Living off our needs and necessities, seems much closer to the life of a sage, than of someone who keeps wanting.

That being said, "want" isn't a culprit. And we should be careful to not ask each other to not want, or to avoid wanting as much as possible.

To want, is to be human. However, we must also reach the maturity to understand and accept the fact that many of our wantings may never be realized.

That's not necessary a bad thing, it can actually give more value to the things we have successfully achieved, rather than making achievement seem mundane.

To want is to desire, and desires are selfish for the most part. Even if it may not appear that way at first glance.

For example, the desire to take care of your sick mother.

That sense of desire is motivated by a fear of loss, cherished memories, and perhaps guilt. But also, it's accompanied by our sense of sympathy, and genuine love. So within desire, compassion isn't lacking, nonetheless

There's nothing wrong with any of that.

Despite most desires having a selfish backbone, we need to understand WHAT is it that you desire, until what extent are you willing to go in order to obtain it? Do you have any moral red lines? And lastly, will you be able to come to terms with the idea that your desire may not come true?

To discard our wants, is to discard being human. It's better to not concern ourselves in what's a want and what's a need. As long as there's a willingness to let go when we feel the time is right, everything will be fine.

If the Tao exists within everything, the physical self is consequently an expression of such. Consciousness is an expression of the Tao, signifying the Tao exists within consciousness. Chapter 13 of Tao Te Ching states that the physical self is the vessel of all fear, but wouldn’t fear be a manifestation of the Tao? Would resisting fear by relieving worry abt the physical self be resisting the Tao? Therefore, can we ever disconnect from the Tao if it encompasses everything including resisting the natural flow? Not immersing in the Tao is still experiencing the Tao. One is still participating in nature; the natural flow is occurring but manifesting in a different manner. If suffering and resistance are both expressions of the Tao, is there any significance in resisting vs accepting the natural flow? Can you truly resist the natural flow if the Tao is ever changing and w in everything?

I am impressed with those here that are enlightened by correct translations of the Tao Te Ching. I was not aware of those like Stephen Mitchell whose so called translations are mistakenly revered by so many. I have read many translations and I'm now more motivated for accurate ones. I recently bought Wen-Tzu understanding the mysteries Further Teachings of Lao-Tzu translated by Thomas Cleary. Is this a good one? OR What might be a better choice?

Also what is a good accurate translation of the writings of Zhuangzi?

In Part 16, we followed the growth of a company selling products through livestreams. As it grew, every department kept working toward its own targets, but information was lost as it passed from person to person. Eventually, no one could see the whole picture. Even without anyone intending harm, the system could drift away from its original purpose.

A natural solution suggests itself: if nobody is responsible for the whole company, why not create another department to oversee the others?

If you enjoy this series, please upvote, leave a comment, and share it with others. Every interaction helps us keep making the series and helps more people find it.

A New Department to Oversee Everything

Suppose you see other creators getting into trouble over the products they sell. You decide your company won't make the same mistakes. You create a department to supervise the business teams and make sure product selection doesn't go wrong. You might even tell them, “I'd rather sell nothing than let a single faulty product go on sale.”

The department starts hiring and reviewing past products, selection procedures, negotiations, prices, and margins. There may already be problems buried in the old way of working. The new department also needs to prove its value by finding them. The bigger the problems it uncovers, the more important its work appears.

This means the new department has interests and targets of its own. Being asked to look at the whole system doesn't put it outside that system.

As the reports land on your desk, you may actually feel relieved. Creating this department was the right decision. There really was a lot that needed fixing.

Safer Products, More Fear of Mistakes

The changes come through rules and procedures. Every step of product selection gets a detailed set of requirements. Each role has defined duties and authority. The required paperwork is specified too.

Individuals are held accountable. If a product they selected turns out to have problems or can't withstand scrutiny, they may be penalized or even lose their jobs. Kickbacks or other improper benefits could bring legal consequences too. The commercial and livestream teams get their own new rules.

If you insist on strict enforcement and the new department carries it out effectively, the results may show up quickly. Even products with minor defects are kept off the list. Quality improves, and the risks in product selection really do fall.

But employees are adapting too. As the cost of a mistake rises, avoiding mistakes becomes their first concern. They can live with a smaller bonus. Taking on a risk that might cost them their job is another matter.

They used to focus on their business targets. Now they pay more attention to whether every step follows the procedure. Even if they know a supplier is reliable, a missing document or an unmet requirement can be enough for them to refuse an exception. If something goes wrong, they'll be the one held responsible. The supplier can appeal to the boss, but the employee handling the case won't readily sign it off.

