27 善行無轍跡 善言無瑕謫

老子道德經第二十七章

善行無轍跡　善言無瑕謫
善數不用籌策　善閉無關楗而不可開
善結無繩約而不可解
是以聖人常善救人　故無棄人
常善救物　故無棄物
是謂襲明
故善人者　不善人之師
不善人者　善人之資
不貴其師　不愛其資
雖智大迷　是謂要妙

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Gia-Fu Feng's translation is not very good. Actually it is wrong (debatable) and misleading in places. For example, in the "good man", "good" should not be the adjective of the noun "man", but rather, "good" is the adverb to the verb "man", meaning, "good in being a man". You can see how in Chinese, a noun can be cleverly used as a verb, especially by a poet like Lao Tsu. I will work on my version later, but I have added my comments to Feng's version below.

TWENTY-SEVEN

A good walker leaves no tracks;
A good speaker makes no slips;
A good beckoner needs no tally.
A good door needs no lock,
Yet no one can open it.
(Not about a door, but about the locker of the door.)
Good binding requires no knots,
Yet no one can loosen it.
(Not about the binding, but about the maker of the bind.)

Therefore the sage takes care of all men And abandons no one.
He takes care of all things
And abandon nothing.
(In the same grammatical structure, if any, the sage is "a good savoir" of men, and stuff.)

This is called "following the light."
(Not light, but wisdom. Wisdom not exposed, i.e. no trace, no lock, no rope; OR wisdom/Tao attained.)

What is a good man?
(Not morally good, but "a good *actor* of man", someone who knows how to live, a Taoist.) A teacher of a bad man.
(Similarly, someone who knows not how to live.) What is a bad man?
A good man's charge.
(Not charge, but "learning material", i.e. he serves as a lesson for others.)
If the teacher is not respected,
And the student not cared for,
(The lessons not learned.)
Confusion will arise, however clever one is.
This is the crux of mystery.
(Tao!)

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27. (ST)

With enough practice,
you could come and go without a trace,
speak without stumbling over words,
do complicated math problems
in your head.

You could build a door with no lock
that nobody could open.
You could tie something down
with no knots,
without even a rope,
and nobody could pry it loose.

Masters have time to help everybody,
and ignore nobody.
They use their resources wisely,
wasting nothing.
Some people call this
"following the light."

Good people teach others
because they have the potential
to be good too.
Brains count for nothing
if you fail to respect your teachers
or to honor the potential in others.
That's one of the most important lessons of Tao.

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27 (whatever)

He walks on water,
speaks in tongues,
and is all knowing.
He knocks on your doors,
and binds your mind.
He is the savior,
of people and the world.
Who is he? The light?
He teaches people,
and cures diseases.
Everyone has to love him,
or they might get very confused,
and end up learning about Tao, instead.