Daodejing Chapter 56: primal union

Those who know do not speak.
Those who speak do not know.
Block the openings.
Close the gate.
Smooth the sharpness.
Unravel the tangles.
Soften the glare.
Blend with the dust.
This is called primal union.
Anyone who attains this,
Is neither loved nor rejected,
Is neither favored nor disgraced,
Is neither esteemed nor disdained.
But is greatly valued by all-under-heaven.

「知者不言，言者不知，塞其兌，閉其門，挫其銳，解其紛，和其光，同其塵。是謂玄同。故不可得而親，不可得而疏，不可得而利，不可得而害，不可得而貴，不可得而賤，故為天下貴！」

Life is not a talent show. It is not a performance to show other people how amazing you are.

Life is about forging your own path towards understanding how the world works so that you can live in harmony with its natural rhythms. Rather than worrying about what other people think and say about you, listen to what your own heart is telling you.

Notes
1.) It is very difficult to translate the term玄同/Xuán tóng. I have opted for primal union. Alternatives include mysterious sameness, mystic union, profound commonality, dark unity, and profoundest consonance.

2.) Some commentators argue that the first two lines are not relevant to the rest of the chapter and may have been added by careless scribes. Some ancient versions of Daodejing use the character zhì /智 meaning “wise.” rather than zhī/知 meaning “know”. The first two lines may thus also be translated as “Those who are wise not speak; those be those who speak are not wise.”

3.) The first two lines of the second stanza also appear in Chapter 52: “Block the openings. Close the gate.” They may have also been included accidentally.

4.) I took this image at Longhu (Dragon Tiger) Mountain, a famous Daoist site about ten miles south of Yingtan in Jiangxi Province. A great place to visit!