Chapter 47

不出户，知天下；不窥牖，见天道。其出弥远，其知弥少。是以圣人不行而知，不见而明，不为而成。

Translation
Without going out of his room, one knows all there is to know; without peeping through the window, one knows the Tao of Heaven. He who goes further knows less (about the Tao). Therefore the sage knows without travel, understands without trying and completes without action.

Comments
I wonder if Lao Tzu is a reincarnation of an Indian Yogi. By the time Lao Tzu lived, which is about 6th-3rd century BC, Yoga was already established in India. The reason I said this is that in this chapter we see the essence of Yoga in Lao Tzu’s teachings.When Lao Tzu says one can know everything without going out of the room, what he is really saying is that everything is in the inside. What Lao Tzu didn’t say, however, is that how can anyone know everything without going out. Yoga did, it is through meditation. Meditation is self-study. How do we understand that you know only less when you go further? To answer this question, we need to know where the truth is. It is Lao Tzu and the Yogi’s belief that the truth is from within. It is then easy to understand when you go far out, you only make the distance between you and the truth, which is within yourself, greater.