Water is the manifestation of Virtue. Virtue is the manifestation of Heaven.
Lao-tsu wrote:
Virtue is like water: It gives life to all things in nature and follows its natural course without struggle. It even flows to the dark or lowly places that most people fear and loathe.
Water transforms ongoingly. Precipitating rain from heavy clouds; collecting as puddles; sinking into earth’s deep aquifer; gushing forth again into the light of day, satisfying parched and thirsty souls. Water transforms continually and ongoingly.
Virtue transforms continually, and ongoingly.
Virtue is Heaven once it has left Heaven. It is the “light that proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space—The light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed.” It is the “Good that flows from on High like water”; “the Celestial Unity pouring itself into each being”. It is the “light that lights all things coming into this world.” It cascades from heaven, gushing forth, bearing to Earth “the record of Heaven: that which quickens all things, which makes alive all things; that which knows all things, and has all power according to wisdom, mercy, truth, justice, and judgment.”
Like Water, Virtue transforms ongoingly. “the proud Virtue of Heaven consents to become the humble virtue of a man.” (See Rooted in Spirit; page xvi) Virtue transforms in me into reliance on daily, domestic scripts, dialogues, and habits that determine the daily grind of everyday life. Virtue transforms into survival strategies and techniques: what I would term my machinery. Heavenly Virtue transforms into the weakness that I can’t seem to overcome. It also transforms me into aliveness, when I shed survival strategies, and disappear inside a clearing that expresses aliveness and freedom.
Water and Virtue transform and cause transformation ongoingly.
I am made mostly of water. I am quickened by Virtue. Transformation, continuing and ongoing, is the first governing principle that defines life.
