--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: In Laozi’s original, this verse begins…" description: "\"“In Laozi’s original, this verse begins: From one comes two, and this makes three, and thus ten thousand come to be. What do these numbers refer to? Ho..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/339/jim-clatfelter-158279_poetry_in-laozi-s-original-this-verse-begins-fr_875440.jpg" --- # In Laozi’s original, this verse begins: From one comes… ![“In Laozi’s original, this verse begins: From one comes two, and this makes three, and thus ten thousand come to be. What do these numbers refer to? How should one interpret them? I base my interpretation on a line from the Great Commentary on the Yijing and another from Richard Wilhelm’s…” quote by Jim Clatfelter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/339/jim-clatfelter-158279_poetry_in-laozi-s-original-this-verse-begins-fr_875440.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/339/jim-clatfelter-158279_poetry_in-laozi-s-original-this-verse-begins-fr_875440.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/339/jim-clatfelter-158279_poetry_in-laozi-s-original-this-verse-begins-fr_875440.jpg) > ““In Laozi’s original, this verse begins: From one comes two, and this makes three, and thus ten thousand come to be. What do these numbers refer to? How should one interpret them? I base my interpretation on a line from the Great Commentary on the Yijing and another from Richard Wilhelm’s commentary to his 1910 translation of the Dao De Jing. One yin, one yang: this is Dao. (Great Commentary on the Yijing) By the coming forth of the One the Two is created; by the two joining the One the Three comes about. (Richard Wilhelm, p 73) These are the three terms: Dao, yin and yang. One is Dao, the single presence. Two are yin and yang, the complementary aspects of Dao. Three is the sum, the whole. Laozi goes on to locate yin and yang in our direct experience. Just what is the Dao? It is yin on my shoulders And yang in my arms. The three terms Dao, yin and yang are not metaphysical terms. They are not mere words or names. They are concrete, physical, and visible. You can literally point to them with a finger. To look in at the yin, point your finger to your own faceless awareness. To look out at the yang, point your finger to the world of appearances directly in front of you. See that nothing separates this yin and yang. They are two views of your presence, you life in the moment, two views of Dao. Can you see both ways and harmonize and balance the two views? It’s the Way to wholeness. 43.”” [Jim Clatfelter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jim-clatfelter/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The passage explains Dao as the unity of yin and yang, three three terms, and and the of wh and wh..DaoDao Daoyin **In simple terms:** Dao with yin and yang. Key Takeaway Balance inner and outer perspectives. Themes philosophy dualism wholeness interpretation Mood contemplative inquisitive Type explanatory spiritual When to use this quote - personal meditation - teaching - spiritual practice Key Concepts yin yang dao balance perception Questions to Reflect On - How can you observe yin and yang in daily life? - What practices help harmonize opposing views? A Different Perspective Complex metaphors may be misinterpreted without context. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Commentary Yijing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/commentary-yijing-996180/) [Dao De Jing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dao-de-jing-229615/) [Life In The Moment](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life-in-the-moment/) [Poetry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) [Presence Yin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/presence-yin-996181/) [Separates Yin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/separates-yin-996182/) [Translation Dao](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/translation-dao-996183/) [Yin and yang](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/yin-and-yang/) [Yin Yang](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/yin-yang/) ## Related quotes > [I like someone who embraces life; who wants to be on a long journey but has no particular plan or destination in mind. An…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jill-hennessy/i-like-someone-who-embraces-life-who-wants-to-be-on-a-long-journey/) [Jill Hennessy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jill-hennessy/) > [“Then they fell from a joyous life in the moment into the anxious contemplation of the vanished past and the distant future.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/margaret-atwood/then-they-fell-from-a-joyous-life-in-the-moment-into-the-anxious/) [Margaret Atwood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/margaret-atwood/) > [ “But \[Syd\] liked the simple things as much as the fancy stuff. In her view, it was all magnificent because she had an uncanny… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-probst/but-syd-liked-the-simple-things-as-much-as-the-fancy-stuff-in-her/) [Jennifer Probst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-probst/) > [Upon achieving a lifelong dream, I thought, this is the way to live your life -- in the moment, and to the fullest.