Tao Te Ching
by LAO TSU
Translation by Gia Fu Fengand Jane English
Fourteen
Look, it cannot be seen--it is beyond form.
Listen, it cannot be heard--it is beyond sound.
Grasp, it cannot be held--it is intangible.
These three are indefinable;
Therefore they are joined in one.
From above it is not bright;
From below it is not dark:
An unbroken thread beyond description.
It returns to nothingness.
The form of the formless,
The image of the imageless,
It is called indefinable and beyond imagination.
Stand before it and there is no beginning.
Follow it and there is no end.
Stay with the ancient Tao,Move with the present.
Knowing the ancient beginning is the essence of Tao.
---End of Transmission---
2 comments:
cool poem, james.
how are you doing these days anyway?
CHINESE WISDOM
Some wars are neither won nor lost
But both sides are exhausted--
Great the expenditure, and cost,
Men´s sanity accosted.
Yet even victory ought bring
But mourning comprehensive;
It says so in the Tao Te Ching,
So let a man be pensive.
This nation that did rush to war
Instead of fleeing from it
Descends to what it ought deplore,
From God´s good grace to plummet.
If war comes unavoidable
To fight then in defense
Were justifiedl while, what but hell
Ought be the recompense
When one has waged a "war of choice,"
Aggressive in demeanor--
No it were not cause to rejoice,
Mean death in the arena.
Even a victory leaves foul,
Yet in the case today
Excessive cause for mournful scowl
As souls collective pay.
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