Read an Excerpt

Chapter
25:
Imagining
mystery

There
is something

that
contains everything.

Before
heaven and earth


it is.

Oh,
it is still, unbodied,

all
on its own, unchanging,

all-pervading,

ever-moving.
So
it can act as the mother


of all things.

Not
knowing its real name,

we
only call it the Way.

If
it must be named,

let
its name be Great.

Greatness
means going on,

going
on means going far,

and
going far means turning back.

So
they say: "The Way is great,

heaven
is great,

earth
is great,

and
humankind is great;

four
greatnesses in the world,

and
humanity is one of them."

People
follow earth,

earth
follows heaven,


heaven follows the Way,

the
Way follows what is.

Chapter
34: Perfect trust

The
Great Way runs


to left, to right,

the
ten thousand things

depending
on it,


living on it,

accepted
by it.

Doing
its work,

it
goes unnamed.


Clothing and feeding


the ten thousand things,

it
lays no claim on them

and
asks nothing of them.

Call
it a small matter.

The
ten thousand things


return to it,

though
it lays no claim on them.

Call
it great.

So
the wise soul

without
great doings

achieves
greatness.