25 有物混成 先天地生

老子道德經第二十五章

有物混成 先天地生
寂兮寥兮 獨立而不改
周行而不殆 可以為天地母
吾不知其名 字之曰道
強為之名曰大
大曰逝 逝曰遠 遠曰反
故道大 天大 地大 人亦大
域中有四大 而人居其一焉
人法地 地法天 天法道
道法自然

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TWENTY-FIVE

Something mysteriously formed,
Born before heaven and earth.
In the silence and the void,
Standing alone and unchanging,
Ever present and in motion.
Perhaps it is the mother of ten thousand things.
I do not know its name.
Call it Tao.
For lack of a better world, I call it great.

Being great, it flows.
It flows far away.
Having gone far, it returns.

Therefore, "Tao is great;
Heaven is great;
Earth is great;
The king is also great." (Note)
These are the four great powers of the universe,
And the king is one of them. (Note)

Man follows the earth.
Earth follows heaven.
Heaven follows the Tao.
Tao follows what is natural.


Note: should be translated into "Man" not "king".

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ST
25.

Something perfect
has existed forever,
even longer than the universe.
It's a vast, unchanging void.
There's nothing else like it.
It goes on forever and never stops,
and everything else came from it.

I don't know what else to call it
so I'll call it Tao.
What's it like?
I can tell you this much: it's great.

So great that it endures.
Something that endures
goes a long way.
And something that goes a long way
always comes back to the beginning.

Tao's great.
Heaven's great.
Earth's great.
And someone in touch with Tao
is great, too.
Those are the four greatest things
in the universe.

Someone who's in touch with Tao
is in touch with the earth.
The earth is in touch with heaven.
Heaven's in touch with Tao.
Tao's in touch with the way things are.


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My scientist's version

5^2

Something exists without a reason
before the space and the matter
It's quiet and empty
And never changes
It proceeds but never ends
And can be the beginning of the cosmos..

I don't know its name
so I call it Tao
or better yet, Infinity
Infinity can also multiply
and grows into infinitesimal
and back to Infinity
(Thus the expanding and shrinking universe)

So I say, Tao is infinite
Universe is boundless
Matter is vast
and Man is free

Of the four great things,
Man is one of them.
Man experiences Matter;
Matter defines Universe;
Universe is part of Tao;
and Tao is all it is.