A Safer Company, with Less Room to Move

More departments and more rules mean more stages for information to pass through. To prevent things getting lost along the way, people hold meetings to get everyone on the same page. That means more meetings. Your calendar fills up. As the founder, you may struggle to find time to sleep, let alone quietly make a video.

The procedures get longer too. A decision needs several signatures or another round of meetings. Nobody wants to make the call, because nobody wants responsibility for the exception.

Some suppliers tire of the demands and go to other companies. You end up selling more and more of the same familiar brands. A long relationship is treated as safer. Trying a new brand means more uncertainty to explain.

The company seems better protected against product problems, but it is losing its flexibility. Innovation comes with uncertainty. If a failed attempt could cost someone their job, few people will want to take the chance.

Meanwhile, followers and customers who trusted you may start complaining that the company takes too long to get things done. A problem goes unresolved. The product risks are under control, but trust can wear away in those delays.

A Document That Was Hard to Get

There is an account from Beijing, years ago, of a couple applying for a birth permit. Both husband and wife were only children, so under the policy at the time, they were allowed to have a second child.

The application got stuck on an unexpected document. The husband's mother had died, and an official asked him to provide proof that his father had not had any more children since her death.

He explained that his father hadn't remarried. The answer was that not remarrying didn't prove he hadn't had another child. His father was almost eighty, but that still couldn't replace the required document. He was told to get a statement from his father's former workplace or the local neighborhood office.

The family had little contact with the neighborhood office, and no one wanted to certify something they didn't know. His father had also been retired for almost twenty years, with few familiar people left to approach at his old workplace. This document nearly blocked something the couple was otherwise entitled to do under the policy.

What I find difficult about this example is how hard it is to identify anyone deliberately making trouble. The official asks for what the procedure requires. The person asked to certify it won't vouch for facts they don't know. Who wants to take responsibility for a mistake on behalf of a stranger? Demands as absurd as “prove your mother is your mother” can emerge from procedures that everyone is following carefully.

Control Becomes Part of the System Too

Back at the livestream company, you added supervision and rules to avoid problems you'd seen elsewhere. Product quality really did improve.

But the new department has targets of its own. Employees start organizing their work around inspections, while information has further to travel and you spend more time in meetings. Control isn't a hand operating from outside the system. It enters the system and becomes part of its complexity.

As controls increase, people spend more effort figuring out how to satisfy procedures and pass checks. Safety on paper can gradually replace the real safety those procedures were meant to protect. An organization created to solve problems starts spending much of its energy keeping itself running.

I don't think an organization's most dangerous moment is necessarily when it looks out of control. Everything may look orderly, and everyone may be able to show that they followed the rules, while getting things done well becomes harder and harder.

What This Suggests About Wu Wei

To me, wu wei here doesn't mean abandoning management. It cautions against trying to contain a system's complexity by adding unlimited layers of human control.

The Tao Te Ching says:

“Of the best rulers, the people barely know they exist.”

Read alongside the company in our example, this makes me think of a good leader who doesn't keep making the organization more complicated in the pursuit of control. People may not constantly feel the leader's presence, yet things still work. That's one way I approach this line through a modern organization.

The question isn't settled, though. Pursuing endless expansion can turn a system against its own purpose. Making it increasingly rigid to prevent a loss of control can do the same. I want to keep exploring what a healthy system might look like, and how to understand not contending, holding to softness, and “know the masculine, hold to the feminine” in that context. That's for the next part.

If you've encountered this at work or while dealing with an organization, I'd be interested to hear about it: which procedure, originally meant to reduce risk, ended up making things harder to do?

AI disclosure: English isn't my first language, so I used AI to help translate and edit the English.

If you'd like to read the earlier posts in this series, you can find them here:

Reading Index: The Taoist Worldview and Tao Te Ching 101

“When people first enter the Taoist path, many ask, “I have no spiritual gifts. Can I practice the Tao?” In truth, the Tao does not ask about one's background. Cultivation begins with a single sincere thought. Some seek the Tao because they feel lost, some because of faith, and others simply out of curiosity. Though their reasons differ, each can become the beginning of cultivation.

The so-called “Taoist spiritual foundation” is not only determined by innate ability, but also shaped through later cultivation. When the heart is clear, one's energy becomes upright; when one's will is firm, the path becomes clear. Practicing the Tao is not about escaping the world, but about cultivating the heart and refining oneself, letting go of greed, anger, delusion and desire, while maintaining integrity, observing discipline, doing good and accumulating virtue in daily life.

The hardest part of practicing the Tao is not making a resolution, but maintaining focus and perseverance. True cultivation means not giving up in difficult times, remaining steadfast when faced with temptation, and continuing to improve throughout the years. What is gained through persistent cultivation reveals true practice.

