A Book Of
The Way

1

The Way that can be told is not the Way.
No definition we can hold could have its name.

It all begins without a definition.
Ten thousand things mapped out?

That’s not the same.

Now...
By our desire to have it named
the off-map fades.

Without desire to have it named
the off-map stays.

So...
Wave after wave.
Ongoing exchange.

You re-make your map.
It remains unexplained.

Continue to explore
what goes before
your definitions.

Walk through
door after door
towards mastery.

2

Without exception...

When a good is decided, bad is compared.
When a right is established, wrong is declared.

Likewise...
A something makes nothings.
A difficult explains easies.
A long describes shorts.
A high arranges lows.

And vice versa.

Thus...
The Master thinks in not-so-split distinctions.
Skill consists in not-so-strict instructions.

He always keeps the
bigger picture.

Lets it go.

Ten thousand names
and definitions.

Not imposed.

He creates but doesn’t possess.
He enacts but doesn’t expect.
He achieves but doesn’t profess.

What succeeds is
not a fixture.

On it flows.

3

With no high positions
there’s no rivalry.

With no treasures to protect
there are no thieves.

With no hoped-for preconceptions
there’s no problem disagreeing.

Thus...
The Master keeps his mind
not-so-preoccupied.

His belly then
stays filled.

No belief prized.
All ideals set aside.

With his thoughts
not-so-forced
order builds.

4

The Way gets poured away and yet remains.
Like a river gets drawn upon and yet sustains.

The ten thousand things that come forth...
As each of them follows its course...

It goes on in all ways.

The pointed smooths over.
The tangled unwinds.
The glaring fades.
The dust settles.

What a mystery!

I see no way
we’d ever say
this nature.

It’s like a picture
with no edge to frame.

5

The earth and heavens are impartial.

They discard all things in life
without a passion.

The Master is impartial.

He discards all things in mind
with that detachment.

This living space of ours
between the earth and heavens...

Is it not like a bellows?

Empty space contained and filled
by a two-sided action...

The inner contents are never still
but constantly change...

Too much said here
only breeds distraction.

But the void within
is best if kept that way.

6

The Valley Spirit never ends;
a forever extending non-presence.

Background to figure;
female in essence.

The doorway to knowing
the whole earth and heavens?

Another one opens
the moment you enter.

7

The heavens are endless.
The earth lasts ages.

How can this be explained?

They’re not products of themselves.
That’s how their growth is so sustained.

Thus...
The Master puts himself back
and it brings him forward.

By so much growth
that’s not his own
he gets supported.

Odd how by this silence
of himself so much is gained.

8

The highest skill is like water.

Water fits all its
conditions.

It’s unforced.

It flows in the
low places where
others change course.

It finds alignment with the Way.

So...
A good house is shaped to its grounds.
A good mind is shaped to its doubts.

A good speech seeks truth.
A good strategy adapts.

A good action is
well-timed.

So it lasts.

No course
that we enforce
secures things down.

9

Keep filling a bowl and it spills.

Good timing and distance;
efficient and sufficient.

It’s a practice with
no end of skill.

See...
Overprized treasures are never secure.
Oversharpened blades are quick to blunt.

Watch those who try
to highlight their
own worth...

They only ever
undermine their work.

Move on from work that’s over.
Don’t stray from the Way.

10

Who can find the focused mind
and walk the path it creates?

Concentration held for days
yet like a baby, soft-of-shape...

Preconceptions cleared away
as the circumstances change...

Cooperation takes the reins
without needing to be made...

Opportunities and constraints;
no rigid system put in place...

Unknowns and unexplaineds;
they’re allowed to remain...

You could call this
‘Hidden Practice’.

It creates without possessing.
It enacts without expecting.
It inspires without directing.

Untold Character.

11

We join thirty spokes at a wheel’s hub.
The hole in the middle moves the cart.

We mould clay into a pot.
The emptiness inside makes it useful.

We build walls to make a house.
The space is where we live.

Adapt what is.
Use what is not.

12

The Five Colours blind people.
The Five Tones deafen people.
The Five Feelings numb people.

See...
Search replaces sensing.
The Idea rides over the mind.

Thus...
Mastery begins
with the actual things.

Not thoughts of
What You Will Find.

13

Glory or shame?
Same concern both ways.

What does that mean,
“Same concern both ways”?

Reputation and status.

The race for high status
leads to low places.

Fear for its loss...
Hope for its gain...

This two-folded path
is the oldest of games.

What a pain there’s
no way not to play it.

Just don’t make it
a main motivation.

