1

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Tao called Tao is not Tao. Names can name no lasting name.

Nameless: the origin of heaven and earth. Naming: the mother of ten thousand things.

Empty of desire, perceive mystery. Filled with desire, perceive manifestations.

These have the same source, but different names.

Call them both deep - Deep and again deep: the gateway to all mystery.

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2

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Recognize beauty and ugliness is born.

Recognize good and evil is born.

Is and Isn't produce each other. Hard depends on easy, Long is tested by short,

High is determined by low, Sound is harmonized by voice, After is followed by before.

Therefore the sage is devoted to non action, Moves without teaching,

Creates ten thousand things without instruction, Lives but does not own, Acts but does not presume,

Accomplishes without taking credit. When no credit is taken, Accomplishment endures.

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3

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Don't glorify heroes, And people will not contend.

Don't treasure rare objects, And no one will steal.

Don't display what people desire, And their hearts will not be disturbed.

Therefore, the Sage rules By emptying hearts and filling bellies, By weakening ambitions and strengthening bones; Leads people Away from knowing and wanting;

Deters those who know too much From going too far:

Practices non-action And the natural order is not disrupted.

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4

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Tao is empty- its use never exhausted.

Bottomless - the origin of all things.

It blunts sharp edges, Unties knots, Softens glare, Becomes one with the dusty world.

Deeply subsistent -

I don't know whose child it is. It is older than the Ancestor.

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5

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Heaven and Earth are not kind: The ten thousand things are straw dogs to them.

The Sage is not kind: People are straw dogs to him.

Yet Heaven and Earth And all the space between Are like a bellows: Empty but inexhaustible, Always producing more.

Longwinded speech is exhausting. Better to stay centered.

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