Whether one believes or not is a personal choice; whether one cultivates or not is also one's own choice. If you sincerely seek the Tao, begin with a clear and sincere heart, and practice through every moment of self-reflection and perseverance. The Tao is not somewhere distant or unreachable, it is found within the cultivation of one's heart, character and actions.”

- written by “Don’t Know Nothing” (not me).
Don’t Know Nothings page can be found on FB.

從迷茫到篤信，普通人應該如何修道

初入道門，很多人都會問：「我沒有慧根，能修道嗎？」其實，道不問出身，修行始於一念。有人因迷茫而求道，有人因信仰而入道，也有人因好奇而問道，緣起雖不同，皆可成為修行的開始。

所謂「道骨」，不只在先天資質，更在後天修煉。心清則氣正，志堅則道明。修道並非逃避世俗，而是修心煉己，去除貪、嗔、癡、欲，在日常中守正、守戒、行善、積德。

修道最難的，不是立志，而是專一與恒心。真正的修行，是在困境中不退，在誘惑前守心，在歲月中持續精進。天生道骨固然難得，後天磨煉更見真功。

信與不信，由自己選擇；修與不修，也在自己。若真心問道，便當從一念清明開始，從每一次自省與堅守做起。道不在遙遠之處，而在自己的心性與行持之中。

In Part 15, we looked at emergence: how many small interactions can produce a complex whole without anyone designing it. This time, I want to follow one example further. A system can be doing very well while pressures are already building inside it, pulling it away from its original purpose. I want to look at how success can turn toward its opposite, starting while everything still seems to be going right.

If you enjoy this series, please upvote, leave a comment, and share it with others. Every interaction helps us keep making the series and helps more people find it.

The First Video That Takes Off

Suppose you decide to make videos online. Maybe you want some extra income, or maybe you just have something to share. You pick a direction and post your first video. A few hundred views, almost no comments, barely any new followers.

You keep going. A month passes, perhaps several, and the results still aren't good. You start studying other creators, watching how they make popular videos, and trying different styles. Or you decide to stick with the kind of work you wanted to make in the first place.

Then suppose one video takes off. Maybe it picks up on something people are already talking about. Maybe all that experimenting finally pays off, with timing and luck helping too. Whatever the reason, more people start arriving than you've ever seen before.

You put work into it, but you couldn't plan the audience's response in advance. Your work reached a particular group at a particular moment, and the platform put it in front of more people. The result grew out of that process.

Once a style works, continuing with it makes sense. People followed you because they liked it. You make more, they respond, and the platform may amplify that response. Your audience grows, which makes you more willing to keep going. Positive feedback feels good. It seems you've finally found your direction.

Turning Trust into a Business

Eventually, you start thinking about earning money. A merchant might approach you, or you might decide to try selling products on a livestream.

Your intention is clear: recommend reliable products and do right by the people who trust you. You choose carefully. At first, you may only be willing to recommend a few products you've used yourself and feel confident about.

Suppose the first livestream goes well. People like your videos and trust your judgment, so they buy. You earn more than you expected. You keep making videos and selling products. More merchants approach you, and the business grows.

Soon, it's too much for one person. Filming, talking to suppliers, checking products, negotiating prices, planning livestreams: all of it takes time. Hiring help seems like the obvious next step.

So you set up a company. Someone finds merchants, someone selects products, someone negotiates prices and commissions. Others organize filming and livestreams. Sales improve, you offer more products and stream more often, and the team grows. Investors may start taking an interest. Nobody plans to let the audience down, but you're already making decisions under different pressures.

Everyone Has a Different Target

The product selection team is responsible for quality. The commercial team wants a price low enough to compete with other sellers while still leaving a profit. The livestream team watches sales, how the streams are doing, and return rates. Each goal makes sense. They just don't necessarily all fit together in the same product.

Choosing a product gradually becomes a negotiation among departments. If no one department dominates, they may reach a compromise: a competitive price, a decent margin, something that sells, and quality they can accept. What's “reasonable” gets worked out under those competing pressures.

You can insist that quality comes first and give the product team the final say. That may reduce the risk of recommending a poor product to your audience. It may also mean higher prices, lower margins, or fewer sales.

But now you have wages to pay. If you've taken investment, investors may want more revenue too. Once it was you, a camera, and a few products you knew well. Now every choice has to account for more people's interests.

You still try to balance quality, sales, and profit. But “doing what you most want to do” and “doing what you feel you have to do” are different things. In this story, quality standards begin to slip. Everyone is trying to keep those compromises within an acceptable range.

Following the Process Doesn't Guarantee a Good Product

As the team grows, it gets harder to know what has happened with every product.

