道德经一
Daodejing One: 29/59
故
常
無
欲
以
以yǐ
以 is a grammar particle
going from something as juicy
as “desire”
straight to a grammar particle
is a bit disappointing
and might make some people upset
以 can have lots of uses
but generally it means something
about “using”
it’s a bit like if “as” got married to “for”
and had an affair with “in order to”
it’s a messy situation and no one knows
quite what’s going on
we had been working with
“so therefore, constantly being empty of desire…”
here, let’s jazz that up a bit:
“dwelling in desirelessness”
now let’s translate 以 as
“allows us to”
dwelling in desirelessness, allows us to…
