Thursday, July 12, 2018

beauty and ugliness






When people see things as beautiful,
ugliness is created.
When people see things as good,
evil is created.

Being and non-being produce each other.
Difficult and easy complement each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low oppose each other.
Fore and aft follow each other.

Therefore the Master
can act without doing anything
and teach without saying a word.
Things come her way and she does not stop them;
things leave and she lets them go.
She has without possessing,
and acts without any expectations.
When her work is done, she takes no credit.
That is why it will last forever.





~ Lao Tzu
from the Tao Te Ching
translation by j.h.mcdonald




1 comments:

erin said...

this reminds me of a conversation i had while walking in the woods the other day. i said, as i lifted my feet from heavy snow over and over again, i wish i could meet a wise person to teach me, you know, something valuable, but the wise ones are quiet and i do not meet them (or notice meeting them) and they would probably tell me to do what i am doing already, walk, listen, make love.

an hour later we were lost out in the country, walking deeper into the forest, realizing how little we knew. nighttime had come.

xo
erin