【Tao Te Ching】 Chapter 2 Part 3｜Give Everything, Keep Nothing

One breath, before words. That single breath is where Chapter Two has been pointing the whole time — and where we walk it to its end today.In the closing episode of our Chapter Two journey, Leo and Amy sit with the final five movements of the chapter — Lao-tzu's portrait of the Saint in motion: "All things being worked thereupon and yet, not being excused or dismissed. To create and yet take no possession. To act and yet hold no credit. Achieve merit and yet not dwell in it, not seeking recognition." Then the great reversal of the last line: "Only those who act and not dwell on it, thereby will always be remembered indeed."We walk through the Buddha's teaching of the two arrows — the first arrow we cannot avoid, the second arrow we add. The Christian Gospels on giving so that "your left hand does not know what your right hand is doing." The Diamond Sutra's instruction to arouse the mind without dwelling on anything. Mahatma Gandhi, drawing on the Bhagavad Gita, on acting without anxiety about the fruit. And the Gospel of John on the grain of wheat that bears much fruit only by letting itself dissolve.The chapter's final paradox: the achievement that was not held is the achievement that cannot be taken away.A small two-step practice and a question to carry through the week close the journey.