When all under heaven know beauty as beauty, There is then ugliness, When all know the good as good, There is then the not good. Therefore being and non-being g

When all under heaven know beauty as beauty, There is then ugliness, When all know the good as good, There is then the not good. Therefore being and non-being give rise to each other, The difficult and easy complement each other, The long and short shape each other, The high and low lean on each other, Voices and instruments harmonize with one another, The front and rear follow upon each other. Therefore the sage manages affairs without action, Carries out teaching without speech. Ten thousand things arise and he does not initiate them, They come to be and he claims no possession of them, He works without holding on, Accomplishes without claiming merit. Because he does not claim merit, His merit does not go away. [0] This is one of the key passages. Whenever we name something, it's opposite is created too. This problem lies at the heart of categorization and knowledge. Try to avoid that. For those interested [1] has many translations of the Tao Te Ching to compare. [0] https://terebess.hu/english/tao/e-m-chen.html https://terebess.hu/english/tao/e-m-chen.html [1] https://terebess.hu/english/tao/_index.html https://terebess.hu/english/tao/_index.html