Translation by Sifu John A. Fey
1 remember
to be at your best
pattern yourself after water
2 nothing in all the world is softer or more powerful nothing in all the world can substitute for it nothing in all the world can stop it
3 in their hearts everyone easily knows that the soft and weak
will always overcome the hard and strong but they find it difficult to live this way
4 the secret is to move the bodymind like water
At this point in the direct transmission of the Classic, the Master employs changes in tone and syntax, as well as other devices that suggest the beginning of a journey.
This is to be a journey of actualization where the student, now fully initiated into the Taoist Mysteries, takes what he has learned and applies it to every facet of his life.
1-2 BODY and MIND: These stanzas remind the Cultivator to pattern his life and actions after flowing water. Ultimately, the divinity of water informs the life of the Taoist giving him both a model for living and an image that forms a comfortable refuge.
3 BODY and MIND: Another way of saying this might be, "Everyone knows that the meek shall inherit the earth but so few are willing to engage in behavior that might mistakenly signal weakness or vulnerability."
4 BODY, MIND, and HAND: Think fluidly, move and exercise like flowing water, and live life as if you were a great river flowing through it.