ChineseStudy

16. Returning to Stillness

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English translation

Bring openness to its utmost; hold firmly to deep stillness.

Openness means clearing away fixed assumptions and distractions. Stillness is the steadiness needed to observe without being pulled about by agitation.

All things rise and flourish together, and through them I observe their return.

Amid the many forms of growth, the speaker watches the shared movement back. Change reveals a recurring cycle.

Things are countless and varied, yet each returns again to its own root.

However diverse and active things appear, each moves from emergence back toward its source and basis.

Returning to the root is called stillness; this is called returning to one’s allotted nature.

Stillness here is not lifeless inactivity but the return that follows activity. It is a return to the basic course inherent in a thing.

Returning to life’s enduring course is called constancy; knowing constancy is called clarity.

Constancy is the pattern that persists through change. To recognize it is to see beyond temporary rise and decline.

Not knowing constancy, one acts recklessly and meets with harm.

When people fail to see the limits and cycles within change, impulse replaces judgment and their actions produce damaging results.

Knowing constancy brings breadth; breadth brings impartiality; impartiality brings true leadership; true leadership accords with heaven; heaven accords with the way; the way endures. Thus one may pass through life without peril.

The line traces a progression from understanding patterns to living securely. A broad mind moves beyond private bias, and impartial action aligns with a larger order.

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