The Eternal

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Verse 16 of the Tao Te Ching
Translated by Raymond B. Blakney


The Way and Immortality ...


Touch ultimate emptiness,
Hold steady and still.

All things work together:
I have watched them reverting,
And have seen how they flourish
And return again, each to his roots.

This, I say, is the stillness:
A retreat to one's roots;
Or better yet, return
To the will of God,
Which is, I say, to constancy.
The knowledge of constancy
I call enlightenment and say
That not to know it
Is blindness that works evil.

But when you know
What eternally is so,
You have stature
And stature means righteousness
And righteousness is kingly
And kingliness divine
And divinity is the Way
Which is final.

Then, though you die,
You shall not perish.


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The sound of the sea filled me. I had to stop and listen. At first there was just a constant roaring and then it modulated itself. There was a sound like that of a subway train entering the station. And then it returned to a constant roar.

I listened, being as charmed as if it were a bird chirping on the windowsill.






















































All audio and visual by David H. Roche
Other text as credited in the body of the blog post.
Copyright 2010