See the Series Introduction for Just Tao It, Part I: HERE
See the Just Tao It Series Introduction Tao/It on-ramp, PART II: HERE
See Just Tao It, Chapter 1: HERE

From my interpretation of the Tao Te Ching, Chapter 14 (Unpublished):

Looking, you can’t see It.
Listening, you can’t hear It.
Reaching, you can’t grasp It.

It is not above or bright.
It is not below or dark.

Seamless,
ever returning.

Forming forms.
It is emptiness
from which forms arise.

Elusive,
beyond detection.
Ever-present,
within perception.

Approach It—
no beginning.
Follow It—
no end.

Unclaimed,
It remains.

—

I love this chapter because it refuses the one thing I’ve built much of my career around: explaining.

Decades of building Polarity Maps®, leading workshops and certifications, and coaching people and consulting with systems in an effort to make sense of complexity have taught me the value of clear language. Somewhere along the way, the limits also became clear. Chapter 14 doesn’t care how well I can or do explain. It just keeps sending the invitation to something words can point toward but never fully hold.

And, as if right on cue, you’ll find a polarity map for Ever-present And Boundless at the end of this post. 😉

That said…

Looking, you can’t see It.
Listening, you can’t hear It.
Reaching, you can’t grasp It.

Lao Tzu removes every way I might normally come to know something, then reminds me, in the same breath, that It is ever-present, within perception.

There are paths at Kayser Ridge I have walked for more than twenty years. On moonless nights it’s black as ink out there. The ridgeline and trees disappear. The stone steps a few feet below are barely perceptible in the darkness. Yet my hand still knows where to find the handrail. My feet still know where to go. Something internal and intuitive does the seeing now. It’s a different kind of recognition that’s come slowly, over years.

Helen Keller described a similar discovery. After becoming blind and deaf as a child, she wrote of an awareness untouched by the absence of sight or hearing. Her deeper perception was found through another doorway. Her powerful life example is a constant reminder to me that awareness can extend beyond our familiar senses.

My own version is quite different, but it runs in the same direction. Last weekend I stood at the top of the ridge and waited for my eyes to adjust. With a little wait-time, the ridgeline gradually assembles itself. Even unique tree shapes emerge. Stars appear. The water from the pond begins reflecting treetops and the night sky. Nothing changed around me. Just my seeing.

That has been my experience with Polarity Thinking as well. People often assume a Polarity Map begins with a framework. My experience has been different. It begins with someone sensing that reality might be larger than the language they currently have to describe it. With some deepening conversation, values become clearer, relationships become clearer, and recognition starts to grow. The map doesn’t create the reality. It helps reveal what was already there.

Barry Johnson has spent his career showing people that our biggest difficulties usually come from incomplete perception. I know that now. The challenge is the one Chapter 14 already named for me: keep looking long enough for the pattern to emerge instead of trying to figure it out. Stay with It.

That kind of staying isn’t only a personal discipline. Yuval Noah Harari observes that many of the realities holding civilization together—trust, money, nations, laws, and human rights—exist because people continue participating in them together. Their influence comes through relationship more than physical form. Lao Tzu was exploring that same territory twenty-five centuries earlier.

Just this morning, Barry shared a piece from Father Richard Rohr that describes a similar receiving, closer to home: chosenness as something received before it’s understood. Surrendering to it comes first. Readiness follows. He reminded us about his mentor, Jack Gibb, who said, “love is the natural result of seeing anyone or anything completely.”

I recognize that order in my own life. Some of the time. As much as possible. We’re all a work in progress. When I began building Kayser Ridge, I believed I was creating a place. As time went on, there was a slower realization that something larger was taking shape. A sanctuary. A place to express the Tao and experience It. Pollinate Polarity Thinking. Collaborate and co-create. Learn. Enjoy life. Be together. They were all there, growing, long before I had words for what they were or what they were becoming.

Chapter 14 leaves me with a simple, if not always easy, practice.

Elusive,
beyond detection.
Ever-present,
within perception.

Unclaimed,
It remains. 

Keep looking, listening, and reaching.
Keep staying long enough to see what was already there.

Here’s a Polarity Map for Ever-present And Boundless:

INVITATIONS:
To use an AI-trained “Chat w/Cliff” for Step 1, “Seeing” CLICK HERE.

Ready for the Polarity Advantage? Go deeper into Polarity Thinking, see our online self-directed Credentialing and Introduction to Polarity Practice or in-person training with Barry Johnson and me at Kayser Ridge by CLICKING HERE.