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The _______ is often not taken serious by "men of the world". Somebody who cares so little about material wealth could only be judged as inferior and foolish by a world intoxicated by material possession. Someone so untouched by hierarchical structures could only be a failure in the "age of the manager," which measures success by one's ability to manipulate and to rule. Someone who is honest and open like a child can only be an imbecile to a world obsessed with devious manipulation and power.

Not for the ________ the compulsive preoccupation with several problems simultaneously. He does not fret about his future strategies while frantically trying to deal with his immediate problems. He does not use his cellular phone while simultaneously eating and negotiating with someone across the table. Unlike your ambitious managerial type, he does one thing at a time, and enjoys doing it. He eats when he eats, sleeps when he sleeps, and enjoys company for the sake of company. He lives now and now only, for he knows the past is past and the future mere fiction.

He will only take upon him as much as he can handle without losing his compassion. He knows that being too busy inevitably leads to spiritual starvation and distress, and the loss of meaning to life.

The ______ does not move with the counterfeit self-assurance of your crawler up the hierarchical ladder. He is totally honest about his own doubts and shortcomings, as well as his disagreements with authority or management, to a point of what to the world is naivety. He does not think in hierarchical categories and he refuses to choose friends according to their relative usefulness to him in his social, business or corporate environment. He is kind even to people who are mobbed by management and their lackeys.

Hesitantly, he moves among society as if on thin ice, withdrawn like a guest in a strange house. He is wary of any group, for he realizes that a group is often worse than the sum total of its members' inflated egos and prejudices. He distrusts committees and councils, for they often legitimize prejudice. He refuses to have anything to do with cliques and societies, who often boost their own egos at the cost of others. He avoids meetings and gatherings, where gossip and meanness are often given respectability. He is disinclined to become part even of groups with the loftiest ideals, for grand schemes often serve as facades to ego trips towards fame and prestige.

In a Vanity Fair of brash, inflated egos, he prefers to be invisible. In a pretentious world of self-aggrandizement where status rules supreme, the _____ longs to remain unnoticed. In a society clamouring for public honour and fame, he remains out of sight.

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The _______ would be derided as inactive and indecisive by "the man of action". The _____ is innately suspicious of public action, for he realizes it is often a compulsive vanity trip leading to harm.

The _____ believes in the virtues of non-manipulative action and non-interference, of containing his influence, of reducing his ego, of remaining silent. He acts when compassion dictates, and his actions are often unpremeditated and spontaneous. He prefers to work out of reach of the public eye. Whatever he does, he does well, but he would finish what he has to do, and then retire, without clinging to his achievements, careful to avoid any honour, influence or advantage it might bring him. He clings neither to responsibilities nor to positions. He is never possessive.

The _____ knows the only influence that moves the spirit forward is the presence of character based on compassion and integrity. Character cannot be developed by the crude exhibitionism of modern role models; nor can enlightenment be inspired by your upper-middle class ideal: the smooth respectable perpetration of egotism glossed over by education, good manners, proper language, affluence, good taste and just the right touch of religiosity. Least of all can civilization be improved by the corrupting and self-inflationary "management" of human beings and their lives.

The Tao _____ avoids "managing" other people's lives, for he knows the world is a spiritual thing that should not be controlled or interfered with. He tries to restrict his own influence on others. He will rather suffer loss than manipulate others to reach his aims. Freedom to him has spiritual implications: it is to avoid any form of interference or manipulation. He therefore rejects the basic tenets of power. He prefers to be seen as a loser if success entails tampering with the lives and fates of others.

The Taoist _____ is honest in his relationships, never calculating. He does not flatter. He would treat his "superiors" with the same honesty than he would deal with his "colleagues" or "subordinates." He does not cringe when threatened, nor laugh ingratiatingly at the boss's jokes. He has no hidden self-promotional agendas. Responding to his natural impulses, he would spontaneously do what is virtuous, and instinctively avoid the false and the mean. He would participate in an organization and obey orders as far as they are of benefit to sentient beings, but he would go no further, no matter what it might cost him in terms of career, promotion or prestige. His incorruptibility is remarkable, for it springs from the inner strength of a person who has diminished his own ego to a degree where he has become independent of the judgement of society. He is essentially, genuinely anarchic: he is master of himself, and he will not be controlled by any system of power.

What the upwardly mobile person would find unforgivable in the ________ is his lack of ambition. The _____ avoids a life brimming over with goals and objectives, which he finds a hindrance rather than a help. He realizes that some goals might be essential for survival, and some might even be useful to make life pleasant. Most goals, however, do not give meaning to life. In fact, striving with great effort to reach numerous goals often destroys compassion as one becomes insensitive to the needs of others.

The _____ instinctively avoids becoming too busy, which he sees as the worst form of laziness. Mostly, being too busy is nothing but the effort to sidestep the issues that really matter in your life. No matter how lofty or altruistic your goals might seem to be, being too busy is often a form of egomania, regularly accompanied by a martyr complex, in which the protagonist overtly or subtly displays how much he is "sacrificing" himself and "suffering" for "others" or for "the company" or some "worthy cause". Instead of giving meaning to your life, hyperactivity can create delusions which alienate you from your own self and increase your confusion.

Being too busy is like running fast without knowing where you are going. The _____ refuses to run blindly in any direction. He moves at leisure with his eyes wide open, sensitive to the needs of living beings around him. Like the Good Samaritan, he will have enough time to help his fellow traveller lying, helpless, next to the road.

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