Daodejing Part Twenty Three

LYRICS: Few are the words that follow nature, Silence speaks where truth is born. Fierce winds fade before the morning, Heavy rains do not endure. Heaven itself cannot sustain them, How then could the will of man? Storms arise and storms are gone, The Way remains when they have passed. Walk with the Way, become the Way. Walk with virtue, virtue stays. Walk in loss, and loss will follow. Every path returns its own. The nameless current shapes all beings, Without command, without a claim. Nothing forced and nothing spoken, Yet the thousand forms remain. What is gentle reaches farther Than the shout that shakes the sky. What you serve becomes your dwelling, What you choose becomes your world. Walk with the Way, become the Way. Walk with virtue, virtue stays. Walk in loss, and loss will follow. Every path returns its own. Trust grows thin when hearts grow distant, Doubt appears where roots decay. When the center loses stillness, Words no longer clear the way. Yet the source remains beneath us, Quiet as the unseen spring. Deep below the noise of striving, Something waits that does not change. Walk with the Way, become the Way. Walk with virtue, virtue stays. Walk in loss, and loss will follow. Every path returns its own. Walk with the Way, and be forgotten. Walk with the Way, and be complete. No need to conquer, no need to answer, No need to stand above defeat. The storm is loud, the rain is fleeting— The silent river reaches the sea, reaches the sea, reaches the sea, reaches the deep black sea. DAODEJING PART TWENTY THREE: Abstaining from speech marks him who is obeying the spontaneity of his nature. A violent wind does not last for a whole morning; a sudden rain does not last for the whole day. To whom is it that these (things are owing? To Heaven and Earth. If Heaven and Earth cannot make such actings last long, how much less can man! Therefore when one is making the Dao his business, those who are also pursuing it, agree with him in it, and those who are making the manifestation of its course their object agree with him in that; while even those who are failing in both these things agree with him where they fail. Hence, those with whom he agrees as to the Dao have the happiness of attaining to it; those with whom he agrees as to its manifestation have the happiness of attaining to it; and those with whom he agrees in their failure have also the happiness of attaining when there is not faith sufficient, a want of faith ensues.