Information passes through more people before it reaches you. Details get lost. Each department wants its part of the business to look good in the reports. You have those reports in front of you, but you can no longer keep track of every supplier and every decision the way you once could.

The employees may all be working hard, but taking care of one part and seeing the whole are different things. A product can pass every required step and still have a defect. More products mean more decisions to track. The process lets you handle a larger business, and you depend on it more and more to tell you about the details you can't check yourself.

Merchants have their own numbers to make work. They need an attractive price, a commission for your team, and a profit left over. Under that pressure, product quality may be sacrificed again.

There doesn't have to be a villain behind this. Everyone can be working toward the targets they're given and still create risks none of them wanted. That's harder to make sense of than “one person was dishonest.”

More Reasons to Keep Going, Less Room to Stop

Now your days are full of meetings, livestream figures, return rates, negotiations, and scheduling. It may have been a long time since you sat down and focused on making a video the way you did at the beginning. The thing that first got people's attention is the thing you no longer have time for. Your energy goes into running the business built around that attention.

Stopping isn't easy either. Employees depend on those jobs. Closing the business may mean severance payments, commitments to merchants, and obligations to investors. The details depend on the arrangements, but you can't simply decide not to post next week and walk away.

So you keep going. The business grows, you're more tired, and you know less and less about what's actually happening inside it. You may have earned a lot of money, but your life looks very different from when you first wanted to make videos.

Then a faulty product can become a crisis of trust. People trusted your judgment, but the system choosing those products is now too large for you to oversee as closely as before. Trust helped build the business. When something goes wrong, that same trust takes the hit.

I think it's too easy to look at the final scandal and say, “Success changed them.” The danger was already there in decisions that seemed sensible at the time. Each step brought another responsibility. Meeting those responsibilities called for more growth. Eventually, the original promise became harder to keep.

This is a hypothetical path. I'm not saying every creator who sells products will end up in trouble. What interests me is that getting here doesn't necessarily require anyone to act with malice. The possibility of reversal is already forming while the numbers are still improving.

Why Changing Course Looks Easier in Hindsight

The same hindsight appears in explanations of why successful companies failed to adapt. Take one argument about IBM: that it lost its former dominance because it “failed to embrace cloud computing.”

I'm interested in what that explanation leaves out. It isn't a complete history of IBM. Deciding whether to change direction when you already have an established, profitable server business is very different from looking back once the importance of the new model is clear.

If you're running that business, the existing operation brings in money every day. Changing course means risking something you already have for a future that is still uncertain. Even if you're willing, you have shareholders and employees to contend with. Their interests are tied to the existing business too.

“They should have changed sooner” leaves those pressures out. The people making the decision had to live with its consequences. The later observer doesn't.

It's much the same for the creator. The more successful you become, the more commitments you may have, and the less freely you can choose.

What Reversal Means Here

Chapter 40 says:

“Reversal is the movement of the Tao.”

Read alongside this story, I understand it this way: a system grows through feedback, and that growth can create the conditions for its reversal. The things that later trap it were once the things pushing it forward.

The Tao Te Ching also speaks of things growing strong and then growing old. Being bigger and more powerful doesn't necessarily make you less vulnerable. A growing organization brings new problems, some of which even the person at its center can't see clearly.

The Game of Life from earlier in the series offers another comparison. Once interactions begin, the larger pattern can develop beyond any one participant's intentions. Using it to think about a company and the Tao doesn't make the three the same thing.

What I find difficult is that removing the villain doesn't remove the problem. If everyone can be taking their job seriously while the whole system drifts away from its original purpose, how much control does the person supposedly in charge really have?

Next, I want to explore wu wei, not contending, and holding to softness: what they might mean when nobody can fully control the process.

I plan to keep this series going, and you can find the other posts on my profile. I’m also building Verso, a tool rooted in traditional Taoist divination that aims to offer another perspective when people feel stuck or unsure. It’s under development; stay tuned.

AI disclosure: English isn't my first language, so I used AI to help translate and edit the English.

Reading Index: The Taoist Worldview and Tao Te Ching 101

“In the past, people practiced the Tao, the way of life. They understood the principle of balance, of Yin and Yang, as represented by the transformation of the energies of the universe. Thus they formulated practices, such as Dao-yin, an exercise combining stretching, massaging, and breathing to promote energy flow, and meditation to help maintain and harmonize themselves with the universe.

Seeking emotional excitement and momentary pleasures, people disregard the natural rhythm and order of the universe.

On the mental level, one should remain calm and avoid excessive desires and fantasies, recognizing and maintaining the natural purity and clarity of the mind. When internal energies are able to circulate smoothly and freely, and the energy of the mind is not scattered, but is focused and concentrated, illness and disease can be avoided.

