5

Nature is unsentimental—
It treats the living no different than it treats debris.
Sages are the same: They evaluate everyone impartially.

Nature is like a bellows—
It is empty and yet everything springs from it.
The more pressure put on it, the more it creates.
Man is not like this—
The more he produces, the more exhausted he becomes.

To tap into the Tao, the sage instead turns inward.
There he finds its calm and creative source
At the very center of his being.