“Can you govern your animal soul, hold to the One and never depart from it?
“Can you throttle your breath, down to the softness of breath in a child?
“Can you purify your mystic vision and wash it until it is spotless?
“Can you love all your people, rule over the land without being known?
“Can you be like a female, and passively open and shut heaven’s gates?
“Can you keep clear in your mind the four quarters of earth and not interfere?” – Lao Tzu

(Lao-Tzu, The Way of Life. The Tao Te Ching. trans. R.B. Blakney. New York, etc.: Avon, 1975, 10, 62.)