Introduction

This verse points to the perspective that Weavers of the Way develop through meditative living. Attempting to stand within this perspective by deeply contemplating it is a proven method for generating insight.

In other words, this verse is a meditation and not an instruction or a statement. It intends to generate a feeling, so take your time with it and refuse to accept an analytical understanding as a complete one. 

Translation

The Dao endures without becoming.
  The Leader can preserve it
    and All That Is self-evolves.

Evolves and wants to come into being;
  authentic because of the unnameable’s simplicity.

It is also “knowing.”
  Knowing entirely by silence.
    All That Is self-stabilizes. 

Commentary

The Dao endures without becoming. 

The opening line reminds us that this indescribable force is a force of potential. It exists but does not exist as a thing*. 

  The Leader can preserve it
    and All That Is self-evolves. 

“The Leader” in verse 16 is equated to “presence.” Therefore, we understand presence itself as the human experience of the Dao, preserving the raw potential of this force. 

All That Is refers to everything that arises in “presence” to be experienced. These arising phenomena are known as “conditioned,” which refers to the fact that discrete pieces of energy interact with each other to create more complex objects**.

“Self-evolves” is the process of constant change that every composite object undergoes as the dynamic interplay of life force.

Evolves and wants to come into being;
  authentic because of the unnameable’s simplicity. 

The self-evolution of life force dynamically interacting results in All That Is, a.k.a all the things. “All That Is” is fundamentally authentic, genuine, true, valid, and pure because it is nothing but a composition of the primordial components.* 

It is also “knowing.”
  Knowing entirely by silence
    All That Is self-stabilizes. 

What emerges when we train ourselves to have this type of perception is a special kind of “knowing.” It isn’t knowledge developed by recursive, discriminating analysis like we typically think of as “knowing something.” Instead, it is a direct knowing of what is that emerges from a silent presence, marked by holistic clarity and the absence of paradox. 

As this form of “knowing” establishes itself, we recognize that the “chaos” of life’s conditioned experiences stabilizes itself into something that is fundamentally “orderly,” even as it remains its infinitely complex process of unfolding. 

*The way the Dao is talked about is remarkably similar to the Doctrine of Simplicity in Western theology. If comparative studies are helpful and interesting to you, please check it out. 

**In material terms, the Dao is like the soup of elementary particles (life force) coming together to create composite particles like protons, neutrons, and then everything else. Putting this in the context of consciousness, which is the domain of our text, the fundamental energetic presence of I AM would be the soup, and everything that I AM is aware of would be the composite particles. I AM is in caps to distinguish it from “Who I Think I Am,” which is a conditioned object arising in presence. One way to check if you’re feeling your I AM-ness is to recognize that anything you can experience is not you. It makes sense, right? If you can experience something, it is a composite – a “me” and a “my experience.”