Chapter 3.4c: Sagely Principles for Leadership and Self-Governance, Part III: Eliminating Outsmarting & Expectations

Wise people set themselves and others forever free from outsmarting and expectations. 

They won’t ever try to outsmart others and they do not act only for themselves – then nothing is left ungoverned.

To become sages, we engage in a two-fold process of self-acceptance and surrender of our own expectations.  To become sages, or wise people, we must constantly setting ourselves and others free from the need to “outsmart” others – understanding that we are already enough.  Content in our identity and purpose, we don’t need to look for opportunities to appear smart or put others down to curry favor or to outmaneuver others through our cunning or intellect, our best laid plans, or by devising strategies to outcompete or get ahead at the expense of others.  We don’t need to “show off," roast someone, always have a witty or barbed comment or backhanded complement -- even though that is what is portrayed and propagated in so much of our entertainment and social media. 

Likewise, to become wise people we must constantly let go of our expectations for a desired outcome in any given situation or interaction.  By letting go of and liberating ourselves from our expectations, we allow ourselves to be completely in the moment and open ourselves up to limitless possibilities that we could not have anticipated or imagined beforehand – the wonders on the Way.  Simultaneously, wise people are also constantly letting go of external appetites – anything outside of ourselves that we feel we “need” or “must” turn to in order to be “more” or “better” than we already are, such as the need to promote ourselves as worthy, value external objects to accessorize ourselves or enhance our worth or value, and try to appear desirable to others.  As sages or wise people, we understand that we are already a treasure of infinite worth and that no external commodity, worldly honor, or social status can in any way enhance or diminish our true value in this world. 

No matter what, we won’t presume to take advantage of others or situations by using our knowledge as a weapon, to outsmart, outthink, or manipulate others for our own gain or personal profit – even if the opportunity presents itself.  As wise people, we do not act solely for our own best interests in our personal lives and in our interactions with others.  Above all, we practice “unmediated action” – free from the fetters of the past and the expectations of a future desired outcome.  By so doing, nothing is left ungoverned or unregulated in our own lives and in our interactions with others and we can thus empower those around us to do likewise, so that we can all walk along the Way free from the perceived need to outsmart others to get ahead, our expectations of how we think things "should" be, and all the external things we think we need to be enough. 

The word 知 means “knowledge” or “to know” or “understand.”  In Daoist contexts, it represents a secular or superficial knowledge that is often inferior to “wisdom” 智, the etymology of which means “knowledge worth speaking of” as opposed to just random facts and information.  To make interpretation more difficult, the two characters were often interchangeable.  The base character 知 is a picto-phonetic compound with 矢 (shī) arrow on the left providing the sound and 口 mouth providing the meaning.  It is also possibly a compound ideogram, which would convey the idea that knowledge is the arrow of the mouth.  Some of the earliest character examples also add the crossroads element 亍 on the right side, as such 𣉻.  This adds to the idea that knowledge is the arrow of the mouth that we speak when we come to a crossroads in our lives.  What the text is teaching us is that it doesn’t have to be that way.  We don’t have to use our knowledge or the words we speak, as an arrow or a weapon to hurt others whenever we come to a crossroads in our lives or whenever someone crosses our path.  ~ DCB