Know the masculine,
but keep to the feminine:
and become a watershed to the world.
If you embrace the world,
the Tao will never leave you
and you become as a little child.
Know the white,
yet keep to the black:
be a model for the world.
If you are a model for the world,
the Tao inside you will strengthen
and you will return whole to your eternal beginning.
Know the honorable,
but do not shun the disgraced:
embracing the world as it is.
If you embrace the world with compassion,
then your virtue will return you to the uncarved block.
The block of wood is carved into utensils
by carving void into the wood.
The Master uses the utensils, yet prefers to keep to the block
because of its limitless possibilities.
Great works do not involve discarding substance.
Lao Tsu reiterates the balance, the Yin and Yang, necessary to participate in life. To understand the balance is to live within the very simple law of thermodynamics. Thermodynamics is the creative and balancing force in the universe.
We can alter and use it, as a tool. We can burn coal, the dissipative end product of ancient life, to produce electricity to light the bulb that leaves heat as a residue. But we should not forget the process from high to low energy. Energy, governed by thermodynamics, is a limitless possibility.
No comments:
Post a Comment