before sorrow

 

 

Before sorrow, anger,

longing, or fear have arisen,

you are in the center.

 

When these emotions appear

and you know how to see through them,

you are in harmony.

 

That center is the root of the universe;

that harmony is the Tao,

which reaches out to all things.

 

 

 

 

~ Stephen Mitchell

 from The Second Book of the Tao