The Way is unimpeded harmony;
its potential may never be fully exploited.
It is as deep as the source of all things:
it blunts the edges,
resolves the complications,
harmonizes the light,
assimilates the world.
Profoundly still, it seems to be there:
I don’t know whose child it is,
before the creation of images.

– Thomas Cleary

 

The Tao is so empty
those who use it
never become full again
and so deep
as if it were the ancestor of us all
it dulls our edges
unties our tangles
softens our light
and merges our dust
it’s so clear
as if it were present
I wonder whose child it is
it seems it was here before Ti

– Red Pine

 

Ever void, Dao provides
But does not fill.
To a welling font akin,
The living myriad’s sacred source
Is like the darkness of the deep;
There its living presence bides.
Child of whom I cannot tell,
Liken it to the ancestor of ancestors.

– Moss Roberts