Daodejing · 道德經

Eighty-one short verses, the most translated book after the Bible — and one of the quietest. It teaches by water and by emptiness: water is soft and low and yielding, and wears down the hard; a wheel is useful for the hole at its hub, a cup for the space inside, a room for its windows and door. The way to act is wu wei, not-forcing; the way to lead is to serve from below; the way home is to return to the uncarved simplicity you began in. Set beside the Tree it is the mirror-opposite in method and the twin in longing — the Kabbalah fills its vessels; the Daodejing prizes the vessel's emptiness — yet both are pointing at the same nameless source.