Chapter 48 Summary

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

  • Here, we're told that the pursuit of knowledge does gain us stuff.
  • But gaining isn't always a good thing since all it does is make you want to gain more of the same thing.
  • To find the Tao, you have to lose, lose, and lose some more.
  • When you've found the Tao, you can engage in unattached action, which can mean that when you do stuff you don't get super obsessed with the outcome.
  • If you're constantly trying to control every little thing, you're never going to achieve the thing you want to achieve.