Chapter 46

Eckhart's Abgeschiedenheit/Gelassenheit — radical letting-go of will, image, and grasping that opens the soul to God; distinct from inner_silence (quietness) and from material renunciation, and adjacent to Sufi tark and Buddhist non-grasping as a practice rather than a metaphysical claim.

The text advocates for the letting-go of ambition and the wish to be getting as a path to enduring sufficiency.

Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.

Guilt, calamity, and fault are framed as deviations from the Tao rather than independent positive forces.

Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.

The imagery of swift horses drawing dung-carts versus war-horses breeding on borders uses reversal to critique societal values.

Effortless action aligned with the spontaneous flow of the Dao; non-coercive, non-striving conduct that yields results without forcing — the sage acts without acting.

[auto] The passage explicitly describes the state of the Tao prevailing through non-striving conduct and contentment rather than ambition or war.