Line by Line - Verse 56, Lines 8-9

and bring himself into agreement with the obscurity (of others). This is called 'the Mysterious Agreement.'
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

Be at one with the dust of the Earth.
This is primal union.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

Mix the dust
This is called Mystic Oneness
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

Be at one with the world
and get right with Tao.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

I've written before about the topic of dust. We so often consider it to be nothing more than a nuisance, but everything and every one of us will end up being little more than dust at some point. Like the song, Dust in the Wind, we will all wind up being a bit of dust in the wind!

It is when we realize that dust is an elemental part of the cosmos that we can realize we are one with it. It is neither better nor worse than we are.

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