The Way that can be experienced is not true;

The world that can be constructed is not true.

The Way manifests all that happens and may happen;

The world represents all that exists and may exist. To experience without intention is to sense the world;

To experience with intention is to anticipate the world.

These two experiences are indistinguishable;

Their construction differs but their effect is the same. Beyond the gate of experience flows the Way,

Which is ever greater and more subtle than the world.

2. Abstraction

When beauty is abstracted

Then ugliness has been implied;

When good is abstracted

Then evil has been implied.

So alive and dead are abstracted from nature,

Difficult and easy abstracted from progress,

Long and short abstracted from contrast,

High and low abstracted from depth,

Song and speech abstracted from melody,

After and before abstracted from sequence.

The sage experiences without abstraction,

And accomplishes without action;

He accepts the ebb and flow of things,

Nurtures them, but does not own them,

And lives, but does not dwell.

3. Without Action

Not praising the worthy prevents contention,

Not esteeming the valuable prevents theft,

Not displaying the beautiful prevents desire. In this manner the sage governs people:

Emptying their minds,

Filling their bellies,

Weakening their ambitions,

And strengthening their bones.

If people lack knowledge and desire

Then they can not act;

If no action is taken

Harmony remains.

4. Limitless

The Way is a limitless vessel;

Used by the self, it is not filled by the world;

It cannot be cut, knotted, dimmed or stilled;

Its depths are hidden, ubiquitous and eternal;

I don’t know where it comes from;

It comes before nature.

5. Nature

Nature is not kind;

It treats all things impartially.

The Sage is not kind,

And treats all people impartially.

Nature is like a bellows,

Empty, yet never ceasing its supply.

The more it moves, the more it yields;

So the sage draws upon experience

And cannot be exhausted.