---

Introduction

This verse speaks to me in two domains: meditation practice and life attitude. It’s remarkable how Lao Zi crafted a message that could equally address actively engaging in life and the spiritual path. While the two are perfect mirrors of each other, usually teachings tend to be much more biased toward one domain or the other. 

I guess the title of “Appearances” hints at this by suggesting that the Dao is really only “appearing” in many different ways. Once we understand its laws, extracting these meta-principles and enjoying weaving the way is easy. It brings to mind verse 8 and its multi-faceted life axioms. 

Translation

To perfect Weaving the Way,
  master the mysteries
    deep beyond knowledge.

Because they are unknowable,  
I will attempt to describe how they appear: 

Carefree, like walking along the river in winter.
Strategizing as though fearful of the surroundings. 

Composed like a majestic guest.
Unstable as melting ice.

Sprouting neatly like flowering shoots. 
Broad and clear like a mountain stream. 

Inseprably mixed like silty water. 
Who can patiently purify the silty water?
Who can serenely clarify this existence?

One who maintains the Way
does not pursue fulfillment.  

Only through remaining unfulfilled
can the concealed become revealed.

Commentary

To perfect Weaving the Way,
  master the mysteries
    deep beyond knowledge. 

The opening lines inspired me to employ a somewhat creative reading of the text. The more literal translation is:

 “The ancient sages’ sublime and profound way-making was deep beyond anything understandable.” 

This rhetorical device intends to provoke us into a sense of reverential awe and sincere practice to try to “live up to our ancestors.” Adjusting the English to employ the call to do what they did more directly seemed more effective and aligned with the intention. 

However, my quirks aren’t everyone’s, so please feel free to swap these lines out if you prefer the more direct translation. The rest of the verse didn’t require any such treatment. 

Because they are unknowable,
  I will attempt to describe how they appear: 

Carefree, like walking along the river in winter.
Strategizing as though fearful of the surroundings. 

Composed like a majestic guest.
Unstable as melting ice.

Sprouting neatly like flowering shoots. 

Broad and clear like a mountain stream. 

The text uses opposites to invite a transcendent perspective in a delightful fashion. Thesis and antithesis merge into a synthesis in a beautiful expression of dualistic unity. Practically, synthesizing all related forces into a comprehensive and composite singular is the primary way we evolve psychologically and spiritually. The three sets above each address significant areas of our practical and meditative lives. 

The Effort Domain: Carefree ←☯→ Strategizing

These qualities relate to the domain of “effort” and answer the question, “How hard should we try?” 

On the one hand, the Universe takes care of itself entirely. We are along to enjoy its beauty. There’s truly nothing to do but sit back, relax, and enjoy creation. 

On the other hand, we are given the faculties to be agents of harmony and abilities to “set things in order.” Why would we evolve such notions as ethics, discernment, logic, and the capacity to invent solutions to problems if there was no purpose to their application? These inner knowings of what is right, appropriate, and worth doing are important to heed. 

Categorically rejecting carefree trust or the need for intentional action doesn’t work well for long, if it works. Applying a carefree attitude when things require active management furthers disharmony. Acting on things that will sort themselves out likewise produces harmful imbalances. We must develop the capacities for both ends of the spectrum. 

Can you rest peacefully in absolute, blissful trust in the Universe?
Can you use your reason, moral compass, and inner strength as needed? 

Are you actively cultivating your relationship with the unmanifest sublime, whatever you call it?

Are you continually evolving your various skill sets to discover your mission and live your purpose? 

For deep meditation practice, which cultivates the qualities necessary for weaving the way, harmonizing absolute trust and relaxation with sincere, purposeful effort is also critical. An attitude of relaxed alertness that says, “Everything is OK, and I’m here to see it,” goes a long way. I must be disciplined enough to take up regular practice and study the details of the practice to perform it effectively. I must also realize that no matter what happens in meditation, it is a gift of grace and not the product of my effort. 

The nuances of “tuning the string” between effort and relaxation in meditation are the contents of entire lifetimes of teachings. I won’t do them justice here, but please seek meditation/contemplation instruction from someone whose life demonstrates their proficiency if you have any questions. 