Those who walk in
the shoes of the world
end up trusted to shape it.

14

Look for it, you won’t find it—it’s not hidden.
Listen for it, you won’t hear it—it’s not faint.
Grasp for it, you won’t catch it—it’s not there.

None of those three
could succeed...

Your attempts
to make sense
are all part of it.

You’re not separate
and it’s not elsewhere.

So...
It’s neither bright nor dull;
you can’t push it or pull.

It refuses definition.

It’s like trying
to pull a thread
of endless length.

So they give it odd names:

‘The Unformed Form’.
‘The Elusive Truth’.

Void.

Inimitable.
Un-image-able.

No face to meet.
No back to follow.

The ancient Way...
Still going today...

Only footprints.

15

The wise men of old
were skilled in not being told.

They could learn on their own
in ways they weren’t shown.

Profoundly aware of
the boundaries of
the unknown.

So...
What can we say of the way
they would face the unknown?

Stay ready.
Move through it like a winter river.

Stay uncertain.
Keep the possibilities alive.

Stay attentive.
Be its humble guest.

Stay smooth.
Turn the frozen wet.

Stay unfinished.
Don’t carve the block early.

Stay undefined.
Let some things be murky.

Stay mixed.
Accept unsettled.

Whose muddy waters never settle
yet continuously clear?

Whose balance never centres
yet continuously appears?

Who walks this Way?

Gaps not filled
yet not swayed.

The Incomplete Path.
The Enduring Frontier.

16

Nothing has a standalone existence.
All things start from and end up in stillness.

So...
Ten thousand things have their beginnings;
now it’s their returns which we consider.

Each of them returns to the stillness
it begins with—that’s consistent.

When you live within
what’s consistent
that’s wisdom.

Ignoring it
is dissonance.

Within what’s consistent lies vision;
the real picture unhidden.

The wise acceptance of conditions;
clear judgement of limits.

In this your death
if it’s well met
is no threat.

No source of resistance.

17

The highest leadership builds understanding.

Other leadership builds admiration.
Other leadership builds fear.
The lowest builds hate.

See...
Straight instruction isn’t enough;
it’s never straightforward.

The Master gives
this maximum
importance.

He succeeds
when other people say
“We do it on our own, our way.”

18

Where the Way doesn’t flow,
‘Correct’ sets in stone.

Where wisdom is routine,
deception succeeds.

Where families misalign,
children honour and obey.

Where peoples divide,
their Saints are ordained.

19

Throw away ‘Wise’ and ‘Adept’
and people gain them times a hundred.

Throw away ‘Proper’ and ‘Correct’
and what’s right can be discovered.

Throw away the polished success
and advance unencumbered.

The three
written here
aren’t sufficient.

So as a pair of
more general
conditions:

What’s real is not ideal.
Walk a path that isn’t rutted.

20

Scrap the guidebooks.
Save your worries.

What’s the difference between
“Good day Sir” and “Hello”?

Does it matter?

Must we all walk
‘The One True Course’?

Nonsense.

People fill up on that
like starving guests at a feast.

I say keep listening
like a baby figuring out speech.

They’re good at their
daily increase.

But what about the
daily decrease?

Hack away at the unessential.

I must be a fool
my mind is so empty!

People like light;
but there’s dark and unseen.

People seem sure;
things seem doubtful to me.

People get fixed;
they think everything stays.

I say...
While they’re trying to trap
The Mother’s tides...

Bring on Her waves.

21

Where character is real
nothing is adhered to but the Way.

As in...
The Way you can’t be told
and no-one can say.

The words we read don’t secure it.
The images we see just obscure it.

The definitions are endless
and constantly change.

Still...
All of those definitions
share a lower description.

In ancient times
and still today.

The specifics: all different.
The pattern: the same.

How can that
pattern be ours?

Keep going.

22

Before complete, there’s unfinished.
Before straightening, the path bends.

Before full, there’s empty.
Before renewal, expense.

Before opportunity, limitation.
Before bewilderment, excess.

Thus...
The Master combines the two faces;
not separate things but stages.

He looks for neither
and sees clearly.

He clings to neither
and moves free.

He targets neither
and succeeds.

He lifts up neither
without need.

The less he strives for one side
the less unwelcome strife he meets.

23

The natural is succinct.

Strong winds aren’t always blowing;
heavy rains don’t fall every day.

These are both natural movements;
neither one too long sustained.

Why on earth
should a person
be different?

Watch those who make their great
proclamations of the Way:

Notice...
They deliberate over the Way
as part of their Way.

