“Be like water.“
—Bruce Lee

Concerning confronting the challenges and suffering inevitable in life, I've encountered a through-line across philosophies. Whether they be the ancient Greek Stoics, the European Alchemists, Japanese Zen Buddhists, or Chinese Taoists (among others), they all arrive at the same conclusion: recognize the objective world and what role you play as part of it.

Is not material reality affected by mere notions, ideas, perceptions, and beliefs? Do Heaven and Earth not touch when one is moved by a sudden spirit to strum a guitar, to sing, to dance, to put pen to paper, to put paint to canvas? What are art and innovation if not the emergence of formerly hidden properties from the bridge between the objective world and the subjective experience?

“nature as creation is a relentless force
the relentless constantly faces the decay of its own fruits
the sound person also relentless
faces the decay of the fruits of mankind”
—Tao Te Ching Chapter Five

Potential—what is it? That which is not a thing in any singular time or space but is something that could be, or better said, could become.

In Chapter Three, we are greeted with a warning and a juxtaposition. This first stanza could be read, “Do not conflate wisdom with sophistication!” It rings with echoes of humble Socrates and his questioning of the sophists.

Armed with this wisdom, one can free himself from any prison and find contentment despite the suffering intrinsic to being.

The first words of the first chapter present us with an enigma: “the tao source of life.” Tao is the way, the road, the narrow path along which one orients himself toward that which transcends subjective, human understanding.