Listen

Dhammapada · narration sample

A one-minute narration sample. Every book in the library is narrated end to end — hear the rest in the app.

Tao Te Ching · 29 of 81

Chapter 29

If any one should wish to get the kingdom for himself, and to effect this by what he does, I see that he will not succeed. The kingdom is a spirit-like thing, and cannot be got by active doing. He who would so win it destroys it; he who would hold it in his grasp loses it.

The course and nature of things is such that What was in front is now behind; What warmed anon we freezing find. Strength is of weakness oft the spoil; The store in ruins mocks our toil.

Hence the sage puts away excessive effort, extravagance, and easy indulgence.

Asked of Guide

Why does Lao Tzu say trying to seize the kingdom destroys it?

Lao Tzu describes the kingdom as “a spirit-like thing” that cannot be taken by force; any attempt to grab or hold it with active doing causes loss because power here is sustained by subtle, receptive presence rather than aggressive control. The chapter shows how worldly action reverses itself—“What was in front is now behind; What warmed anon we freezing find”—so coercion produces the very ruin it aims to prevent.

This is why the sage avoids “excessive effort, extravagance, and easy indulgence”: steady restraint preserves the conditions in which the kingdom endures. Compare Chuang Tzu, who warns that decisive skill strikes and then stops; both texts insist timing, restraint, and non-grasping keep what force destroys.

Guide is the guide inside the Gnosis app, where every book on these shelves is free to read. Guide is the part you pay for — your guide has read all of them, and answers about the passage you’re actually on. Ask your guide your own question.

Echoes elsewhere

Chuang Tzu · Taoismbriars and thorns spring up. In the sequence of great armies there are sure to be bad years. 3. A skilful (commander) strikes a decisive blow, and stops. He does not dare (by conti The Mahabharata · Hinduismhis prowess, regardful of time and place. If these are not favourable, prowess becomes futile. Marking timeliness and untimeliness reflecting upon his own strength and weakness, an The Sayings of Lao Tzu · TaoismHE who serves a ruler of men in harmony with Tao will not subdue the Empire by force of arms. Such a course is wont to bring retribution in its train. Where troops have been quarte Tao, The Great Luminant · Taoismanti-war. He has given expression to this in many places, but, in particular, in the 30th chapter. "He who would assist his sovereign by the Tao will not coerce the State by armies