Tao Te Ching – Verse 37
The Tao never does anything,
yet through it all things are done.
If powerful men and women
could center themselves in it,
the whole world would be transformed
by itself, in its natural rhythms.
People would be content
with their simple, everyday lives,
in harmony, and free of desire.
When there is no desire,
all things are at peace.
(translation by Stephen Mitchell, 1995)
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The Tao is constant in non-action
Yet there is nothing it does not do
If the sovereign can hold on to this
All things shall transform themselves
Transformed, yet wishing to achieve
I shall restrain them with the simplicity of the nameless
The simplicity of the nameless
They shall be without desire
Without desire, using stillness
The world shall steady itself
(translation by Derek Lin, 2006)
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Let one ruler be quiet,
And the Earth will know Heaven;
For the ruler is but the expression of confused masses,
And the masses are but the expression of the confused ruler.
(translation by Jeremy M. Miller, 2013)
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from I Ching Online
