds like a lot of other chapters, right?)
  • It's important for rulers to hold onto to it.
  • If they do, everything will be in harmony and good fortune will come to all.
  • There will be no need to force things to be good; they just will be good.
  • Next, we're warned about names.
  • We have to know when to stop naming things.
  • If we know when to stop, then we avoid danger.
  • The chapter ends by again comparing the Tao to water, saying that it's like streams that flow into rivers that flow into oceans.