​Lao Tzu on the fundamental essence

Good deeds leave no signs.
Good words leave no flaws.

Good scheme needs no deliberate plans.

A good lock uses no bolts, yet it cannot be opened.

A good knot uses no rope, yet it cannot be united.

Hence, a saint is always kind by saving other people and rejects no one.

He is always kind by saving all things and therefore nothing is being rejected.

This is the true enlightenment.

Thus, a kind person is the teacher of the unkind.

An unkind person is a lesson for the kind to learn.

He who does not value his teacher and dislikes the valuable lesson, although knowledgeable, is

in fact greatly confused.

This is the fundamental essence.

…

ART OF WAKEFULNESS

He who wishes to take control of the world (one’s supreme life purpose) and acts upon it,

I can see that he will not succeed.

For the world is a divine vessel,

It cannot be acted upon as one wish.

He who acts on it fails.

He who holds on to it loses.

Therefore some things move forward while some follow behind.

Some try to warm with exhaled air while some try to blow it cold.

Some are strong while some are weak.

Some are successfully accomplished while some are declined and failed.

Thus, the awakened man avoids all extremes, extravagance, and pride.