They deliberate over its character
as part of their character.

They deliberate over losing it
as part of losing it.

Recall...
Straight instruction isn’t enough;
it’s never straightforward.

24

The tallest stance is not the firmest.
The longest stride is not the fastest.

Those who try to seem brightest don’t shine.
Those who try to seem faultless make problems.

Only unapparent virtues need proclaiming.
Only doubtful truths need defence.

The Way needs no overstatement.
The Master needs no pretense.

25

All things go together
in ways our concepts only seek.

Something like a ‘silence’
that stands alone and complete.

One whole course of action—no other aim.
Continuous Flow—nothing in the way.

Could we get this
into everything?

There’s no way to define it as technique.
I call it the Way—a path walked, so to speak.

Don’t dwell on its definition.
Short form beats long description.

Keep to the Way
as your natural condition.

That’s to say...

The Way is greater-than,
and that matters.

The source of
all great actions.

In step with the heavens’
and the earth’s greater patterns.

That’s how all great leaders are fashioned,
and great rule-making—if it happens.

See...
In great rule-making
all the greater domains enter.

The Way remains
as the centre.

People in between the earth’s
and heavens’ ways.

The Way each walks is theirs,
but walked the same.

26

The heavy lays the roots
under the light.

The steady sets the rules
over the frantic.

Thus...
The Master keeps the heavy
in everyday life.

He stays on course through
flash and panic.

Now...
A leader with ten thousand
wheels in motion...

Deep-laid roots
under light-touch rules.

How it all
remains unbroken.

27

Expert steps are well-taken, not followed.
Expert words are well-chosen, not echoed.
Expert values well-reckoned, not shadowed.

It’s not just tricks and locks;
if you gather up keys, it won’t open.

It’s not like tying a knot;
if you fasten it down, it’s broken.

Thus...
The Master discerns the expert
then he always returns.

Back to his own course of practice
with new ways to learn.

You could call this
‘Keeping The Lights On’.

The expert wasn’t made by being expert.
The expert was made by being not-expert.

So...
Respect every good lesson;
follow no-one without question.

No matter how clever
that’s a fundamental error.

Doubt is essential.

28

Knowing the masculine
keep the feminine.

Go beneath.

The two are never separate;
each brings the other into being.

Knowing the light
keep the dark.

There’s no seam.

The two are never distant;
each holds the other’s meaning.

Knowing the lofty
keep the lowly.

Like a ravine.

The two are cut together;
for each the other is needed.

See...
They’re like bits of plain wood
we split apart to make tools.

The Master makes use of
the longest-lived rules.

But...
The Great System
is not in pieces.

29

They try to force the world towards
their liking—that won’t happen.

The world itself has its own wealth
of timings—can’t combat them.

See...
It’s those who wish
the world were fixed
who break it.

It’s those who keep
the tightest grip
who lose it.

So...
Sometimes leading means you follow.
Sometimes better means things worsen.

Sometimes strong means being weak.
Sometimes victory means defeat.

Thus...
The Master knows
you never know for certain.

He avoids
excessive actions
and extremes.

30

Good rule-making
makes room for the Way.

Forcing isn’t how
it’s all maintained.

Force means opposition.

The path our army walks
has many thorns.

The field after the war
produces slower
than before.

Thus...
The Master moves to action
as trees give rise to fruit.

He doesn’t go further.

He prevails
but not for glory.

He succeeds
but not for show.

He achieves
not for distinction.

He guides
not for control.

Overgrown means frail.

What’s not the Way
is not sustained.

31

Military excellence
means discipline
and hesitance.

There isn’t joy in its deployment.
But there is in its development.

Those who walk the Way
are not untrained.

It’s ever-present.

How they find success?
Two sides are kept.

Warrior right.
Civilian left.

Military excellence
means discipline
and hesitance.

They know warfare;
not the way it’s dressed.

The task is adopted
if there’s no better option.

The feeling is neutral at best.

The joy of victory isn’t attractive;
it depends on others’ deaths.

If you delight in requiring
that others are dying...

That’s the highest
of dysfunctions.

Nothing less.

So...
For good times, the left side.
For bad times, the right.

The enemy gets a vote, as they say;
you don’t always get to decide.

The two sides of life.
Can’t leave either behind.

Develop them both.
Keep the funerals in mind.

32

The Way won’t be defined.

That’s a small and simple rule
that will not be outsized.

Not by anyone.

When a rule-maker knows how to not-define well,
ten thousand things can align by themselves.

