Tao Te Ching – Chapter Sixty
Written by Lao-tzu – From a translation by S. Mitchell
Governing a large country,
is like frying a small fish.
You spoil it with too much poking.
Centre your country in the Tao,
and evil will have no power.
Not that it isn’t there,
but you’ll be able to step out of its way.
Give evil nothing to oppose,
and it will disappear by itself.
How I Read This Chapter
The more you mess with things,
the more likely you are to ruin them.
Life doesn’t need constant management,
it needs quiet presence.
When we centre ourselves in the Way,
we stop feeding the things that harm us.
We don’t fight evil head-on;
we stop giving it a reason to fight.
And in that space,
it fades away on its own.
What This Means To Me
This one makes me smile. It’s simple. Clever. Deep. “Governing a large country is like frying a small fish. You spoil it with too much poking.” What a line! I relate to this so much – because I used to poke at everything. My thoughts, my feelings, my behaviours, my relationships. Constantly interfering, overanalysing, reacting, trying to control things that didn’t need controlling. I thought that was being responsible. But in truth, it was just anxiety in disguise.
And when I was drinking, it was even worse. My mind was a constant committee meeting – fear, resentment, ego, regret, all shouting at once. I kept trying to manage my inner world like a bad boss micromanaging a chaotic office. But the more I poked, the worse it got. The more I tried to control, the more out of control I became.
That’s why I love the message here: less interference, more trust.
“Centre your country in the Tao and evil will have no power.” I read this today as: Centre your mind in the Tao – and chaos will lose its grip. The “evil” Lao-tzu talks about isn’t some big outside threat for me – it’s the inner sabotage. The old thinking. The resentment. The pride. The self-pity. It’s all still around – but when I’m grounded in the Tao, in recovery, in connection, and in the present moment – I don’t have to engage with it. I can step out of the way.
“Not that it isn’t there, but you’ll be able to step out of its way.” That line feels so true in sobriety. The old patterns still whisper. The old thoughts still visit. But I don’t need to argue with them anymore. I don’t need to fight them. I just don’t feed them. I let them pass like clouds across the sky. I don’t hook in. I stay centred.
It reminds me of something a good friend once said to me, “You don’t have to wrestle every thought to the ground – just stop giving it your lunch money.” That’s what the Tao teaches me too. Give evil nothing to oppose, and it will disappear by itself.
This principle shows up in recovery all the time. When I stopped trying to force myself to change – and instead started turning things over, practising acceptance, staying close to the Steps – real change happened. Quietly. Naturally. Like that small fish frying gently, undisturbed.
Today, I live more gently. I poke less. I trust more. And when I feel the chaos rising – I don’t fight it. I centre myself in the Tao, and let it pass.
