Learning the Way is like nurturing vital breath;
When breath is full, ailments naturally retreat.
Test it through winter's chill and summer's heat,
You'll see the difference between solid and incomplete.
Feeling listless and self-satisfied,
Is a sign of breath in surplus, not denied.
It warms not just the navel and the belly,
But also brings a glow to skin, making it jelly.
If you can guard the crucial pass with care,
For a hundred years, you'll never wither, never bare.
Once the Way is clear within the heart,
Like a sturdy cart for a horse, you'll never part.
Nurture it long through months and years,
Naturally you'll tread on level roads, free from fears.
Rivers lose their wind-driven waves,
Wilderness turns to fertile soil that saves.
Gaze upon the eight directions far and wide,
What thing in all the world can with me vie?
When the time comes, I wax and wane with ease,
I have my own way to contract or release.
Life and death are matters great, indeed,
You rush, but I proceed at my own speed.
Swift advance is not for haste,
Winding paths are not a waste.
A bubble dwelling in the vast sea,
This thing surely has being, or not, you see.
Who can possess such discerning sight?
Let alone hope to grasp its beard tight.
If learning lacks refinement to the end,
It turns to jade mixed with stone, you can't pretend.
In days of old, some stood midway on the road,
To point for you a corner, as a code.
A thousand words miss the essential core,
Only waste breath in empty boast and lore.
Thus Ji Lu's courage, bold and brave,
Is less than Yan Hui's simplicity, which saves.
I beg you, lay aside a hundred cares,
Turn your thought back in a moment that spares.
Suddenly when affairs come pressing in,
These words, I trust, will prove true, not a sin.