Line by Line - Verse 16, Line 6

The report of that fulfilment is the regular, unchanging rule.
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

The way of nature is unchanging.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

Returning to one's nature is called constancy
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

(No corresponding line)
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

I can certainly understand why some people might look at this general sentiment and exclaim out loud, WTF? Nature always seems to be a chang'n. Every time ya think you've got things all figured out, something screwy happens and the absolute result that should or should not occur ends up occurring or not occurring as expected.

For me, the problem with this kind of perspective is that it confuses what's really going on with a limited number of outward manifestations. If we had the capability to pull back to view the myriad of variables that impact and/or permeate any given situation, I'm betting we would slap our foreheads and shout, "Duh, of course!"

To view the Index page for this series to see what you may have missed or would like to read again, go here.