The whole takes on a shape...
It’s like a sweetness-catching lattice.

There’s no-one who controls it
yet continuous rebalance.

The rules you make
define a shape.

It’s automatic.

The skill in this
to minimise risk?

Remember to abandon.

Our ordered paths are to the Way
as tiny streams are to the sea.

33

It’s clever to know another’s path.
The truly able know their own.

It’s impressive to compare to others.
The truly great compare to none.

Some know sufficiency.
They’re the wealthy.

Some improve relentlessly.
They work the belly.

There are those for whom
those two cohere.

They go the furthest.

There are those who’ve died
yet haven’t disappeared.

They’re not finished.

34

Great actions are expansions of the Way;
a mastering of the back and forth exchange.

See...
Ten thousand things’ beginnings
which it gives no opposition.

There’s much achieved
it gives no definition.

Ten thousand things it’s fed
without ruling their conditions.

Ten thousand things it’s led
without need of high position.

Ten thousand goals
the future holds.

A high position?
That’s not in them.

Great actions can be made
when being great is not the aim.

35

We’re all drawn towards great stories;
away from harms to guarantees.

Rich and blissful visions
take their prisoners.

The Way?

It’s far too bland
compared to these.

Looked for, it’s invisible.
Listened for, it’s inaudible.
Worked for, it’s inexhaustible.

36

Try to shorten it, that lengthens it.
Try to weaken it, that strengthens it.

Try to undermine it, that reinforces it.
Try to reduce it, that adds more of it.

It’s subtle.

Flexible beats firm.
Adaptive beats unyielding.

Just like the fish
which can’t live
without water:

It’s an active current
that we must swim in.

It takes living skills
which only build
with practice.

It can’t be given.

37

The Way has no set path of action;
it’s never just do this and don’t do that.

If a great rule-maker stays on the Path,
ten thousand things don’t get told.

They adapt.

We fix desires
on what worked prior.

These I’d say
are hazardous to have.

Re-undefine.

Don’t carve the block
until it’s time.

Outside your
hoped-for notions
all is not-so-misaligned.

38

Real character isn’t a character.
That’s why it has character.

Low character is only a character.
That’s why it lacks character.

Real character can’t be enacted.
There’s no way to make it.

Low character can be enacted.
It’s traits emulated.

See...
The most well-made actions
have no defined shape.

And the most ‘Correct’ action
is a shape we must make.

Strict-order actions
that all of us hate.

You just obey
and imitate.

So...
You lose the Way through a character.
You lose character through ‘Well-made’.
You lose well-made through ‘Correctness’.

And past ‘Correct’ there’s nothing left...
Just orders followed more or less.

Empty meditations aimed
at traces of the Way.

The source of
all sorts of
disorder.

Thus...
The Master takes care of the depths
and lets the surface sort itself.

Not gathered leaves
but rooted tree.

He builds upon
the way things are.

Not on ‘What Should Be’.

39

The soul gets old and fades
where it holds ‘The One True Way’.

Only one idea is clear;
one course of action must appear.

Only one belief in mind
that blocks out all that’s undefined.

Everything developing...
all must be made to fit its shape.

Every king and rule-maker...
they must enforce it with the state.

But...
Ideas must fall to pieces
in order to get clearer.

Actions must be adapted
to match the arena.

The mind must keep still
with gaps it can’t fill.

These rules are learned
by every leader.

So...
Overvaluing is costly.
Exalting too highly brings decline.

Thus...
Below the most skilled leaders
the ground is recognised.

They say, “Alone we
have no value.”

And so pay
no such
price.

See...
The path of any chariot
must be trodden.

The shining jewel
stands high and bright.

Let the rocks not be forgotten.

40

When you enact ‘The Way’
you’ve gone against it.

When you apply ‘The Way’
you’ve lessened it.

These are bits of what it is
turned into what it isn’t.

41

High academics hear ‘The Way’
and they begin strict practice.

Half-academics hear ‘The Way’
and they go in and back out.

Non-academics hear ‘The Way’
and they joke and laugh loud.

Those who can’t laugh
have not left a path
for the Way.

So...
You might say...

The ‘Way Of Light’ conceals.
The ‘Way Of Progress’ sets back.

Their ‘Path Of Equality’ discriminates.
Their ‘High Character’ is a low track.

Ways of ‘Purity’ are stains.
Ways of ‘Riches’ create lack.

The intention does not
match the impact.

See...
Great discipline is outside the boundaries.
Great practice is not-so-complete.

There are sounds
no-one hears.

There are things
no-one sees.

