“Among the Mattole, conduct toward waves is prescribed: The water watches you and has a definite attitude, favorable or otherwise, toward you. Do not speak just before a wave breaks. Do not speak to passing rough water in a stream. Do not look at water very long for any one time, unless you have been to this spot ten times or more.
Then the water is used to you and does not mind if you’re looking at it. Older men can talk in the presence of the water because they have been about it so long that the water knows them. Until the water at any one spot does know you, however, it becomes very rough if you talk in its presence or look at it too long.”
And if it is salmon that chooses to lead some of us back to our immersion in the natural world, then our first order of business must be the survival of the salmon, the health of the waters.
Days and nights, summers and winters.
Waves curling up, consumed by new waves.
The ongoing march of generations,
The vapor of water congealing into clouds –
Tao is cyclical, not linear.The multitude of things are innumerable,
But they travel circularly.
Those who accord with Tao
Understand rise and fall
And gain clarity and insight.
Those who do not accept rise and fall,
Ride recklessly with misfortune.Thus it is said: the secret of Tao lies in returning.
The wen person is someone who can read not just human language, but the languages of nature as well. There are patterns and secrets throughout the world — the rings of trees, and tracks of animals, and the traces of water down the sides of a valley are as clear as any scripture. The person who follows Tao does not blindly go through life, but is able to read it on every level. Those who follow Tao are those who know the many languages of life.
Water wears away rock.
Spirit overcomes force.
The weak will undo the mighty.Learn to see things backwards, inside out, and upside down.
Under heaven nothing is more soft and yielding than water.
Yet for attacking the solid and strong, nothing is better;
It has no equal.
The weak can overcome the strong;
The supple can overcome the stiff.
Under heaven everyone knows this, yet no one puts it into practice.
Therefore the sage says:
He who takes upon himself the humiliation of the people is fit to rule them.
He who takes upon himself the country’s disasters deserves to be king of the universe.
The truth often seems paradoxical.
– Tao Te Ching 78
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