Previously, people lead a calm and honest existence, detached from undue desire and ambition; they lived with an untainted conscience and without fear. They were active, but never depleted themselves. Because they lived simply, these individuals knew contentment, as reflected in their diet of basic but nourishing foods and attire that was appropriate to the season... but never luxurious. Since they were happy with their position in life, they did not feel jealousy or greed. They had compassion for others and were helpful and honest, free from destructive habits. They remained unshakable and unswayed by temptations, and they were able to stay centered even when adversity arose. They treated others justly, regardless of their level of intelligence or social position.

I've heard of people in ancient times, spoken of as the immortals, who knew the secrets of the universe and held Yin and Yang, the world, in the palms of their hands. They extracted essence from nature and practiced various disciplines such as Dao-yin and Qigong, and breathing and visualization exercises, to integrate the body, mind, and spirit. They remained undisturbed and thus attained extraordinarily levels of accomplishment.
Can you tell me about them?

The immortals kept their mental energies focused and refined, and harmonized their
bodies with the environment. Thus, they did not show conventional signs of aging and were able to live beyond biological limitations. Not so long ago there were people known as achieved beings who had true virtue, understood the way of life, and were able to adapt to and harmonize with the universe and the seasons. They too were able to keep their mental energy through proper concentration. These achieved beings did not live like ordinary humans, who tended to abuse themselves.

They were able to travel freely to different times and places since they were not governed by conventional views of time and space. Their sense perceptions were supernormal, going far beyond the sight and hearing of ordinary humans.”

- HUANG DI NEI JING CH 1 ~ MAOSHING NI, PH.D.

I am a college student ( from a research institute and i am pursuing BSMS degree) (19M) from India and i started reading Tao Te Ching ( stephen mitchell). I am looking for someone who is also starting and wanna connect so that we both can talk about the verses. This will also ensure accountability. I am looking for an online partner as I was unable to find someone in my college because the one who have intrest in philosophiy either they are studying Indian or western.

Our Daoist organization is hosting an online Zoom event, and we would love to see who might be interested.
The main topics will cover Daoist cultivation techniques, book reviews and discussions, and Q and A for any doubts or questions you have.

I believe this will be a unique opportunity for direct conversation, as I have never seen a similar event like this hosted before, given that live broadcasting religious content is legally restricted in China.

Please leave a comment if you want to join and I will DM you the details. You are also welcome to share any suggestions on topics you would like to discuss.

Our legally registered religious organization is 'THE HIGHEST CLARITY SOCIETY OF AMERICA.' We are a formal/legitimate Taoist organization. Our Chinese name is 'Xian Men' (仙门).

I was born with scoliosis which causes my hips to be uneven, in turn functionally making my legs different lengths which causes my left ankle to roll inward and my stance to be uneven. I’m not too educated on these things so I’m worried this sort of thing impairs qi. I’m mainly practicing to have an actionable Taoist practice, be more in tune with my body and mind, be calmer and strengthen/loosen my body. I’ve been learning online, as there’s no teachers near me— at least none that I can afford. Mainly doing Lily Kuo Deemers 8 Brocades exercise.

I’d love if any of you could give me some more “traditional” online sources to learn qigong and meditation from, which dive into the philosophy.

Never been a religious or spiritual person. I found about Taoism through the cameo of The Tao of Pooh book on my TV series, Rescue Me. I tend to gravitate towards spirituality when I’m at my lowest.

I went through heartbreak and was chasing a partner who no longer wants to be with me. I’ve faced a lot of depression and rumination related to this. I am more recently trying to reframe my mindset, and shift my focus onto letting go, radical acceptance of things I cannot change. And ultimately walking away, even though I really don’t want to give up.

I’ve heard some good and bad about the book. And I’m a bit of an academic and hope to pursue my PhD, I hear it looks down on academia which makes me wary.

What would you recommend for someone in my position?

Some of it alignes with my morals already.

Some parts of me already goes with the flow instead of forcing it but I want to fully go of control over things that irritate me.

Im very interested im everyone's pov like beliefs and philosophy

I am in the UK, I've found online resources but I connect much better in person, I want to follow religious practices of Daoism. I cannot afford to travel to study under a Master, and it has me wondering, if there are any that exist within the UK?

I am completely dedicated to the practice, I feel my Tao and connect with it. But I want to do more, I am disabled so things like Qigong are out of my reach, I practice gentle Tai Chi to prepare my body for perhaps one day being able to practice Qigong.

