Few see deeper than the surface of people, events, and procedures. Good acting and marketing normally claim a much larger influence than the realities. Skillful illusions often change attitudes and actions much more quickly and effectively than the truth. For this reason, reality needs support. It is not enough to be right and have integrity, it must also look that way.

Faults—everyone has them and, although often seen clearly, attachment keeps them in our lives. We have irrational loves for avoidable failings that infect our talents (the more talent, the more likely corruption) and degrade our reputations. Even more visible to others, our defects easily overshadow our good qualities and repel people we would like to impress. Although unavoidable and part of who we are, we can become more aware of our imperfections and channel their energy into a deeper kind of integrity.

Exaggeration—a close kin of lying— may provide a temporary benefit but quickly turns sour as the truth reveals itself. It wastes distinctions, offends the truth, and demonstrates the shallowness of our thinking, understanding and taste. Exaggerated praise kindles a kind of curiosity, desire, and action that quickly corrodes into disillusionment that cheapens the reputation of both the praised and the praiser. The wise avoid overstatement, prefer understating.

Everything has a common beginning,
The mother of all things.
By understanding the mother,
We understand the children.
And when we understand the children,
We naturally turn back to the mother
And as the body comes to its ending,
We remain with nothing to fear.

Block all the openings,
Close all the gates
And life will always be full.
Open everything up
Always distracted and busy
And you will live without help or hope.

Those who understand the insignificant have vision
Those who protect the weak have strength.
Those who use their outer sight
While trusting their insight
Live beyond death
Cultivating the changeless.

Everyone excels at something but few know what it is. Even less both know and cultivate their strongest quality; most do violence to it by status quo obsequiousness, conformity, and constant attempts to be someone else. The successful in life both see and understand their true strengths and weaknesses. They propagate and grow their good qualities leaving less and less space for the weaknesses.

Every rapid collapse
Was once a bubble.
Those who feel unarmed
Once carried weapons.
Every failure in weakness
Was once puffed up with pseudo strength.
Those who feel belittled
Were once arrogant.
Those who feel deprived
Once had unearned privilege.

The wise hide their light,
Never advance unless under cover,
Never disclose the source of pain or joy.
The soft and weak prevail
Over the hard and strong.

Even monarchs and heads of giant corporations need good counsel and feedback. Only incorrigible fools refuse to listen, shun criticism, and scare people away from telling them the truth. People like this can't be helped because they can't be reached. They madly rush over cliffs without being able to hear warnings. Everyone benefits from friendships deep and secure enough to shelter fault-finding, honest advice, and a faithful mirroring free from deception. For this role however, trust only those with integrity—the sincere, wise, and loyal.

Especially when in uncertain or dangerous territory, only advance under cover. Find the goals of others that align with your own so that helping them without notice also advances your own plans. This provides an unseen advantage that continues after initial goals are met. While helping others, you more effectively further your own ends by avoiding the skepticism that would arise if it looked like you were only working for yourself. This disguised intent easily evades the resistance of the skeptical and those who always at first say "no." [Chapter 13 expands on this maxim and chapter 193 warns against others taking this approach.]

Epictetus taught that the ability to put up with fools represents half of all worldly wisdom and deserves a place as our most important rule of life. The ability to "suffer fools gladly" with an emphasis on the "gladly" leads to a deep inner peace that can create more happiness in the world. It requires, however, an uncommon patience and acceptance. Harder for the wise because they more clearly see folly and foolishness, we must often put up with the most from those most close.

Envious people—the more polite, the more poisonous—see our good qualities as failings, consider themselves perfect but slander and libel trying to build themselves up. Like lightning striking the highest tree, the more perfect we seem, the more of a target we become for criticism, blame, and backbiting. Sometimes, for these reasons, a little carelessness, neglecting a detail, or permitting an imperfection proves the best strategy.

Emptiness is the Way of Heaven,
Stillness is the Way of Earth.
Taking emptiness to the limit,
Resting the mind in stillness,
The perception of all things arise and fall together
And in their arising is their return.

Like flowers and leaves,
They grow, flourish, and then return to their root.
Returning to the root brings peace,
A peace that recognizes
No difference between self and other
And appreciates awareness
As completely perfect just as it is.

