Chapter 40 – Tao Te Ching

1. The Verse (Original)

Returning is the movement of the Tao.Yielding is the way of the Tao.

All things in the world arise from being.Being arises from non-being.

2. The Essence — What Laozi Is Actually Saying

This is one of Laozi’s shortest chapters,but it is an entire universe in four lines.

He tells us two truths:

1. The Tao moves by returning — not by pushing forward.Everything in nature cycles back:day into night,summer into winter,youth into age,breath in, breath out.

Return is not regression.It is the deepest movement of life.

2. The Tao works through yielding — not force.Softness triumphs.Surrender reveals strength.Letting go moves more powerfully than grasping.

And then Laozi takes us deeper:

• Everything that exists (being) comes from something unseen.• And that unseen (non-being) is the real source.

This chapter is the spine of Taoism:

Reality rises from emptiness.Power rises from softness.Wisdom rises from returning.

3. Modern Clarity — Slow, Rich, Beginner-Friendly Line-by-Line Commentary

“Returning is the movement of the Tao.”

The Tao does not move in straight lines.It spirals.It cycles.It bends back toward origin.

Leaves fall, nourish the soil,feed the roots,become new leaves.

Life renews itself through return.

In human life:• returning to rest• returning to breath• returning to truth• returning to simplicity• returning to Self

These are not setbacks.They are alignment.

“Yielding is the way of the Tao.”

To yield is not to give up.It is to stop fighting the current.

Grass yields to the windand survives the storm.Trees that refuse to bendsplinter.

Yielding is wise flexibility—the ability to move with life,not against it.

A yielding heart is unbreakable.

“All things in the world arise from being.”

“Being” means form, existence, presence —the visible world.

Everything you seeemerges from the field of existence.

But Laozi isn't done.He’s about to turn the whole cosmos inside out.

“Being arises from non-being.”

The deepest truth:

Form comes from formlessness.Something comes from nothing.Presence comes from emptiness.

This is not metaphor.It’s metaphysics.

Before a tree exists,there is the space it grows into.Before a thought arises,there is the silence it appears in.Before a feeling emerges,there is the awareness that receives it.

Non-being is not void.It is fertile emptiness —the womb of existence.

Everything you arearises from what you cannot grasp.

This is the Tao.

4. IFS-Informed Understanding — The Tao Inside the Psyche

A. “Returning” → Parts coming back to Self

A protector that softensand returns to Selfis not failing —it’s coming home.

Return is healing.Return is integration.Return is the inward spiral back to connection.

Whenever a part returns to your center,the whole system breathes.

B. “Yielding” → Unblending instead of efforting

Yielding in IFS means:

• not forcing a part to change• not wrestling with inner tension• not pushing emotions out of the way• not gripping the storyline

It’s the moment you say:“I’m here. You don’t have to move.”

Yielding opens the space for real transformation.

C. “All things arise from being” → Parts express themselves in form

Thoughts, emotions, impulses, sensations —all these are “being.”They show you where your energy currently is.

Nothing wrong with any of it.It’s just what form looks like on the inside.

D. “Being arises from non-being” → Self is the unseen source

Parts arisefrom the spaciousness of Self.

Every protector’s fear,every exile’s burden,every manager’s pressure —all of it emerges within the vast awareness they are not separate from.

Self is the non-being —the formless sourcefrom which all experiences arise.

It holds everythingwithout being any single thing.

E. Non-being is not nothing → Self is fullness without form

Self has no role, no job, no name —yet it holds infinite capacity:

• calm• clarity• compassion• courage• connectedness

This is the Tao inside the mind.

The unseen is the foundation of everything visible.

5. A Soft Invitation — Not Therapy, Just Curiosity

• Where in my life am I trying to push forward rather than return?• What part of me is resisting yielding — and what might it fear?• Can I notice the space that thoughts and feelings arise from?• What happens if I allow something in me to bend instead of brace?• What is the “non-being” inside me — the quiet awareness beneath everything?

6. Closing — The Tao and IFS Share the Same Gate

Laozi teaches that:

Returning is strength.Yielding is wisdom.Emptiness is origin.

IFS teaches that:

Parts return to Self.Softness heals what force cannot.The unseen center holds everything.

Both traditions point you backto the uncarved, unhurried center within:

the place where doing relaxes into being,being relaxes into spaciousness,and spaciousness revealsthe silent source of everything you are.

This is the movement of the Tao —and the movement of your own Self —quiet, soft, cyclical,and endlessly returning youto what you never truly left.