Home Ursula K. Le Guin Chapter 2

Ursula K. Le Guin

2

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Everybody on earth knowing that beauty is beautiful makes ugliness.

Everybody knowing that goodness is good makes wickedness.

For being and nonbeing arise together; hard and easy complete each other; high and low depend on each other; note and voice make the music together; before and after follow each other.

That’s why the wise soul does without doing, teaches without talking.

The things of this world exist, they are; you can’t refuse them.

To bear and not to own; to act and not lay claim; to do the work and let it go. for just letting it go is what makes it stay.

Note UKLG: One of the things I read in this chapter is that values and beliefs are not only culturally constructed but also part of the interplay of yin and yang, the great reversals that maintain the living balance of the world. To believe that our beliefs are permanent truths which encompass reality is a sad arrogance. To let go of that belief is to find safety.

Continue reading from this chapter in the full translation.