Chapter 21 Summary

Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.

  • All right, time for some more seeming contradictions about the Tao.
  • Even though it is unclear and indistinct, still we can see images in it, still there is substance to it.
  • It seems like this might just be reminding us that that everything we can see and touch is part of the great, big, impossible-to-totally-understand Tao.
  • We're reminded that the Tao is eternal and has been spoken of ever since ancient times—even times more ancient than this book.
  • It is the source of all things.
  • So if there's anything you don't like about your life, you can take it up with the Tao.
  • (Not that it'll apologize or anything.)