Line by Line - Verse 27, Line 20

This is called "The utmost degree of mystery."
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

This is the crux of mystery.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

This is called the essential wonder
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

That's one of the most important lessons of Tao.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

For me, the great mystery or wonder is that we know the harmony that walking the middle path brings, yet we constantly stray from this path. As Ron Hogan suggests, if we would only embrace the underlying message of this verse, it would be far easier to stay on course!

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