To take such sentences from Lao Tzu's book as, "The way undertakes no activities, and yet there is nothing left undone," and to assume, as so many Western commentators assume, that it means complete retirement from the world as a way of life because everything will be done by the Higher Power is to confuse the minds of aspirants. The virtue and power lie not in the retirement but in the linking up with the higher force which flows through the adept, a force which is unable to flow through the beginner. To take another sentence from Lao Tzu, "The Sage manages his affairs without assertion and spreads his doctrine without words," would again be foolish or dangerous if applied to the beginner. It is natural for the ego to assert itself and it will continue to do so even if he retires from the world. Only when the ego loses the power to rule the affairs of a man does the Overself step in and rule them for him, but this position is not reached merely by saying or wishing that it should be reached. It represents the culmination of a lifelong struggle. Then again, unless a man has become completely united with the force which lies within the depths of silence, he must necessarily depend upon words to spread a doctrine: only the adept who has united himself with that force, which is immeasurably more powerful than the intellect, can afford to remain silent with the perfect confidence that the doctrine will spread despite it.
-- Notebooks Category 2: Overview of Practices Involved > Chapter 9 : Conclusion > # 66
