Passage Three

不尚賢，使民不爭；不貴難得之貨，使民不為盜；
不見可欲，使心不亂。

是以聖人之治，虛其心，實其腹，弱其志，強其骨。

常使民無知無欲。

使夫知者不敢為也。

為無為，則無不治。

Literal Translation(By D. W. Kreger)
Not praising accomplishments, causes people to not compete, 
Not valuing the collection of precious things, causes people to not steal.
Not seeing what can be desired, causes people’s hearts no confusion,
Therefore, shaman’s order, empty their mind, fill their belly, soften their ambition, harden their bones.
Eternal-nature motivating people, not being knowledge, not being desire,
Envoys of ministers do not dare act either.
Enact non-action, Then nothing is not in order.



Common Interpretations
By not adoring the worthy, people will not fall into dispute.
By not valuing the hard to get objects, people will not become robbers.
By not seeing the desires of lust, one’s heart will not be confused.
Therefore the governing of the saint is to empty one’s mind, substantiate one’s virtue, weaken one’s worldly ambition and strengthen one’s essence. He lets the people to be innocent of worldly knowledge and desire, and keeps the clever ones from making trouble with their wits.
Acts naturally without desire, then everything will be accomplished in its natural order.



My Interpretations
Don’t praise and make accomplishments more than what they are and people won’t feel the need to compete.
Don’t place value on competition and people won’t feel the need to be better than others.
Thievery is born of the jealousy. This jealousy is born of valuing objects.
To place value on objects (rather than people) is not the way.
When objects are valued and glorified (and people, knowledge or ideals aren’t),
They become something worth stealing.
Virtue is found in understanding what desire and lust are (Chemicals released in the brain as a result blind emotion),
This should be tempered with logic BEFORE decisions are made and actions taken.
A man of the Natural Dao does what is necessary and doesn’t act on selfish desires.
A master of action through in-action is logical and uncomplicated.
He doesn’t let lust, desire or emotion complicate things.