Daodejing Part Four

LYRICS: The Way is hollow, yet it never drains, Deep as the source where all things remain. It dulls the sharp and softens the bright, Blends with the dust, dissolves in the light. No name, no birth — before the skies began, It flowed unseen, beyond the hand of man. Endless and still, the Hollow Way, Empty, yet full — it will not decay. Heaven and Earth may fade and fall, But the Way outlasts, embracing all. The strong grow weak when they grasp too tight, The wise lose truth when they chase the right. The ground finds peace by yielding low, The sky keeps form through what it lets go. All things return to what they were before, Seeking the source — there is no more. Endless and still, the Hollow Way, Empty, yet full — it will not decay. Heaven and Earth may fade and fall, But the Way outlasts, embracing all. It softens the edge without the scar, Unravels the storm yet leaves no war. Its glow is calm, its truth unseen, Body of dust, but spirit clean. Before the Lord of Heaven’s reign, The Way was old — and will remain. Endless and still, the Hollow Way, Empty, yet full — it will not decay. Heaven and Earth may fade and fall, But the Way outlasts, embracing all. DAODEJING PART FOUR: The Dao is the emptiness of a vessel; and in our employment of it we must be on our guard against all fulness. How deep and unfathomable it is, as if it were the Honoured Ancestor of all things! We should blunt our sharp points, and unravel the complications of things; we should attemper our brightness, and bring ourselves into agreement with the obscurity of others. How pure and still the Dao is, as if it would ever so continue! I do not know whose son it is. It might appear to have been before God.