Translation Info: beck | blakney | byrn | feng | ganson | gnl | hansen | legge | mccarroll | mcdonald | merel | merel2 | mitchell | muller | rosenthal |
| byrn Prev Next | Chapter 16 All Translations . beck . blakney . byrn . feng . ganson . gnl . hansen . legge . mccarroll . mcdonald . merel . merel2 . mitchell . muller . rosenthal . | headers Prev Chapter Chapter 16 Next Chapter |


Attain complete humility towards the void;
hold firm to the basis of quietude.
The myriad things take shape and rise to activity,
Now, I watch them fall, worked on,
back to their repose and roots
like plants that flourish
but return to the soil and root they grew from.

To return to the root is basic repose;
it's quiet and returning to some destiny.
To submit to a destiny is to find the eternal shelter, the always-so, or the eternal dao.
To know the eternal always-so is to be somewhat illumined.
not to know it courts disaster.

He who knows the eternal shelter has room in him for nearly everything - he is wide as tolerant.
Being much including, there's little prejudice;
to be without blunt prejudice is kingly;
to be kingly is to be well in accord with nature; it's to be of heaven.
To be of heaven in unison with an undaunted nature is to be in dao;
This dao is forever, and he that owns it, is hardly destroyed, even though his body ceases.



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