Meeting once with a sage, I asked him

Straightaway, 'Can I get a good fortune

And hold it all my life?' The reply was,

'Your body is not your own to hold --

How can you get and hold good luck for long?'

I resumed, 'If my body is not mine

To possess and hold, who holds it, Sir?'

He said, 'Your bodily form is entrusted to you

By the universe, so, life is not yours to hold.'

In a while he added, 'It's the blended harmony

Of the Yin and Yang entrusted to you by Heaven,

Your father at large, and your mother, Earth.

Your nature, constituted as it is, is not yours to hold;

It is entrusted to you to act in accordance with it.

Your children and then grandchildren

Are not yours to hold; they are the offspring

Entrusted to you by your good grand grandparents,

Heaven and Earth.

'Therefore, when we walk, we do not know

Where we are going; when we stop and rest,

We do not know what to occupy ourselves with;

When we eat, we do not know the taste

Of our food -- all is done by the strong influence

Of the Yin and Yang, Heaven and Earth.

Now tell me, how then can you get good fortune

And hold it as your own? Just think about it.'