Sacred Text · The Tao Te Ching
Tao Te Ching, chapter 34
Chapter 34 of 81
“All-pervading is the Great Tao! It may be found on the left hand and on the right. All things depend on it for their production, which it gives to them, not one refusing obedience to it. When its work is accomplished, it does not claim the name of having done it. It clothes all things as with a garment, and makes no assumption of being their lord;--it may be named in the smallest things. All things return (to their root and disappear), and do not know that it is it which presides over their doing so;--it may be named in the greatest things. Hence the sage is able (in the same way) to accomplish his great achievements. It is through his not making himself great that he can accomplish them.”
Tao Te Ching 34 · Legge
Translation: James Legge (1891), The Tâo Teh King, Sacred Books of the East vol. XXXIX, public domain, via Project Gutenberg (ebook 216). Reproduced in full and in context; chapter 1 and the chapter count (81 chapters) validated against the source before publishing. Legge’s round brackets are his own clarifying insertions.
Christian comparison
How this connects to Jesus
The Great Tao loves and nourishes all things, but does not claim to be their lord. Paul writes that in Christ all things hold together (Colossians 1:17), and yet this same Christ made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant (Philippians 2:6-7). The One who upholds all things chose not to lord it over us, but to serve.
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