Dao De Jing

25. Beneath Abstraction

There is a mystery,

Beneath abstraction,

Silent, depthless,

Alone, unchanging,

Ubiquitous and liquid,

The mother of nature.

It has no name, but I call it "the Way";

It has no limit, but I call it "limitless".

Being limitless, it flows away forever;

Flowing away forever, it returns to my self:

The Way is limitless,

So nature is limitless,

So the world is limitless,

And so I am limitless.

For I am abstracted from the world,

The world from nature,

Nature from the Way,

And the Way from what is beneath abstraction.