1. The Way

The Way that can be told of is not an unvarying Way;
The names that can be named are not unvarying names.
It was from the Nameless that Heaven and Earth sprang;
The named is but the mother of the ten thousand things.
Each therefore in turn, by its recondite being,
Contemplates the other in its manifestation.
He who would free himself from desire
Must see his Essential Radiance.
He who has not freed himself from desire
Must see only the outward show.
These two things are the same in origin,
But differ in name; and their sameness is a mystery.
Mystery of mysteries,
the portal of all beginning.