In part 1, we observed the fruitful void – the empty spaces left in our games from which good and interesting things spontaneously arise. Let’s now read poem number 29.

Do you think you can take over the universe and improve it?
I do not believe it can be done.

The universe is sacred
You can not improve it
If you try to change it, you will ruin it
If you try to hold it, you will lose it

So sometimes things are ahead and sometimes they are behind
Sometimes breathing is hard; sometimes it comes easily
Sometimes there is strength; sometimes there is weakness
Sometimes one is up and at other times down

Therefore the sage avoids extremes, excesses and complacency.

I know a game group that runs back in Toledo that has met nearly every week for over 22 years. 22 YEARS!!! They started with the Azure Bonds scenarios from 2nd edition D&D and have continued ever since.  Is it possible the DM planned 22 years worth of material ahead of time? Maybe, but I’ll tell you for sure that’s not the case. One game merely leads into another and from the collection of all those episodes, a grand story arose. Not every game is equally good. Some are better than others. Sometimes there’s a plan ahead of time and sometimes there’s not. Some material is from the DM and others is from the players. No one keeps track. The irregularity makes it feel real.

The Tao abides in non-action
Yet nothing is left undone
If kings and lords observed this
The ten thousand things would develop naturally
If they still desired to act
They would return to the simplicity of formless substance
Without form there is no desire
Without desire there is tranquility
And in this way all things would be at peace.
(#37)