Nie Qüe asked about the Tao from Bei-yi who replied,
‘If you keep your body as it should be,
and look only at the one thing,
the Harmony of Heaven will come to you.

Call in your knowledge,
and make your measures uniform,
and the spiritual (belonging to you)
will come and lodge with you;
the Attributes (of the Tao) will be your beauty,
and the Tao (itself) will be your dwelling-place.

You will have the simple look of a new-born calf,
and will not seek to know the cause (of your being what you are).’

Bei-yi had not finished these words when the other dozed off into a sleep.
Bei-yi was greatly pleased, and walked away, singing as he went,..

Zhuangzi by Zhuang Zhou, trans. by James Legge

A running conversation with two friends, also Starbuck’s morning regulars.  Our topic was the dynamics of decision making and of making necessary changes when one is responsible for the performance of a number of food service businesses.  I was impressed with the feudal nature of operating a scaled up business, something with many moving parts, always demanding maintenance, repair, upgrading.  The ideal functioning according to the dictates of the numbers, profit and loss, balance sheet, how the numbers trend, — runs head-on into human nature.  I dislike “human nature” because the term is freighted with so much Calvinist resentment.  Still human beings as a species, like any living entity arise from what came before, a context.  Each of us is a new composition, a never before emergent puzzle, a product of heaven and earth, to use the Taoist metaphor.

The challenge for us, is encapsulated by the question put to Bei-yi.  Given our condition, the predicament of living as a human, how am I to understand and to fulfill my nature?

The reply seems as simple as one can imagine.  Pay attention to your body.  There is nothing more natural, more expressive of everything that has made me, than my own body.  Care for the body is an example of the harmonious composite of “heaven and earth.”

The benefit is described as the repose observed in a newborn calf.  Nature, just lives, simply exults in being.  The young calf is not obsessed with explaining the cause and effect relationship, the why’s of the species-that-it-is.  One should not assess the calf as ignorant.  It just pays attention to what is most worth attending to.

Did Bei-yi’s student rightfully understand the lesson?  Apparently so.  He took a nap.