Dao of the Day

Something looked for but not seen,
Or listened for, not heard
Or reached for, not found:
Call one "dim," one "faint," one "slight,"
Not for summons nor for challenge.
Combined these three make one -
The One, the foremost number,
When daylit sky and dark of night
Have yet to be.
Through this One all living forms coil forth
Helter-skelter - how else to name it? -
Only to go round home again
To their unbodied state:
Form before form,
Guises of the unbodied,
Or gleams in a dim void.
Who can engage them?
Who find the foremost?
Who can pursue them?
Who find the last?
Hold fast to the Way of ancient days
To guide us through our present world;
To know how things began of old
Is to be grounded in the Way

From Dao De Jing: The Book of the Way, translation and commentary by Moss Roberts.

Previously:

• Dao of the Day from August 3
  
• Dao of the Day from July 23rd