Without this recognition,
Perceptions are deluded and confusion rules.
With this complete realization of awareness,
Open-hearted compassion dawns
And brings life without limits.
The body comes to its ending
But nothing dies.

Emotional hurricanes in private, business, and political life tend to seduce our attention and provoke self-defeating action. Often, the more we try to solve problems, the worse they become. Like a doctor pressured to but not prescribing a medicine, the wise hold themselves back. The greatest skill paradoxically becomes not doing. Small disturbances muddy a pond and only inaction, disengagement lets the water clear, lets emotions run their course, the storms of passion settle. Strategic withdrawal today may represent the best way for success tomorrow.

Each half of the world laughs at the other half and both sink into foolishness. The wise work hard to become independent from their culture, historical context, and from any solid point of view. Tastes are as diverse as faces. Almost every opinion, every belief, every value system has strong advocates as well as opponents. What inspires one person repels another. What some love others loath. Trying to impose one set of morals on many only makes things worse. For these reasons, we can to a certain extent ignore rebukes and disapproval—for every one who criticizes, another will praise. And for all approvals there will also be condemnations. Only the conclusions of the wise matter.

During golden ages
The best soldiers were never angry,
The best generals were never aggressive.
They overcame enemies without fighting.

The best victors didn’t compete,
The best employers served their employees.
This is the goodness of no struggle, no striving, no gaining ideas;
The best use of ability;
The joining of heaven and earth.

During golden ages, people barely know their leaders exist;
In lesser times, people love and praise them.
In darker days, people fear their rulers
And in the darkest times, they despise them.

When leaders work for personal reward,
Honesty fails and deception rules.
Corrupted by desire for fame and power,
Leaders create criminals.

At any price, words from a true leader are hard to gain.
Their advice – given in secret without fuss or boasting,
Like the truest voice in a group of singers –
Seems to come from the people themselves.
When good works succeed,
The people think they’ve done it themselves.

Don’t let the success of a moment distract you from the steps toward a happy completion. Most often, a fortuitous beginning degenerates into a tragic ending; ventures begin with high-flying exuberance but end in disillusionment and failure. Or they begin with great difficulty and suffering but end with a contented accomplishment. History judges few worthy of an encore because most let temporary successes corrupt them away from their focus on the goals of integrity. Care less about how you look and how people regarded you during the process, more about if and how you can cross the finish line.

Don't let yourself become a victim of circumstance, of fate, of any person. Instead of lamenting, complaining, or projecting when difficulties arise, take responsibility and flow with, direct, and transform every experience with awareness. First impressions—frequently only based on a person’s acting skills or an advertiser's psychological understanding—almost always inflate, exaggerate, or skillfully lie. Instead of naively believing, the wise quickly see through the deception, perceive the hidden motivations and conflicts of interest. They reason based on reality and act based on insightful reasoning.

Don't let your impulses and strong feelings enslave you to whims and poor judgment. Under the influence of contradictory desires, public opinion, and seemingly certain external opinion; most people unknowingly live their lives controlled by subtle cultural and political forces they not only don't understand but also don't even notice. This creates cognitive dissonance and a damned-if-you do/damned-if-you don't dichotomy between our beliefs and our true selves. Instead, focus on knowing yourself. Self-reflection can become the best school of wisdom.

Don't let prosperity seduce you into complacency. When good luck, progress, and success flourish; don't indulge in frivolous spending, taking people and positions for granted. Instead, acknowledge the possibilities for sudden change, reversals, and unexpected declines. Store your harvests in the summer and fall; don't expect these opportunities in the winter. Fame and fortune magnetize friends and favors best reserved for times of adversity when their support becomes much more expensive or not available at all. The foolish seldom have allies because when in luck, we don't recognized them and when in adversity, they don't recognize us.

Don't let passions, moods, or sudden emotions throw you off balance into doing or saying embarrassing things you'll regret later. Strong feelings create passions that—if unchecked—can destroy reputations, undermine friendships, and sabotage our projects. Instead of getting angry or upset, cultivate a kind of equanimity that appreciates both when things go our way and when they don't: when we meet with success and when we meet with failure, when we're praised and when we're reviled.