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lorii-myers/upon-achieving-a-lifelong-dream-i-thought-this-is-the-way-to-live/) [Lorii Myers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lorii-myers/) > [You have to live life in the moment and get the most out of it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/barbra-streisand/you-have-to-live-life-in-the-moment-and-get-the-most-out-of-it/) [Barbra Streisand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/barbra-streisand/) > [“our relationship with water. Several years ago I came up with a name for this human–water connection: Blue Mind, a mildly meditative state characterized…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/our-relationship-with-water-several-years-ago-i-came-up-with-a-name/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [This concept that you refer to in Buddhism is something I've been nurtured with through the history of my country for 700, 800 years…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/abbas-kiarostami/this-concept-that-you-refer-to-in-buddhism-is-something-i-ve-been/) [Abbas Kiarostami](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/abbas-kiarostami/) > [Live life in the moment. When yours time comes be the brightest star out there. And never let that smile falter.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jade/live-life-in-the-moment-when-yours-time-comes-be-the-brightest-star/) [Jade](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jade/) > [“According to Adam One, the Fall of Man was multidimensional. The ancestral primates fell out of the trees; then they fell from vegetarianism into…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/margaret-atwood/according-to-adam-one-the-fall-of-man-was-multidimensional-the/) [Margaret Atwood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/margaret-atwood/) > [Your capacity to live now will endure, those who live life in the moment have no fear.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jeremy-limn/your-capacity-to-live-now-will-endure-those-who-live-life-in-the/) [Jeremy Limn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jeremy-limn/) > [I can never enjoy anything in the moment. And, unfortunately, you live your life in the moment, and I find that incredibly difficult.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rose-matafeo/i-can-never-enjoy-anything-in-the-moment-and-unfortunately-you-live/) [Rose Matafeo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rose-matafeo/) ## More Poetry quotes > [I fell in love with social work, and that was my undoing as a poet.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-rakosi/i-fell-in-love-with-social-work-and-that-was-my-undoing-as-a-poet/) [Carl Rakosi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-rakosi/) > [The name Phenomenal Woman was inspired by Maya Angelo, who wrote 'Phenomenal Woman', a favorite poem of mine.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/meena-harris/the-name-phenomenal-woman-was-inspired-by-maya-angelo-who-wrote/) [Meena Harris](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/meena-harris/) > [A poet is wounded into speech, and he examines these wounds, meticulously, to discover how to heal them. The bad poet harangues at the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/samuel-r-delany/a-poet-is-wounded-into-speech-and-he-examines-these-wounds/) [Samuel R. Delany](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/samuel-r-delany/) > [“Time gives poetry to a battlefield...”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/graham-greene/time-gives-poetry-to-a-battlefield/) [Graham Greene](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/graham-greene/) > [The poetry from the eighteenth century was prose; the prose from the seventeenth century was poetry.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-hare/the-poetry-from-the-eighteenth-century-was-prose-the-prose-from-the/) [David Hare](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-hare/) > [“It took me years to learn to sit at my desk for more than two minutes at a time, to put up with the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erica-jong/it-took-me-years-to-learn-to-sit-at-my-desk-for-more-than-two-minutes/) [Erica Jong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erica-jong/) > [The word 'mundane' has come to mean 'boring' and 'dull', and it really shouldn't - it should mean the opposite. Because it comes from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-dawkins/the-word-mundane-has-come-to-mean-boring-and-dull-and-it-really/) [Richard Dawkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-dawkins/) > [“In the streets, the children scream, the lovers cried, and the poets dreamed,” he crooned, putting down the metal grill tongs to take my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexandria-clarke/in-the-streets-the-children-scream-the-lovers-cried-and-the-poets/) [Alexandria Clarke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexandria-clarke/) > [Some minds corrode and grow inactive under the loss of personal liberty; others grow morbid and irritable; but it is the nature of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/washington-irving/some-minds-corrode-and-grow-inactive-under-the-loss-of-personal/) [Washington Irving](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/washington-irving/) > [You don’t read or overhear the voice in the poem, you are the voice in the poem.