part of the Sacred Chao Te Ching

Chapter 71

It is wise to admit ignorance.
Those that claim to know everything will fail.
Those who are willing to accept new information
adapt to their situation.
Because they are willing to acknowledge failure,
they will not fail.  Usually.

Chapter 72

When people openly disobey Authority,
another Authority will descend.
The wise spags go around, not against.
When people lack a sense of awe
they cannot see what's awesome.
Do not restrict people's freedoms,
or their bodies, or their minds.
If you act like a tyrant, you will be treated like a tyrant.

Therefore the wise spag acts, but is not an actor.

Chapter 73

Those who embrace Disorder will breed Order.
Those who embrace Order will breed Disorder.
Both of these ways are foolish.
Why would you embrace Illusion,
and deny one half of the Universe?

Wise spags find the patterns,
and invent new game rules to trip up the Machine™.
They change the world,
not through Ideology,
but by finding the Hidden Middle.
They straddle the shifting line between True and False,
and embrace the whole Universe.

Chapter 74

When you realize that change is the only constant
there is nothing left to fight.
Drop ambition and expectation 
and death will have nothing real to kill;
On the other hand, you will end up
with nothing real.
When you let the pieces fall where they may,
someone else will pick them up.

Chapter 75

People are not free following Authority,
because Authority only gives people 
the Freedoms they are allowed;
The people do not take it for themselves.

Authority makes myriad rules
because people do not follow them.
This is why we are all criminals.

People do not care about responsibility
because they gave it to Authority.
Authority does not care about people
because they are not responsible.
Only those who accept responsibility
and seize their freedoms
can change their stars.

Chapter 76

When born, we are close to Chaos.
We simply experience, we have no names.
Growing up, we learn how to make patterns
and we are taught about Order and Disorder.
Believing this to be reality,
our minds and bodies become rigid,
rather than flexible.
And so are easy to break.

Chapter 77

Chaos is made up of all things.
This is why it makes no distinctions.
People are less than all things,
so they see differences and put them in boxes.

Because they are people,
they lie to themselves 
from the moment they open their eyes.

Who are free from the chains of Illusion?
Not even the wise spags, although they try.

So the wise spags create their own Illusions,
and do not admit perfect clarity.
They know better than anyone else,
the power of Illusion to blind the eye
and deafen the ear.

Chapter 78

Those that impose Order
soon find that they have increased Disorder.
Those that escalate Disorder
build the walls of Order in response.
Those that laugh at these Illusions
can overcome anything.
Laughter cannot win wars, but it can win hearts.
It can soften the rigid.
It will  make you drop your baggage.
It can unite, it can multiply, it can do long division.

Chapter 79

A healthy body ebbs and flows with emotions.
Only the sick are inflexible.
Joy and hate must be experienced, and then let go.
If you do not shit your hate, you will die.
Who can live, retaining a colon full of hate?
If you hold on to joy for too long, 
it will stagnate and fester.
Life craves the new,
regardless of its content.
Only the dead cease changing.

Chapter 80

In a place where information is suppressed
and curiosity stifled,
the people will be uncaring, unwise, and not free.
They will rely on tradition as their guides;
They will not make observations,
or try new things,
or experiment,
or play.
They will be suspicious of outsiders
just as they are with new ideas.
Their minds will be as stagnant
as the pond where they dump their garbage.
They are surely as dead as they can be,
though they still draw breath.

Chapter 81

Words are not experiences.
Experiences have no words. 

Reading about Laughter
is not the same as laughing. 

These Orderly letters only approximate
the spinning Chaos of life.

The Disorder around you
has yet to find a pattern. 

Now get out there
and make something happen.