The Four Great Powers

Something mysteriously formed,
born before heaven and earth.
In the silence and the void,
standing alone and unchanging,
ever present and in motion.
Perhaps it is the mother of ten thousand things.
I do not know its name.
Call it Dao.
For lack of a better word, I call it great.

Being great, it flows.
It flows far away.
Having gone far, it returns.

"Therefore the Dao is great;
heaven is great;
earth is great;
the user is also great."
These are the four great powers.

Humans follow the earth,
earth follows heaven,
heaven follows the Dao,
the Dao follows what is natural.