The Dao, vast beyond measure, pervades all dimensions. Transcending spatial binaries of left/right or containment, it sustains the cyclical dance of existence while remaining inseparable from all beings.
All-pervading is the Great Dao! It may be found on the left hand and on the right.
All things depend on it for their production, which it gives to them, not one refusing obedience to it. When its work is accomplished, it does not claim the name of having done it. It clothes all things as with a garment, and makes no assumption of being their lord; – it may be named in the smallest things. All things return (to their root and disappear), and do not know that it is it which presides over their doing so; – it may be named in the greatest things.
Hence the sage is able (in the same way) to accomplish his great achievements. It is through his not making himself great that he can accomplish them.
It achieves greatness without claiming credit, nurtures life without domination. Devoid of desire, it seems “small” to the unseeing eye. Yet all things arise from and return to the Dao—none command it, for its “greatness” lies beyond mortal grasp.
Precisely because the Dao never proclaims its greatness, it actualizes the fullness of its cosmic magnitude.
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