Understanding the Dao
To understand the basic interaction Dao, reading and recognizing the "Yin and Yang" forces becomes the immediate priority. Before it can ever be read and recognized, you must first master the action of stillness.
"To overcome the intelligent by intelligence, however, is a matter of opportunity. There are three avenues of opportunity: events, trends, and conditions." --- Zhuge Liang
The Dao is about continuous change and that there is no approach to completely control the Dao. You can only read, recognize, and synchronize with it for a chosen seasonal cycle. Through a constant and conscious interplay with the Dao, you learn how to achieve the "right feel for the right time at the right place" while determining the critical path for completing that venture.
Comprehending the process regarding the settings that are around you and their relationship to the macro picture is what counts. Accepting the macro principles of the Dao allows you to operate and complete your venture with maximum efficiency regardless of the influence(s) around you.
When you can focus on the current affairs of the moment, only then can you concentrate on what matters most!
"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function."
--- F. Scott Fitzgerald
When dealing with scenarios of uncertainty, the pragmatic strategic player of the Dao focuses only on cyclical analysis and recognition based on their understanding (and recognition) of how things operate and not what the thing is all about. Through cyclical recognition, you understand the importance of the timing and the momentum within various shifts and changes.
HEURISTIC PRINCIPLES OF THE DAO
The following is a partial listing of the heuristic principles for aligning with the Dao:
The Dao is a macro space consisting of numerous loosely connected components: Strategy is the Dao. Boxing (martial arts) is the Dao. Everything is the Dao
The "Seasonal" Cycle: During good times, you must be conservative, totally focused, and not expand beyond your means. Good and bad times can never last forever. Things always come in cycles. Understanding and following the significant macro cycle properly allows you to master the attribute of timing and momentum for that macro scenario
"Focus on the Familiar" #1: Proper establishment of internal stillness allows you to pay attention to the familiar
"Focus on the Familiar" #2: "Focus solely on how the world works as opposed to what is the world about before executing any strategic move"
The Integration of Yin and Yang: The forces of Yin and Yang complement each other. For every Yang-driven scenario, there's a Yin-driven scenario hidden behind it and vice-versa
Opposite Polarity: You should always effortlessly counter an opposing force with a force of opposite polarity (either directly or indirectly)
Existing with the Dao: Logic is a tool that justifies your existence
Playing with the Dao #1: Playing with the Dao allows you to align with it for a particular season that gives you a momentary advantage. Concurrently, also focus on securing the maximum results that would give you the best position for the next cycle
Playing with the Dao #2: Dissolving, deflecting, and absorbing the forces of Yin and Yang is the trademark of someone who has understood how to play with the Dao. That action derives from your approach of adopting, adjusting, and aligning with the Dao. Those who do not align with the Dao pay the conclusive price of failure. In the long run the forces of the Dao always prevail over the abilities of animals, machines, and man
Playing with the Dao #3: Always regard the macro (and micro) cause-and-effect process within each continuous cycle
Aligning with the Dao #1: There is a great difference between knowing the Dao and aligning with the Dao
GRAND RESULTS
"Now, if the estimates made in the temple before hostilities indicate a victory it is because calculations show one's strength to be superior to that of his enemy; if they indicate defeat, it is because calculations show that one is inferior. With many calculations, one can win; with few one cannot. How much less chance of victory has one who makes none at all! By this means you examine the situation and the outcome will be clearly apparent." --- Sunzi (Sun Tzu) AoW, Chapter 1 (Griffith interpretation)
Through the practice of stillness and the understanding of the Dao, you gradually learn and understand the importance of constant self-improvement and living our lives intelligently with a great degree of significance. The maintaining of this self-optimizing state while wandering at ease is always a lifetime challenge for those who wish to align themselves with the Dao.
"Your experience is never the same as the next person." --- Paraphrased quote from Sun Lu Tang (Sun's Internal Martial Art System Founder)
The experience of each person is always different from the practice of stillness. The only commonalities are the focus on the familiar and the practice of aligning with the Dao.
"In every landscape, the point of astonishment is the meeting of the sky and the earth." --- Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Transcendental Sage of Concord
THOUGHTS FROM A PRAGMATIC STRATEGIST
"When people of great wisdom hear the Truth, they diligently practice it. When people of moderate wisdom hear the Truth, they practice it now and then. When people of lesser wisdom hear the Truth, they laugh at it. If there were no laughter, there would be no Truth." --- Laozi
The Dao concepts mentioned above are a summation of my given answer to the questioner. After a long exchange of questions and answers, that person began to understand the importance of focusing on the familiar and how the world operates.
As a reminder, this essay only touches on a small component of what the Dao is./
After years of playing with the Dao, this pragmatic essayist learned that this philosophical mindset and practice is also efficient in determining the large picture while keeping your eye on the target regardless of your current scenario. There's no genuine set of strategic and tactical rules for playing with the Dao-just the heuristic principles of recognizing scenarios and its cycles that determine the strategy and tactics of your endeavor.
"In the field of observation, fortune favors the prepared." --- Louis Pasteur
Direct alignment with the Dao allows you to effectively complete any endeavors with the minimum effort. From a personal experience, it can be described as "water cascading down a mountainside taking the path of least resistance."
"It is the business of a general (or a strategist) to be serene and inscrutable, impartial, and self-controlled."
--- Sunzi (Sun Tzu) AoW (Griffith interpretation)
Accomplishing this feat consistently is another story. If learning how to play the Dao were any simpler or difficult, it would not be the Dao.
To thrive in the current world of uncertain shifts and changes, the consummate strategic player of the Dao pragmatically creates their own opportunity first through their understanding of how the world operates instead of searching and waiting for a certain scenario to occur.
"He who has mastered this method knows the way of heaven and earth, has the support of the populace, and is fully aware of the opposing situation. … When he needs to determine his battle array, he knows how to prepare the formations. He combats when there is assurance of victory. He stops fighting when there isn't. … For one who has really mastered the method, his opposition can do nothing to escape their defeat."
--- An updated paraphrase from Sun Bin (famous strategist from the Warring States era and the great grandson of Sunzi)
Regardless of your settings and pursuits, always align with the Dao
Copyright: Cardinal009 (MEH), 2004
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