The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name. The unnamable is the eternally real. Naming is the origin of all particular things. Free from desire, you realize the mystery. Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations. Yet mystery and manifestations arise from the same source. This source is called darkness. Darkness within darkness. The gateway to all understanding.
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The Tao is like a well: used but never used up. It is like the eternal void: filled with infinite possibilities. It is hidden but always present. I don’t know who gave birth to it. It is older than God.
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The Tao is called the Great Mother: empty yet inexhaustible, it gives birth to infinite worlds. It is always present within you.
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Can you coax your mind from its wandering and keep to the original oneness?
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Look, and it can’t be seen. Listen, and it can’t be heard. Reach, and it can’t be grasped.
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Each separate being in the universe returns to the common source.
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Immersed in the wonder of the Tao, you can deal with whatever life brings you, and when death comes, you are ready.
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The Tao is ungraspable. How can [the Master’s] mind be at one with it? Because she doesn’t cling to ideas. The Tao is dark and unfathomable. How can it make her radiant? Because she lets it. Since before time and space were, the Tao is. It is beyond is and is not. How do I know this is true? I look inside myself and see.
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Only in being lived by the Tao can you truly be yourself.
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Express yourself completely, then keep quiet.
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There was something formless and perfect before the universe was born. It is alone, infinite and eternally present. It is the mother of the universe. For lack of a better name, I call it the Tao. It flows through all things, inside and outside, and returns to the origin of all things.
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Know the personal, yet keep to the impersonal: accept the world as it is. If you accept the world, the Tao will be luminous inside you and you will return to your primal self.
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All things end in the Tao as rivers flow into the sea.
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The great Tao flows everywhere. All things are born from it, yet it doesn’t create them. It pours itself into its work, yet it makes no claim. It nourishes infinite worlds, yet it doesn’t hold on to them. Since it is merged with all things and hidden in their hearts, it can be called humble. Since all things vanish into it and it alone endures, it can be called great. It isn’t aware of its greatness; thus it is truly great.
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The Tao never does anything, yet through it all things are done.
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In harmony with the Tao, the sky is clear and spacious, the earth is solid and full, all creatures flourish together, content with the way they are, endlessly repeating themselves, endlessly renewed.
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The Tao is nowhere to be found. Yet it nourishes and completes all things.
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In the beginning was the Tao. All things issue from it; all things return to it.
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Use your own light and return to the source of light. This is called practicing eternity.
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The great Way is easy, yet people prefer the side paths. Be aware when things are out of balance.
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Whoever is planted in the Tao will not be rooted up. Whoever embraces the Tao will not slip away.
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Let the Tao be present in your life and you will become genuine.
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Let it be present in the universe and the universe will sing. How do I know this is true? By looking inside myself.
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It can’t be approached or withdrawn from, benefited or harmed, honored or brought into disgrace. It gives itself up continually. That is why it endures.
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The Tao is the center of the universe, the good man’s treasure, the bad man’s refuge. Honors can be bought with fine words, respect can be won with good deeds; but the Tao is beyond all value, and no one can achieve it.
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The Tao is always at ease. It overcomes without competing, answers without speaking a word, arrives without being summoned, accomplishes without a plan. Its net covers the whole universe. And though its meshes are wide, it doesn’t let a thing slip through.
– From the Tao Te Ching (tr. Stephen Mitchell)
Notes from a Room 