The Highest Good Is Like Water

Third: seven kinds of good, and water is right in each place. It settles on suitable ground; its heart is deep and quiet like a pool; it deals with others kindly; its word can be trusted; it brings order; it uses its strengths; it moves at the right time. Zhuangzi's phrase “when there is no other way” means just this: not reluctance, but moving with things once conditions are ripe. Judging when they are ripe is what wisdom is for. Poured into a square vessel it is square, into a round one it is round, yet it never stops being water. The last line is the key: “because it does not compete, it is free of blame.”

Over these eight pages we have made a full circle. The Dao comes before heaven and earth (ch. 25) and unfolds as yin, yang and all things (ch. 42). Things return to it, and only an empty, still mind sees the return (ch. 40, 16). Each thing receives its own virtue from the Dao (ch. 51). Empty space is what makes things useful (ch. 11). Seen from the Dao, praise and blame, gain and loss can be set down (ch. 13). Water lives all of it.

At work, the person who is like water may not be the loudest in the room, but is often the one the team can't do without. Leading a team can learn from water too: don't push to the front of everything; wait when it's time to wait, and move when the moment is ripe. On page 22 we'll see Laozi put this in terms of cooking a small fish. At home, when someone is willing to go a little lower first, things flow. You don't need to become a sage today. Learn from water in just one thing: go a little lower, and let one contest go.

A drop returned to the sea never dries up. In the next theme, we'll see how the sage acts without forcing.