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/helen-vendler/you-don-t-read-or-overhear-the-voice-in-the-poem-you-are-the-voice-in/) [Helen Vendler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/helen-vendler/) > [All lyrical work must, as a whole, be perfectly intelligible, but in some particulars a little unintelligible.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/all-lyrical-work-must-as-a-whole-be-perfectly-intelligible-but-in/) [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/) > [The world's history is a divine poem, of which the history of every nation is a canto, and every man a word. Its strains…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-a-garfield/the-world-s-history-is-a-divine-poem-of-which-the-history-of-every/) [James A. Garfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-a-garfield/) > [I was interested in all kinds of things, whether it be Avatar, Mad Men, Troy, 300, Battlestar Gallactica, or the poems of Horace and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/daniel-mendelsohn/i-was-interested-in-all-kinds-of-things-whether-it-be-avatar-mad-men/) [Daniel Mendelsohn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/daniel-mendelsohn/) > [“I promise to respect and protect your aloneness, knowing that everything created must have its period of darkness: child and bulb, poem and personality.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-morrow-lindbergh/i-promise-to-respect-and-protect-your-aloneness-knowing-that/) [anne morrow lindbergh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-morrow-lindbergh/) > [“Things are more like they are now...than they have EVER been before!”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/uncle-arnie-mamath/things-are-more-like-they-are-now-than-they-have-ever-been-before/) [Uncle Arnie Mamath](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/uncle-arnie-mamath/) [Browse all 21,625 Poetry quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“In Laozi’s original, this verse begins: From one comes two, and this makes three, and thus ten thousand come to be. What do these numbers refer to? How should one interpret them? I base my interpretation on a line from the Great Commentary on the Yijing and another from Richard Wilhelm’s commentary to his 1910 translation of the Dao De Jing. One yin, one yang: this is Dao. (Great Commentary on the Yijing) By the coming forth of the One the Two is created; by the two joining the One the Three comes about. (Richard Wilhelm, p 73) These are the three terms: Dao, yin and yang. One is Dao, the single presence. Two are yin and yang, the complementary aspects of Dao. Three is the sum, the whole. Laozi goes on to locate yin and yang in our direct experience. Just what is the Dao? It is yin on my shoulders And yang in my arms. The three terms Dao, yin and yang are not metaphysical terms. They are not mere words or names. They are concrete, physical, and visible. You can literally point to them with a finger. To look in at the yin, point your finger to your own faceless awareness. To look out at the yang, point your finger to the world of appearances directly in front of you. See that nothing separates this yin and yang. They are two views of your presence, you life in the moment, two views of Dao. Can you see both ways and harmonize and balance the two views? It’s the Way to wholeness. 43.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jim Clatfelter" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jim-clatfelter/in-laozi-s-original-this-verse-begins-from-one-comes-two-and-this/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Poetry" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jim-clatfelter/in-laozi-s-original-this-verse-begins-from-one-comes-two-and-this/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/339/jim-clatfelter-158279_poetry_in-laozi-s-original-this-verse-begins-fr_875440.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/339/jim-clatfelter-158279_poetry_in-laozi-s-original-this-verse-begins-fr_875440.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/339/jim-clatfelter-158279_poetry_in-laozi-s-original-this-verse-begins-fr_875440.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“In Laozi’s original, this verse begins: From one comes two, and this makes three, and thus ten thousand come…” — Jim Clatfelter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Jim Clatfelter", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jim-clatfelter/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“In Laozi’s original, this verse begins:...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jim-clatfelter/in-laozi-s-original-this-verse-begins-from-one-comes-two-and-this/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jim-clatfelter/in-laozi-s-original-this-verse-begins-from-one-comes-two-and-this/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```