Any help and guidance on religious Daoism is welcome, but I don't want to hear how the philosophers don't like the religious side, I study philosophy and the first thing we are taught is to have an open mind, so to close yours off so abruptly baffles me.

basically right before sleeping, i began to think about like flowing with life and such, and i was like damn the yin-yang symbol is unique, so as i was sleeping, i started to play it in my mind moving and this is what resulted just before fully going into sleep.

I saw it like an army, in the first two empires or countries with their territories, one attacks the other from its vulnerable part, the other retaliates, so it gives the second symbol, yin-yang without the drops within each, seeing themselves cornered the soldiers go in a last ditch attack and fight to the end penetrating that dominance putting the drop there, and this happen from both sides, the other side also being overpowered make a last ditch attack and push themself in the other and the rest is as the video.

Its just a creative thought, nothing to think hard about.

what do you guys think?

I have practiced Theravada Buddhism for years and want to learn about Taoism. There are so many people on YouTube who claim to teach the Dao, but it’s difficult to ascertain who is authentic. Any suggestions?

Daodejing 79

• {79ii} 是以聖人執左契 而不責於人. 有德司契 無德司徹.
• Hence the sage holds the left portion of the [contractual] agreement2, but doesn't [force] responsibility/blame on the person.

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Those who are interested to know how an ancient chinese contract that is torn into a left and right half roughly works, can check out the twitter link and see the embedded video:

https://x.com/chintokkong/status/2113076973979508789?s=20

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(edit): Thanks to mancwhopper's comment, it should be noted that paper is very unlikely to be used as the medium of the contract given the context of daodejing in zhou dynasty. More likely to be wooden strip or wooden tablet.

The authentication mechanism of breaking into two matching portions should basically remain the same regardless of the medium used.

I'd like to show it to Chinese people that I know their philosophy but sadly my copy of the book was destroyed due to no fault of mine.

1. Should I cut the money from the person for carelessness?
2. Should I buy the copy again?

WHat would be the Taoist way?

Does the whole wu wei thing also get super confusing to someone because its kinda mixed with seeing the patterns before they happen? Like reality are patterns and I guess normally we assume we "notice/hear" things the moment they happen. -So you wu wei and it all makes sense.
Somehow I always see things (longish) before they happen or want them and that confuses the wu wei part for me, because I see things and therefore they are on my mind, therefore I guess I "manifest" them even subconciously and then they happen. Like seeing things = manifesting things = wanting things. It's all the same and entangled. (must be the concept of the middle path too where you have no agency and all the agency at the same time and you have the agency becasue you have none lol). Which does make sense but it confuses me beacuse I know the concept of wu wei makes sense. The path happens on its own and everything I see/want happens becasue it's the things on the path becasue I see the path. But (esp in noisy environments) I see the shadow imprint of what it will be and not the details -because I think it's a cultural perception thing. But everything I "need" is because I already see the imprint of it while its not in the stanard material world yet. And so I am "doing" wu wei but at the same time I already kinda know what it will be. How do you sort those thoughts in your head? I can't turn the perceiving off but it also makes it quite confusing because I'll try to just be calm and then I see things before they happen and I can ignore them but even then sometimes they get through in milli seconds and then I already have the picture of what it will be which makes me already pull in a direction and then it happens. And it all makes sense but does someone struggle with the same thing? And maybe it's just an inssue in how I perceive this whole thing, I'm actually sure of it. But whatever. It truly is whatever. I don't have to figure it out or fix anything. Still, maybe someone thinks this is interessting or doing the same thing.

tldr: Sseeing the shadow imprints of reality long before they happen messes up my wu wei because having the future on my mind makes me feel like I am subconsciously wanting or manifesting it. It's a contradiction where I have all the agency and zero agency at the same time, but honestly, whatever. Anyone else? Friends?

Daodejing 63 (Spiritual Politics of Laozi)

{63i} 大小多少 報怨以德. 圖難於其易 為大於其細.

Big or small, more or less, repay enmity/grievance with De1 - [through] handling the difficult by its easy, [through] doing the big by its small.

{63ii} 天下難事 必作於易. 天下大事 必作於細. 是以聖人終不為大 故能成其大.

The difficult matters under-heaven, are surely worked through the easy.

The big matters under-heaven, are surely worked through the small.

Hence sages never try to do the big, and so they can accomplish the big2.

{63iii} 夫輕諾必寡信 多易必多難. 是以聖人猶難之 故終無難矣.

When promises are treated lightly, surely the trust [between leader and the people] will be little.

So in [going] more and more for the easy, surely the [going] will become more and more difficult3.

Hence sages [go for handling] the difficult by treading carefully/worryingly [over the many nitty gritty issues that are still easy to deal with], so that there will never be any difficulties.

