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Tao Te Ching · 7 of 81

Chapter 7

Heaven is long-enduring and earth continues long. The reason why heaven and earth are able to endure and continue thus long is because they do not live of, or for, themselves. This is how they are able to continue and endure.

Therefore the sage puts his own person last, and yet it is found in the foremost place; he treats his person as if it were foreign to him, and yet that person is preserved. Is it not because he has no personal and private ends, that therefore such ends are realised?

Asked of Guide

Why does Lao Tzu say the sage puts himself last yet ends up first?

Lao Tzu shows that heaven and earth “endure and continue” because they do not live for themselves; the sage imitates that by having no private ends, so his person is preserved. The chapter says the sage treats his person as foreign and thus is found “in the foremost place,” which links moral success to selfless orientation.

This mirrors Chuang Tzu’s praise of water, which benefits all without striving, and the Mahabharata’s account of righteous duty bringing excellence; both texts describe effective conduct as yielding from putting the whole ahead of the self. Read together, the claim is practical: relinquish personal agendas and your place and preservation follow.

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 · Taoism8. 1. The highest excellence is like (that of) water. The excellence of water appears in its benefiting all things, and in its occupying, without striving (to the contrary), the lo The Mahabharata · Hinduism(viz., Religion, Profit, and Pleasure), has been declared by the wise to be supreme excellence. Abstention from sinful acts, constancy of righteous disposition, good behaviour towa The Sayings of Lao Tzu · TaoismBY many words wit is exhausted; it is better to preserve a mean. The excellence of a dwelling is its site; the excellence of a mind is its profundity; the excellence of giving is c