The Way can’t be made
carved and concrete.

No definition, beginning or finish.
No other way it’s achieved.

42

They name ‘The Way’
and claim to have it framed.

With one, two, three,
ten thousand separate things.

So many yangs
wrapped up with yins.

Is it ‘Harmony’?

Off-path: ‘Grave Sin’.
You must follow ‘The Script’.

“Fear going on your own!”
“Stick to the known!”

Yet all real acts of leadership
require that we don’t.

Notice...
Things we think disastrous
turn out as blessings.

Things we think blessings
turn out disastrous.

I learned this
same as others.

So...
For those who force their
‘One True Course’ of action:

No assurance.

Wisdom is in knowing
things aren’t certain.

That I’m sure of.

43

The softest things
overcome the hardest.

The things with no set shape
need pass through no set gate.

That’s why there’s such value
in the No Set Path action.

But it can’t be learned
by studying words.

So many people
never get its pattern.

44

Who you are, how you’re known;
which of them stays closer?

The way you act, what you own;
which of them goes further?

What you have, what you don’t;
which is more disturbance?

Any extreme of these
can have its cost.

A point at which
more creates loss.

Recall...
Good timing and distance;
efficient and sufficient.

Deep roots and fertile soil
make healthy crops.

45

Great achievements may seem incomplete.
Great fulfillments may seem to deplete.

These aren’t useless.

The straightest path may sometimes turn.
The highest skill may seem unlearned.

The strongest part of speech
may be the stammers
not the words.

What goes frozen
needs action.

What gets heated
needs calm.

Steady progress on the Way
may shape the world.

46

The world’s horses are
forces for cycling manure.

They weren’t bred to fight
on the frontlines of war.

See...
We can want things.

It’s both our best
and worst factor.

We don’t know
what enough is.

That’s what makes
our worst disasters.

The worst of our flaws
is to just pursue ‘More’.

When enough know enough
the worst has a master.

47

You don’t go through ‘The Door’
and then know everything for sure.

You don’t look through ‘The Window’
and see the Way once and for all.

The further these grow
the more they limit
what you know.

Thus...
The Master doesn’t stay
at what he knows.

He doesn’t stop
at what he’s shown.

He doesn’t aim
at what he’s done.

48

Deliberateness builds up in learning;
the Way is in shaving it down.

More and more goes
until free from The Known.

No do or don’t
to be found.

If The Known is your goal
you make it unwhole.

Watch the Way be dethroned
where The Known gets kept around.

49

The Master’s mind is not persistent;
it’s shaped to fit with its conditions.

Good in the good times;
and good in the bad.

That’s what good is.

Integrity when others show integrity;
and when others show none back.

That’s what integrity is.

Wisdom lives within the world;
always part of larger actions.

All that we’ve caught
in our structures
of thought?

Temporary fractions.

50

Coming to life is going to death.

So...
One third for your living.
One third for your death.

And one third for those
alive after you’ve left.

These three each
feed meaning.

Now...
Strange things are written
about those three acts of living.

Some say, “The right mix
brings a magic condition.”

So you’d walk among beasts
yet could never get bitten.

No armour yet nowhere
for spears to go into.

Is there a way
that’s true?

Those who live after you.

51

Any ‘Way’ that we make
takes a charactered shape.

We separate things
by their valuable traits.

That is:

Take anybody’s world
of separate things.

‘The Way’ and its character
are embedded within.

Now...
“Uphold the Way!”
“Embody its character!”

It’s never what’s been named.
It doesn’t have any comparator.

So...
Take all of the ‘Ways’ you make
with their charactered shapes.

Find the ways they break
then re-make them.

Less wrong.
Less mistaken.

Let the unnameable
be always reawakened.

Recall...
It creates without possessing.
It enacts without expecting.
It inspires without directing.

Untold Character.

52

Without exception...

Everything has something else it started in.
That’s to say: a mother it’s arisen with.

This mother isn’t different
from its children—it’s included.

A complete picture of one
gives you the other—disprove it?

Recall...
In this your death
if it’s well met
is no threat.

No source of resistance.

Now...
There’s an opening in this non-difference;
a door always there—it’s consistent.

We might see it closed;
as if things were that simple.

But really it’s open;
an uncertain existence.

Great wisdom is in that small distinction;
great strength is softened to its state.

It lights the way;
seeing with clear vision.

No self-induced
disasters and mistakes.

You could call this ‘Practicing
Within What’s Consistent’.

53

People make Great Ways.
Systems of adherence.

