The Sage

1) Practices Non-Ado; has power; is mysterious; paradoxical; embraces the One; Is One with the Tao: 2, 3, 15, 22, 23, 77, 78

2) Relies on actionless activity; does not strive with anyone, and achieves all: 2, 3, 81

3) Does his work without setting any store by it; does not linger over successes; accords with the Good; is like Tao; follows Tao; returns to Tao; is weak (like an infant): 22, 23, 28, 76, 77, 78, 79

4) Is Wise; banishes learning; rejects that, takes this; prefers what is within (Tao; “secret essence”); relies on wordless teaching; realizes that knowledge is ignorance; knows himself: 2, 3, 12, 15, 17, 19, 21, 27, 38, 71, 72, 81

INTERPRETATION: The Sage lives in accordance with the Tao and so is a "master" of life (has the power or potency of te).
•	like a skilled artisan, the sage lives actionlessly
•	is intensional only in the sense of being a conscious activity; but is not intentional in the sense of requiring (self-conscious) reflection
•	applies to life generally as well as to specific skills or activities; they are actionless in seeming to require nothing at all

The Sage's wisdom hinges on a full appreciation of what it is like to be living, not a wisdom that can be explained (wordless teaching).
•	the Taoist Sage is a true master at the art of living who appreciates being alive simply “for its own sake”
•	 evoked only in lived experience; in embracing the mystery and miracle of life, instead of thinking one has really mastered it
	
Hence, the paradox to Taoist ethics and "mastery”, one must realize that life cannot ever be mastered in the sense of being adequately understood
•	from this comes a power (te) from weakness
•	a strength from yielding and letting go
•	a mastery in living a balanced, peaceful, harmonious life
•	a spiritual appreciation that one is not a separate being, in control of his or her own fate, but rather a part of life
•	a way of being that can then be contrasted with the selfish egoism that divides us from Tao, as well as from each other and the rest of nature