A quote from the second chapter of the 道德經 (Dao de jing):
天下皆知美之爲美。斯惡已。皆知善之爲善。斯不善已。故有無相生、難易相成、長短相較、高下相傾、音聲相和、前後相隨。是以聖人處無爲之事、行不言之教。萬物作焉而不辭、生而不有、爲而不侍、功成而弗居。夫唯弗居、是以不去。
All in the world recognize the beautiful as beautiful; herein lies ugliness.
All recognize the good as good; herein lies evil.Therefore:
Being and non-being produce each other;
Difficulty and ease bring about each other;
Long and short delimit each other;
High and low rest on each other;
Sound and voice harmonize each other;
Front and back follow each other.Therefore the sage abides in the condition of wu-wei (無為, unattached action),
And carries out the wordless teaching.
Here, the myriad things are made, yet not separated.Therefore the sage produces without possessing,
Acts without expectations,
And accomplishes without abiding in his accomplishments.It is precisely because he does not abide in them that they never leave him.
Translation was modified from Charles Muller‘s original work. (BTW, look how concise ancient Chinese can be! Love it.)
In the True world, there is no good or bad. Everything is relative. What’s good to one person may be bad to the next. What’s to say flunking out of high school is bad, if it helps you find you who you really are? Who says all millionaires are happy? If it rains, you can’t have your picnic, but the plants will flourish, and you’ll have water to drink. And so, there’s an intricate balance of yin and yang that we can all truly come to appreciate when we stop making ourselves the center of the universe, and start thinking of the self as just a tiny bit of it.
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