True goodness
is like water.
Water’s good
for everything.

It doesn’t compete.
It goes right
to the low loathsome places,
and so finds the way.

For a house,
the good thing is level ground.
In thinking,
depth is good.
The good of giving is magnanimity;
of speaking, honesty;
of government, order.
The good of work is skill,
And of action, timing.

No competition,
so no blame.

This poem is taken from the Tao Te Ching, one of the basic texts of Taoism. It was written in the fifth century B.C.E. by the Chinese philosopher Lao Tsu, and is considered one of the great spiritual classics of all time. Another section of the Tao describes the seven noble virtues of water, which doesn’t discriminate between people or things and gives itself freely to all encounters. This is one of the profound teachings of Zen Buddhism so the poem, beautifully translated by Ursula Le Guin - the great American science fiction and children’s author - can be regarded as a perfect metaphor for our practice.