Great and Small

When we look at things in the light of Tao,
Nothing is best, nothing is worst.
Each thing, seen in its own light,
Stands out in its own way.
It can seem to be ´better´
Than what is compared with it --
On its own terms.
But seen in terms of the whole,
No one thing stands out as ´better´.
If you measure differences,
What is greater than something else is ´great´.
Therefore, there is nothing that is not great.
What is smaller than something else is ´small´.
Therefore, there is nothing that is not small.
So the whole cosmos is as ´small´ as a grain of rice,
And the tip of a hair is as ´great´ as a mountain.
Such is the relative view.

You can break down walls with battering rams
But you cannot plug holes with them.
All things have their own usefulness.
Fine horses can travel a hundrd miles a day
But they cannot catch mice like terriers or weasels.
All creatures have gifts of their own.
The white-horned owl can catch fleas at midnight
And distinguish the tip of a hair;
But in the brightness of day it stares, helpless, and cannot even see a mountain.
All things have different capacities.

Consequently, he who wants to have ´right´ without ´wrong´,
¨Order´ without ´disorder´,
Does not understand the principles of heaven and earth.
He does not know how things hang together.
Can a man cling only to heaven and know nothing of earth?
They are correlative: to know one is to know the other.
To refuse one is to refuse both.
Can a man cling to the positive without any negative,
In contrast to which it can be seen as positive?
If he claims to do so he is a rogue – or a madman.

Thrones pass from dynasty to dynasty,
Now in this way, now in that.
He who forces his way to power, against the grain,
Is called tyrant and usurper.
He who moves with the stream of events
Is called a wise statesman.

Kui, the one-legged dragon,
Is jealous of the centipede.
The centipede is jealous of the snake.
The snake is jealous of the wind.The wind is jealous of the eye.
The eye is jealous of the mind.
Kui said to the centipede:
“I manage my one leg with difficulty.
How can you manage a hundred?”
The centipede replied:
“I do not manage them;
They land all over the place like drops of spit.”
The centipede said to the snake:
“With all my feet, I cannot move as fast as you do with no feet at all.
How does this happen?”
The snake replied:
“I have a natural glide that can´t be changed.
What do I need with feet?”

The snake spoke to the wind:
“I ripple my backbone and move along in a bodily way.
You, without bones, without muscles, without method,
Blow from the North Sea to the Southern Ocean.
How do you get there with nothing?”

The wind replied:
“True, I rise up in the North Sea
And take myself without obstacle to the Southern Ocean.
But every eye that remarks me,
Every wing that spreads upon me,
Is superior to me,
Even though I can uproot the biggest trees, or overturn tall buildings.

The true conqueror is he who is not conquered by the multitude of the small.
The mind is this conqueror –
But only the mind of the wise man”