THE VIRTUE OF THE MYSTERIOUS

One who knows does not talk.
One who talks does not know.
Therefore the sage keeps his mouth shut
and his sense-gates closed.

`He will blunt his own sharpness,
His own tangles adjust;
He will dim his own radiance,
And be one with his dust.'

This is called profound identification.
Thus he is inaccessible to love
and also inaccessible to enmity.
He is inaccessible to profit
and inaccessible to loss.
He is also inaccessible to favour
and inaccessible to disgrace.
Thus he becomes world-honoured.