Dao De Jing 16

Dao De Jing 16

Come to utmost emptiness,

preserve deep stillness.

The ten thousand things arise as one,

& as we see return to their source.

Returning to the source is called stillness—returning thus is unchanging fate;

where the unchanging is known there’s wisdom,

where the unchanging isn’t known, there’s lawlessness.

Knowledge of the unchanging embraces all, & embracing all is justice.

justice then is majesty, majesty then is divine, the divine then is the Way;

the Way endures through time.

One who follows the Way is free from peril even until death.

Laozi, 道德經

Translation by John Hayes

The translation is is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. 

Unlike with my original poetry & poetry translations, I don’t asset a copyright claim on my translation of the Dao De Jing. It may be freely used under the terms of the Creative Commons license.

Image links to its source on Wiki Commons:

“Four Immortals Saluting Longevity”: Shang Xi, early Ming Dynasty, hanging scroll, Color on silk. (“The immortals are from left to right: Shide standing on a broom, Hanshan standing on a banana leaf, Iron-Crutch Li standing on a crutch, and Liu Haichan riding a 'Chan Chu' three footed toad. The being riding the crane is the Longevity Star God”).

Public domain.