Unity
Unity
number twenty
- Agreement and angry rejection;
- How great is the difference between them?
- Beautiful and ugly;
- What is it like - the difference between them?
- The one who is feared by others;
- Must I also fear what others fear?
- Wild, unrestrained. It will ever come to an end.
- The multitudes are peaceful and happy,
- Like climbing a terrace in springtime,
- enjoying the sacrificial feast of the ox.
- But I alone am calm and quiet -
- not yet having given any sign.
- Like a newborn baby before it learns to smile,
- Tired and exhausted,
- As though I have no place to return.
- The multitudes all have more than they need,
- I alone seem to have nothing.
- Mine is the mind of a fool - ignorant and stupid!
- The common people see things clearly;
- I alone am in the dark.
- The common people discriminate and make fine distinctions;
- But I alone am muddled and confused.
- Oh, I am formless!
- Like the ocean;
- Oh I am shapeless!
- As though I have nothing in which I can rest.
- The masses all have their reasons for acting;
- I alone am stupid and obstinatie like a rustic.
- But my desires alone differ from those of others -
- For I am nourished by the Mother.
Expressions of Tao
Number twenty-one
- The character of great Virtue
- Follows only from the Way.
- As for the nature of the Way -
- It is without shape or form.
- Formless! Shapeless! Inside there are images.
- Shapeless! Formless! Inside there are things.
- Hidden! Obscure! Inside are there essences.
- These essences are very real,
- Inside them is the proof.
- From the present back to the past,
- its name has never gone away.
- It is by this that we comply
- with the father of the multitude of things.
- How do I know the father of the multitude is so?
- By this.
Control
number three