The cost is lots of pedantry
and pointless interference.

They say ‘The Great Way’
for the narrowest lanes.

I see very tidy courts
but fields of weeds
and empty stores.

Fancy clothes
and sharpened sword.

Sought-after things
and life engorged.

It leads us to
thieves and
deceivers.

Not the Way.

54

Good grounding comes through
what we can’t uproot.

Good keeping comes through
what can’t be removed.

This practice leads to
sacrificed ideals.

And to truths.

It leads you to real character.
It leads your family to strong roots.

It leads a village to shared fruits.
It leads a culture to fair rules.

It leads the world to ways
that all together move.

Why do I think
that’s true?

I’ve applied this practice.

55

Real character has fathomless potential;
infant-like and pre-developmental.

A venomous snake yet to bite.
A crouching beast yet to fight.
A predatory bird yet to strike.

It’s soft-of-shape yet sure-of-grip;
all male and female elements in sync.

Unlimited possibilities...

It shouts full-lung all day and then
it rests its voice and goes again.

Endless poise...

There’s always surface difference
but the character is consistent.

Recall...
When you live within
what’s consistent
that’s wisdom.

The more we accord with it
the more good we’re delivered.

Those who try to force their
hoped-for things into fruition?

Overgrown means frail.

What’s not the Way
is not sustained.

56

Those who know don’t say.
Those who say don’t know.

It can’t be put in words
and can’t be told.

Recall...
The pointed smooths over.
The tangled unwinds.
The glaring fades.
The dust settles.

You could call it a
‘Never-defined Whole’.

It’s not about attaching words.
It’s not about not attaching words.

They can’t be fit to it.
They can’t not be fit to it.

It’s not distinctive
nor indistinctive.

What’s really
distinctive?

All of it.

57

We formalise a state
by laws and their infraction.

We utilise an army
by surprise and distraction.

We control the world
by neither course of action.

Why do I think
that’s true?

Because:

The more you build
that system of restrictions...

The more you stifle
people’s decisions.

As you force people to fit...

It means they don’t
use their own vision.

Over-specialise technique...

The more you find
surprise conditions.

Just prohibit everything...

That makes more
criminal positions.

Thus...
The Master knows:

For people to adapt themselves
you have to not do it.

For people to order themselves
they must be left to it.

For people to stand for a value
they have to choose it.

For people to handle untruth
they must remove it.

58

In governing...

Handling great doubt is how to serve us.
Pretending certainty does everyone disservice.

There’s never fortune
without bad circumstances.

There’s never disaster
without good circumstances.

Who thinks
there’s a list of
finished answers?

Or rules?

A rigid set of rules begets surprise.
Skill consists in not-predestined eyes.

Be sure
this endures
through your life.

Thus...
The Master seeks:

To see wholes, not divides.
To understand, not join a side.

To speak straight, not to deny.
To shine a light, not to blind.

59

There’s no course towards
the highest accord.

It follows from real character
which nobody can force.

So to order it:

Throw away restrictions;
keep the least we can afford.

That’s a condition
for real character to form.

See...
It’s ruled out by strict instructions.
It’s not some fixed construction.

The path to it is fathomless...

No end of recorrections.
Countless rebalances.

We can’t say any
more than this.

Likewise...
Nations are created
destinationless.

Unforeseen new changes
keep sustaining us.

Lose this guarantee and
we’re foundationless.

To remain
never stray
from the Way.

The deepest roots
are laid like this.

60

When you govern a big country
as you’d fry a small fish...

And you allow the Way to permeate
through everything there is...

So-called ‘Sinful’ and ‘Unsacred’ Ways?
Not entirely sinful and unsacred.

So-called ‘Sacred’, ‘Harmless-natured’ Ways?
Not entirely sacred or harmless-natured.

The craft must be re-mastered.
Constraint may lead us wayward.

See...
All things meet limits.
Everything collides.

Real character.

The only way the
harms are minimised.

61

Great nations are systems of lowest positions.
The bottom-most places the world flows down into.

See...
Things collide in everything.
Great means space for all of it.

You could say it’s the feminine.
Receptive to the masculine.

The main thing is
the lowering.

Now...
The big picture lives downstream of the specifics.
The specifics downstream of the big picture.

The back and forth exchange
keeps them consistent.

In a great system:

The big picture
doesn’t hinge
on individuals.

The specifics
don’t infringe
on individuals.

Hope tries to find
a ‘Perfect Balance’.

Great goes lower down
and not-so-static.

62

A map of separate things can’t fit the Way.
The moment it begins is when it’s failed.

