Line by Line - Verse 39, Line 9

If heaven were not thus pure, it soon would rend;
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

The clarity of the sky prevents its falling.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

The sky, lacking clarity, would break apart
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

Without Tao,
the heavens would collapse.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

In my stack of books waiting to be read is Fritjof Capra's The Tao of Physics. I bet I could find a really neat quote from that book to illuminate this line from the TTC. But alas, I haven't cracked the book open yet, so suffice it to say that, whatever it is that undergirds life, is what makes the sky the sky. ;-)

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