[Note: I italicize phrases I borrow from the chapter, and link to phrases I borrow from other chapters to help tie chapters together. While making it more tedious to read, the Tao Te Ching is best pondered in the context of the whole.]

It helps to contemplate the outskirts of meaning for the words by which I think. Nothing exemplifies this better than pondering the raw literal Chinese to get a sense of what the Tao Te Ching is ‘actually saying’. Although, the question is not what it is ‘actually saying’, but rather what I am ‘actually aware of’. In other words, what I understand by the words I read is simply a reflection of self understanding. Thus, better understanding hinges upon deeper self understanding. Unveiling deeper self understanding required some murky digging, the effort of which just feels difficult. Why difficult?

Alas, much that is beneficial in life entails difficulty. Again, why? I reckon animals (you, me and the rest) instinctively seek easy and simple pleasures, and ‘no brainer’ answers. Perhaps this is nature’s way of ‘thinning the heard’. After all, individuals who make an extra effort usually survive better, e.g., remember "The Three Little Piggies" story. Mother nature, in her wisdom, made the experience of ‘doing better’ feel difficult. Otherwise, everyone and everything would always be eagerly ‘doing better’. That would just make natural selection less efficient, and nature is nothing if not frugal and efficient. Survival goes to the fittest. Fitness comes to those who treat some things as difficult and then lay plans for the accomplishment of the difficult before it becomes difficult! Now, I’m not championing the theory of evolution per se. Simply said, nature appears to enforce a straightforward policy: pay now (and survive longer), or pay later (and perish early), but pay I will.

Ironically, the more I cling to the easy way, the more difficult life becomes. It is a delicate balance whose scales are easily tipped off balance. Knowing, moment to moment, that the difficult and the easy complement each other helps me profoundly. As with any active state of balance, being ‘awake now’ (paying now) is the only way to maintain balance. Making something big by starting with it when small boils down to just that, in my experience. Things feel more difficult when I bite off more than I can chew, either literally or imaginatively as my mind jumps ahead of ‘now’. The moral: don’t think, just nibble away steadily at the small easy beginnings and nothing more! Time takes care of the rest. This almost sounds a like having my cake and eating it too. Not really, for staying current with the small easy beginnings, is difficult. It is much ‘easier’ to jump ahead of myself toward what I desire. Instead of traveling life’s journey from beneath one's feet I hop hither and tither out of my mind half the time. Whew, well at least it's not all the time.

Note: The first line of this chapter (see literal below) is the widely quoted 'wei wu wei' (do nothing do). This is followed by 'shi wu shi' (matter nothing matter) and 'wei wu wei' (taste nothing taste). This later 'wei' has a falling tone as opposed to the rising tone of the former 'wei' - oh those countless homonyms in Chinese Pondering the other meanings of these statements (i.e., '___wu ___' ) helps broaden and deepen meaning by pulling meaning closer to the meaning that has no meaning (to paraphrase chapter 14). Naturally pondering the outskirts of meaning holds for much of the Tao Te Ching in general. That is the benefit of contemplating the broader meaning of any and all words we use.

This is the nearly literal as it looks to me today:
Do without doing,
Be responsible without being responsible.
Taste without tasting.
Make the big small and the many few, Responding to resentment use kindness.
Plan difficulty from its easy.
Do the great from its delicate.
All difficulties under heaven must arise from the easy
All that is great under heaven must arise from the slight
Correctly so, the holy person ends without doing great,
For this reason he is able to become great.
The man that lightly promises, surely few trust.
The great easy, surely great difficult.
Correctly so, the holy person still within difficulty,
For this reason, he ends without difficulty.

These are the literal Chinese meanings, outskirts and all
do(act; serve as; be; mean) nothing(nil; not have; without; regardless of) do(act; serve as; be; mean),
matter(business; responsibility) nothing(nil; not have; without; regardless of) matter(business; trouble; responsibility),
taste(flavour; smell; odour; interest) nothing(nil; not have; without; regardless of) taste(flavour; smell; odour; interest).
big(great; major) small( little; petty; minor) many(more; excessive; too much) few(little, lack),
report(announce; reply; respond) resentment (blame; complain) use (take; because of) virtue(moral character; kindness).
picture(plan; attempt) difficult(troublesome; unpleasant) in (to, from, by) its (their) easy (amiable).
do(act; serve as; be; mean) big(great; major) in (to, from, by) its (their) thin (delicate; careful).
sky(heaven; nature) below(under) difficult(troublesome) matter(business; responsibility) must make(rise) in (to, from, by) easy (amiable).
sky(heaven; nature) below(under) big(great; major) matter(business; responsibility) must make(rise) in (to, from, by) thin (delicate)
correct(right; yes; this) use(take; according to; because of) sage(saint; holy; sacred) human being (man; person; people; adult)
end(finish; death; eventually; whole) not do(act; serve as; be; mean) big(large; great; major),
incident(reason; cause; hence) ability (skill, able) accomplish (succeed; become; turn into) its (his; her; their) big(large; great; major).
man light(not important; gently) promise certainly (surely; must) few (scant; tasteless) true (confidence; trust; believe).
big(great; major) easy(amiable) certainly (surely; must) big(great; major) difficult(troublesome; unpleasant).
correct (right; yes; this) use(take; according to; because of) sage(saint; holy; sacred) human being (man; person; people; adult)
like(still, just as) difficult(troublesome; unpleasant) of,
incident(reason; cause; hence) end(death; eventually; whole) nothing(without; regardless of) difficult(troublesome; unpleasant).