Good News / Mystic Traditions

The Mystery of the Tao
by Lao Tzu 26.10.2006, changed 01.11.2006

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The Tao that can be trodden is not the enduring and
unchanging Tao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and
unchanging name.



(Conceived of as) having no name, it is the Originator of heaven
and earth; (conceived of as) having a name, it is the Mother of all
things.

Always without desire we must be found,
If its deep mystery we would sound;
But if desire always within us be,
Its outer fringe is all that we shall see.

Under these two aspects, it is really the same; but as development
takes place, it receives the different names. Together we call them
the Mystery. Where the Mystery is the deepest is the gate of all that
is subtle and wonderful.


[Editor's Note: This article is excerpted from Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching, as translated by J. Legge. The complete text is available at the The Sacred Text Archive. The image of the statue of Lao Tzu is borrowed from Tao-Te-King.Org.]