.

1. The problems of the world are often that of people being driven to extremes by their discriminative passions of craving and aversion. They lust this and they hate that, and thus problems arise. So if problems are fuelled by discriminative passions, our response should therefore not be of adding more discriminative passion into the mix, to fuel more lust for this and more hate for that. Instead our response should be to diffuse these passions and empty such discriminations. Perhaps this is how the text is suggesting that the matter of enmity/grievance be dealt with – through De, which in {59i} is described as early preparation, so that matters of enmity/grievance do not blow up to become big raging fires. These matters are to be handled and extinguished early while still small and easy.

2. Leaders should be prepared in advance to handle matters. They shouldn’t be negligent and deal with matters only when they have blown up big. Because it is not through some big grand gestures that difficult matters are settled. Rather, it is through treading carefully and worryingly over all the many nitty gritty issues that matters can be resolved and settled.

3. The promises made to the people must be taken seriously. Leaders can’t afford to go easy on these promises, or the going will become more and more difficult in terms of leading the people, because trust will have been lost. Hence as a leader, there is the need to worry and be careful all the time.

In Part 15, I looked at emergence: how a complicated pattern can grow out of many small interactions, without anyone designing the whole thing. This time, I want to follow one example further. A system can grow successfully and still develop pressures that eventually pull it away from what it was meant to do.

That gives me another way to approach the idea that things pushed to an extreme turn toward their opposite. Instead of starting with a collapse and looking for the person who ruined everything, I want to start while things are still going well.

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The First Video That Takes Off

Imagine deciding to make videos online. Perhaps you want a side income, or perhaps you simply have something you want to share. You choose a direction and put out your first video. It gets a few hundred views, almost no comments, and hardly any new followers.

You keep going. After a month, or several months, the results are still disappointing. You start studying other creators, watching advice about making videos that spread, and trying different styles. Or you decide to stick with the style you cared about in the first place.

Then suppose one video takes off. Maybe it connects with something people are already talking about. Maybe your experiments have taught you something. Timing and chance may play a part too. Whatever the combination, people begin arriving in numbers you have never seen before.

There was work behind that moment, but you did not command the whole response into existence. Your choices met an audience, a particular moment, and the platform's way of distributing attention. The result grew through those interactions.

Once that happens, continuing with the successful style makes sense. The people who followed you came because they liked that video. You make more of what brought them there, they respond, and the platform can amplify that response. In this imagined case, the process begins to feed itself: more viewers, more followers, more encouragement to keep making the same kind of work.

This is the stage where positive feedback feels wonderful. You finally seem to have found your direction.

Turning Trust into a Business

Eventually, you begin thinking about earning money from that audience. A merchant may approach you, or you may decide to try selling products during a livestream.

You have a clear intention: recommend reliable things and deserve the trust people have placed in you. You choose carefully. Perhaps you start with only a few products you have used yourself and feel comfortable recommending.

Suppose the first livestream goes well. People already like your videos and trust your judgment, so they buy. The income may be better than you expected. You carry on making videos and selling products, more merchants approach you, and the business grows.

Soon there is too much for one person to do. Filming, speaking with suppliers, checking products, negotiating prices, and planning livestreams all take time. Hiring help seems like the sensible next step.

Now you have a company. One person finds merchants, another selects products, another negotiates prices and commissions. Others help arrange your filming and livestream schedule. As sales improve, you offer more products, hold more livestreams, and hire more people. Investors may become interested too.

Each step has a reason. Nothing here requires a plan to betray your audience. Yet the conditions under which you make decisions are already changing.

Everyone Has a Different Target

The product team is responsible for quality. The commercial team wants a price low enough to compete with other sellers while leaving the company a profit. The livestream team is watching sales, performance, and returns.

These are all understandable goals. They also pull in different directions. A decision about a product becomes a negotiation among people who are being judged by different measures.

If no department dominates, the result may be a moving compromise: a fairly competitive price, a reasonable margin, a product that sells well enough, and a level of quality the team considers acceptable. The word “reasonable” is doing a lot of work here. What counts as reasonable is being settled through those competing pressures.

You could insist that quality must come first and give the product team the strongest say. That may reduce the risk of a poor product reaching your audience. It may also mean a higher price, a smaller margin, or fewer sales.

By now, you have salaries to pay. If investors are involved, they may be pushing for more revenue. You cannot make every choice as freely as you could when the whole operation was you, a camera, and a handful of products you knew personally.

You still try to find an acceptable balance between quality, sales, and profit. But there is a difference between choosing what you most want to do and choosing what seems least impossible under the circumstances. In this story, quality begins to give way at the edges, even while everyone is trying to keep the compromise within reasonable limits.

