| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Sophist by Plato: STRANGER: Yes, and with a fresh pedigree, for he is the money-making
species of the Eristic, disputatious, controversial, pugnacious, combative,
acquisitive family, as the argument has already proven.
THEAETETUS: Certainly.
STRANGER: How true was the observation that he was a many-sided animal,
and not to be caught with one hand, as they say!
THEAETETUS: Then you must catch him with two.
STRANGER: Yes, we must, if we can. And therefore let us try another track
in our pursuit of him: You are aware that there are certain menial
occupations which have names among servants?
THEAETETUS: Yes, there are many such; which of them do you mean?
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson: with sentimental whistling; and in the irritation of the
moment, he struck his pipe upon the rail with unnecessary
force. It was an old, sweet, seasoned briar-root, glossy and
dark with long employment, and justly dear to his fancy.
What, then, was his chagrin, when the head snapped from the
stem, leaped airily in space, and fell and disappeared among
the lilacs of the garden?
He threw himself savagely into the garden chair, pulled out
the story-paper which he had brought with him to read, tore
off a fragment of the last sheet, which contains only the
answers to correspondents, and set himself to roll a
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Tao Teh King by Lao-tze: 3. The Tao is hidden, and has no name; but it is the Tao which is
skilful at imparting (to all things what they need) and making them
complete.
42. 1. The Tao produced One; One produced Two; Two produced Three;
Three produced All things. All things leave behind them the Obscurity
(out of which they have come), and go forward to embrace the
Brightness (into which they have emerged), while they are harmonised
by the Breath of Vacancy.
2. What men dislike is to be orphans, to have little virtue, to be as
carriages without naves; and yet these are the designations which
kings and princes use for themselves. So it is that some things are
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