Dao De Jing

2. Abstraction

When beauty is abstracted

Then ugliness has been implied;

When good is abstracted

Then evil has been implied.

So alive and dead are abstracted from nature,

Difficult and easy abstracted from progress,

Long and short abstracted from contrast,

High and low abstracted from depth,

Song and speech abstracted from melody,

After and before abstracted from sequence.

The sage experiences without abstraction,

And accomplishes without action;

He accepts the ebb and flow of things,

Nurtures them, but does not own them,

And lives, but does not dwell.