The Process Can Be Followed and the Product Can Still Be Wrong

As the team grows, another problem appears: the whole operation becomes harder for any one person to see.

Information travels through more people before it reaches you. Details are lost. Each department has reasons to present its part of the business in the most favorable light. You receive reports, but you no longer know exactly what happened with every product, every supplier, and every decision.

The employees may all be working hard. Each person can be taking their own responsibilities seriously. Still, being responsible for one part of the process does not give anyone a complete view of the result.

A product can pass the required steps and still have a defect. As the range expands, there are more products and more decisions to keep track of. The same process that makes it possible to handle the volume can also leave you farther from the details that matter.

The merchants face pressures of their own. They need to offer an attractive price and pay your team a commission while preserving a profit for themselves. That creates another possible point at which quality gets squeezed.

For this example, we do not need to assume a villain arranging the outcome. Different people can pursue the goals attached to their jobs and still create a risk that none of them intended to create. That is what makes the problem harder to understand than a story about one dishonest person.

You Have More to Keep Going and Less Room to Stop

Your days now revolve around meetings. You look at livestream figures and return rates, negotiate with merchants, and discuss schedules with the team. You may have gone a long time without quietly making a video the way you did at the beginning.

The activity that earned people's attention has gradually become something you struggle to find time for. Much of your energy goes into maintaining the business built around that attention.

Stopping is more complicated too. There are employees whose jobs depend on the company. Ending the operation may involve severance payments, commitments to merchants, and obligations to investors. The exact consequences depend on the arrangements, but you can no longer simply decide not to upload next week and walk away.

So you continue. The operation grows, you become more tired, and you have less direct knowledge of what is happening inside it. You may be making a great deal of money while living very differently from the person who first wanted to make videos.

A faulty product can then become a crisis of trust. The audience trusted your judgment, but the product was selected through a system you could no longer personally oversee in the same way. The trust that helped the business grow is now exposed to the pressures created by that growth.

I find it too easy to look only at the final scandal and say that success changed someone's character. In the example we have followed, the danger was developing much earlier, inside decisions that seemed sensible at the time. A useful step created a new obligation. Meeting that obligation encouraged further growth. The growing system made it harder to keep the original promise.

This is a hypothetical path, not a claim that every creator who sells something must end in a scandal. What I want to hold on to is how little deliberate malice the path requires. The possibility of reversal was already taking shape while the numbers were still improving.

Why Changing Course Looks Easier Afterwards

The same question comes up when people explain why a successful company failed to adapt. Consider a familiar kind of argument about IBM: that its decline from an earlier position of dominance can be explained by a failure to embrace cloud computing.

I am interested here in the hindsight behind that explanation, rather than treating it as a complete history of IBM. A company with a profitable established server business faces a different decision from someone looking back after a new model has proved important.

From the position of the person running that company, the existing business is producing real revenue. Moving away from it means putting something valuable at risk for a future that is still uncertain. Even a leader willing to take that risk must contend with shareholders and employees whose interests are tied to what already works.

Saying “they should have changed sooner” leaves all of those pressures out. The people inside the system are making choices under conditions that the later observer no longer has to face.

That brings me back to the creator. Growth does not simply give you more of the freedom you had at the beginning. It can bring commitments that narrow your choices, even as your apparent success increases.

Reversal as a Way of Reading the Story

Chapter 40 says:

“Reversal is the movement of the Tao.”

This is one way I read that line alongside the example. A system takes shape, develops through feedback, and can gradually produce conditions that turn its own success against it. The reversal does not have to arrive as something wholly separate from the growth. It can develop within it.

The text also speaks of things growing strong and then growing old. In this story, becoming larger and more powerful does not mean becoming less vulnerable. The expanding organization creates its own difficulties, including ones the person at the center cannot see clearly.

This connects with the Game of Life example from earlier in the series: once interactions are under way, the larger pattern can develop beyond any single participant's intention. I am using that as a comparison, not as proof that a computer model, a company, and the Tao are the same thing.

The part I find difficult is that removing the villain does not remove the problem. If everyone can be doing their own job while the whole system moves away from its original purpose, how much control does the person supposedly in charge really have?

That is where I want to continue next: with wu wei, not contending, and holding to softness, and what those ideas might mean inside a process that no one fully commands.

I plan to keep this series going, and you can find the other posts on my profile. I’m also building Verso, a tool rooted in traditional Taoist divination that aims to offer another perspective when people feel stuck or unsure. It’s under development; stay tuned.

AI disclosure: English isn't my first language, so I used AI to help translate and edit the English.

Reading Index: The Taoist Worldview and Tao Te Ching 101