Painting of Laozi from Wikisource. Source of the painting is not identified.
道德經 - 第七章
天長地久。
天地所以能長且久者，以其不自生，故能長生。
是以聖人後其身而身先；外其身而身存。
非以其無私耶？故能成其私。
Daodejing - Chapter Seven
The Dao is infinite, eternal.
Why is it eternal?
It was never born, thus it can never die.
Why is it infinite?
It has no desires for itself, thus it is present for all beings.
The master stays behind, that is why she is ahead.
She is detached from all things, that is why she is one with them.
Because she has let go of herself, she is perfectly fulfilled.
References
- The above translation is based on the translation by poet, translator, scholar and anthologist, Stephen Mitchell. His reading of the work can be found on the following YouTube video: Tao Te Ching, The Book Of The Way by Lao Tzu: https://youtu.be/t109UFLSQhk
- This chapter on the above video starts at 15:55 and ends at 16:50.
- You can find the complete 81 chapters of Daodejing in Chinese and English (James Legge version) in the ctext.org website: https://ctext.org/dao-de-jing
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