Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
- Whether you're governing people or serving Heaven, it's best to conserve your energy.
- Be moderate and give yourself over to the Tao, and you'll steadily accumulate virtue.
- If you do these things, there's nothing you can't overcome.
- You'll know no limits.
- When you have a firm spiritual foundation in the Tao, you'll be everlasting.
- Hm... what could that last statement mean?
- If everything eventually fades within the Tao, how can we be everlasting?
- Could it mean that we live on in the positive relationships that we build with other people?
- Or is it that by recognizing and accepting that we're part of an eternal flow, we also recognize that the substance we're made of is immortal?
- Our consciences might fade back into non-being, but everything we're made of continues in the Tao.