The skilled say:
“I’ll never reveal it.”

The unskilled:
“Protect and conceal it.”

Well-placed words might be acclaimed.
Well-praised acts might be ingrained.

They cannot guarantee
a person wields it.

So...
With no way for one
to perceive it:

It’s best to gather three
to disagree with.

Each approach in part succeeds;
all four is more strategic.

There’s no comparison to progress
on the Way when all four lead it.

Historically...
Those who know don’t say
‘The Way To Seek It’.

Any path like that
gets superseded.

Welcome the adjustments
as they’re needed.

63

Move without thoughts about action.
Do without thoughts about work.
Taste without thoughts about flavour.

Thin them out
and slim them down.

They’re in the way
of the behaviour.

They make complex out of simple.
They make large out of small.

Take simple steps,
things grow complex.

And out of this
what’s larger falls.

Recall...
Great actions can be made
when being great is not the aim.

So...
Light preconceptions;
less disturbance.

Simple things;
complex emerges.

Thus...
The Master walks his path
without a complicated purpose.

64

The idle path stagnates.
The risk-free path retraces.

The unchanged path is fragile.
The unwalked path is wasted.

These are ways of ease
by which disorder
gets created.

Great trees were once tiny seeds.
Great cities began as dirt heaps.

The thousand-mile journey
with all its uncertainty
begins at the feet.

Recall...
It’s those who wish
the world were fixed
who break it.

It’s those who keep
the tightest grip
who lose it.

Thus...
The Master doesn’t.

As people cling to rigid ways
that all fix and break...

Beginning, middle, and end...
in mastery risk remains.

So he prefers No-Preference
and lets go of treasures.

He learns what’s not a lesson
and knows human errors.

The world of separate things
will bring what it brings.

He adapts himself to that
and does so forever.

65

Skill is not a system
of other people’s wisdom.

Masters in the past
fit their techniques
to the conditions.

All clever things
are symptoms.

Now...
Nations get misled by what’s clever.
Their fortunes get fed by what isn’t.

Learn to see both things
and tell the difference.

You could call this
‘Seeing The Hidden’.

The Hidden isn’t hidden
but it isn’t taught or given.

Each must walk their own path
to this more comprehensive vision.

66

Watch the great rivers lead.

They’re like the kings
of many streams.

How can it be
explained?

Because they go lower.

Thus...
When people elevate the Master
he makes known his low path.

When people place him ahead
he places himself back.

When he goes above
it adds no weight.

When he goes in front
it’s no constraint.

Everyone moves free
in their own ways.

It means less striving overall
and less unwelcome strife faced.

67

Everyone says...

“The Way sounds very important
but it doesn’t make sense!”

If the Way were straightforward
it would matter much less.

So...
If the great course of action
can never be patterned...

Can we speak of three
signature factors?

First: understanding.
Second: efficiency.

Third: a map that knows
it won’t match the territory.

Understanding—the unknown;
the walked path; the risk.

Efficiency—of action;
always more done with less.

Map and territory—beliefs;
never final; endless tests.

There are no guarantees;
remove all false ideals.

Keep whatever is left.

Timeless principles
will always manifest.

68

Good commanders can win without war.
Good warriors are neither angry nor bored.

Good victories don’t need much accord.
Good leaders go lower than it all.

See...
It’s not about the conflict
and confrontation.

It’s strength of leadership
and coordination.

Up to heaven.
Down in history.

Extreme considerations.

69

There’s a military saying:

Beware to give orders but end up the guest.
Beware to gain inches but end up with less.

You could call this
‘Advancing Without Advancing’.

Enforcement and less than nothing achieved.
Hostility and less than nothing it yields.
War and less than nothing seized.

Few threats are worse
than when this cost
is not perceived.

A weight that’s
underestimated.

A compounding leak.

It’s imperative to prevent it
for the real victory that we seek.

70

Speech simplifies.

We could never say the knowledge
nor convey the course of action.

Specific words are just precursors;
it’s the task they do that matters.

See...
If we don’t unlearn known patterns
our own knowing can’t happen.

To know on your own is uncommon
yet nothing replaces that value.

Thus...
The Way laid down in words?
That’s for the showmen.

Some may say its
substance has
been spoken.

Know it hasn’t.

71

To know what you don’t know
is thinking at its best.

To not know but think you know
is a thinking defect.

Now...
By defecting from a defect
we stop its effects.

Thus...
Mastery defects...
and defects...
and defects...

And the defects grow less.

72

When people don’t fear force
a greater force then flows.

