Finally, the line’s insistence on mystery gestures beyond definition. “Xuan” (dark, profound) signals apophatic knowing: approaching truth by emptying concepts. This spirit threads through Zhuangzi’s “fasting of the mind” (Zhuangzi, c. 3rd century BCE), where clarity arrives when grasping ceases.
As a practice, begin by making a little valley in time: a quiet interval before speech or action. Breathe into the pause, soften the chest and jaw, and let attention widen. In that receptive gate, responses often self-assemble. Thus the teaching returns to its root: by creating space, we discover the inexhaustible source that “never fails.” [...]