The Behavior Domain: Composed ←☯→ Unstable

There is decorum, etiquette, and appropriateness. There’s also being a stuffed shirt, pedantic, condescending stiff. 

There is fluid, easy-going, and fun. There is also sloppy, disrespectful, and outrageous.

Sometimes, we need to be the pedantic ritualist upholding a tradition, and sometimes, we need to be the outrageous iconoclast tearing down the establishment. Most often, we need to know when to be serious and when to lighten up, when to follow the rules, and when to toss them out the window. 

These shifts in comportment are critical to showing up appropriately at each moment. Understanding that this domain addresses what is necessary and appropriate in our social context is vital. The Effort spectrum was primarily internal, with ramifications on the external. The Behavior spectrum is predominantly external, with ramifications on the internal. The way we show up is the harmonizing social factor, bringing gravity in excess to harmonize excessive levity in others or vice versa. Skillfulness is the capacity to play any role at a moment’s notice. 

In terms of meditation, this is a two-fold discussion of external structure and internal relating. Externally, structure is conducive to a strong meditation practice. Certain processes and rituals, like a specific time, place, and method of meditation, all facilitate the process. Clinging to it dogmatically harms long-term practice and integrating the meditative mind into our lives. Internally, we need to maintain enough control to achieve unification of mind. Unification of mind means that all of the disparate mental modules temporarily agree to the singular purpose of our practice. Simultaneously, we must allow ourselves to witness our own insanity as we let go of who we think we are. 

As mentioned above, this topic in meditation is worthy of a lifetime of teaching. For support, please engage with a practice community (not just books and YouTube videos).  

The Perspective Domain: Shoots ←☯→ Streams

Shoots (of plants) are elegant, beautiful, precise, and distinct details in the majestic painting of life. They suddenly emerge in a precise place and flourish briefly before continuing their journey in the life cycle. 

Coursing mountain streams, on the other hand, evoke eternal newness and infinite breadth. They invite the mind into clear spaciousness and ever-new refreshment. Where the sprout is a fleeting, distinct detail, the mountain stream is an eternal and infinite force.

Can you zoom out to see any moment in the context of the totality of time and space?
Can you zoom in to savor the finest details of the micro-moment?
Can you hold the delight of the temporal in the bliss of the eternal?
Can you skillfully apply arbitrary precision without succumbing to the illusion of control?

You can the moment you choose to; these are innate capacities. However, both attention to detail and macroscopic perspectives can be cultivated through your intentional engagement. Learning to dance along this spectrum in daily life is truly delightful. Concurrently holding both views allows us to show up for ourselves and others in ways that being either/or in our perspective doesn’t. 

In meditation, merging concentrated focus into vast awareness is a time-tested technique for mystical experience. It’s like recreating the Big Bang in our own consciousness. By fusing all that we are into the 0-point of the infinitesimal, we explode into infinity. The same qualifier applies as before: Please develop a relationship with an experienced teacher if you’re engaging in this kind of practice. 

Inseprably mixed like silty water.

Who can patiently purify the silty water?
Who can serenely clarify this existence?

This line emphasizes the fundamental unity and inseparability of these so-called dualities. Remember that we seek not to apply either this or that skillfully but to see each domain of human experience in its totality. All life is constantly ebbing and flowing, transforming and transitioning between these qualities in appropriate, harmonious proportions. 

We are called, as Weavers, to the task of touching into this ever-evolving fabric of existence and feeling how it moves us in service to a greater whole than we could imagine. 

How could we do this?

One who maintains the Way
  does not pursue fulfillment.  

Only through remaining unfulfilled
  can the concealed become revealed.

The parables underscoring this lesson are numerous. The teacher overflows the cup so she can ask, “How can you learn anything if you’re already full?” etc. Completion is impossible when things are constantly changing. Coming into the artificial stasis of fulfillment hides the mysterious unfoldment of the Universe. 

When we are fully satisfied with our competence in a specific area, we stop learning and developing our latent capacities. Such an attitude is deeply misaligned with the truth of the Dao, which describes a subtle, mysterious existence (verse 6) flowing from a bottomless vessel (verse 4), empty yet never depleted (verse 5).

Will you step into the peaceful joy of being a perfect work in progress?