Unrestrict their conditions of living.
Unburden their patterns of growth.

Not burdening them removes
a burden from you both.

Thus...
The Master doesn’t see
and yet he knows.

His will is not enforced
yet it’s composed.

Understood beats controlled.

73

When you engage in a way
that’s all preordained...

That will kill it.

When you engage in a way
that’s not preordained...

Then it lives.

It may bring you good or bad.
Heaven gives no guarantee of which.

Thus...
The Master avoids overcomplicating
and he avoids becoming fixed.

He moves in his way
as Heaven moves in its.

So...
It can’t be contended?
Good: find the victory that fits.

It can’t be dictated?
Good: be responsive to this.

It can’t be designed?
Good: practice off script.

It’s hard to predict?
Then the strategy is...

Give some weight
to every possibility.

There are many ways
that everything may shift.

Don’t carve the block too early;
Heaven’s doorways may be missed.

74

People can’t be controlled by
fear and threats of death.

For those who would try that
what do you expect?

“All who transgress know what they’ll get!”
“So who would ever dare to overstep?”

But...
Now others are responsible
for the penalty being met.

Reporting on someone else
is the act of killing itself.

You could call it ‘Displacing
The Great Carver’s Edge’.

In the end what you intend
is not the lasting effect.

75

When leaders feed on
leaving people hungry...

That’s how both get starved.

When leaders sort out
all of people’s difficulties...

That’s how both lose charge.

When leaders decide
the purpose of lives...

That’s how light deaths start.

The exemplary
do none of these...

That’s what sets them apart.

76

People are born soft and adaptive.
They reach death hard and inflexible.

While alive they make their
map of separate things.

Just like the trees
make their green limbs.

Soft-of-shape in the beginning;
at death all withered up and crisp.

See...
The dying pattern: harden until fixed.
The living pattern: soften at the tips.

Thus...
Only force, never yield?
Successes missed.

Same way branches
snap if they won’t give.

Strong towards the bottom,
soft at the top, is how trees live.

77

The Great Way Of Nature
is made of behaviours
that act like a bow.

Pull-downs from highs; and lift-ups from lows.
What’s too much reduces; what’s not enough grows.

Now...
While the too-much reduces
and the too-little grows...

People can walk
off that road.

Reducing the already-too-little
so the already-too-much overflows.

Who can use their too-much
so it adds to the whole?

That’s those who
walk the Way.

Recall...
He creates but doesn’t possess.
He enacts but doesn’t expect.
He achieves but doesn’t profess.

The road will never
reach ‘The End’.

On it goes.

78

Nothing does soft-and-adaptive
better than water.

Many hard things cross its path
and each is thwarted.

See...
No simple method
explains its way
of succeeding.

Recall...
Flexible beats firm.
Adaptive beats unyielding.

It’s there for anyone to discern
yet no-one brings it into being.

Thus...
There are some things
that Masters say...

We’re in a stream
of constant change.

So...
The way a nation tolerates
mistake-making and failures...

You could call that
its greatest cultivation.

The way disorder is absorbed
and the misfortunes it affords...

What makes it great
is reconfiguration.

Writing more strict laws
may be an adverse adaptation.

79

A Great Injustice

If the way you’d set it straight
is an injustice you create...

How can that ever
lead to a good place?

Thus...
The Master possesses debts
which he never collects.

See...
With this character he can handle
a progression of transactions.

Without this character he adds to
a perpetual imbalance.

Heaven’s Way is never made
by straightening history.

It’s only made by those who
find its greater patterns.

80

Back in the days of small nations
and tribe populations...

The people would train militarily
but not so they’d use it.

Every death was valued heavily
but all remained rooted.

They had wagons;
they wouldn’t be ridden.

They had weapons;
they wouldn’t be shown.

They kept records of their trades
using fine-knotted rope.

They exchanged food.
They exchanged clothes.

They built their homes.
They upheld their oaths.

Their neighbours would be close;
their dogs heard barking.

People died by aging.

Not by wars of revenge
that were never worth starting.

81

There are true words that aren’t pretty.
There are pretty words that aren’t true.

There are those with good views
who aren’t convincing.

There are those who convince
without good views.

There are those who know
with no great learning.

There are those well-learned
who never really knew.

See...
Mastery is not-so-acquired.
The Way is not-so-pursued.

Each has their own course of action,
their real character, and their untruths.

Heaven’s Way is not opposed to any.
Its presence is in everything we do.

Thus...
The Master walks his path
as one among many.

All rivalry removed.