So remember…Lao Tzu’s world is not of logic but analogy. Logic is apparent, direct – either you have to be convinced or you have to convince the opponent; either you have to follow it, become a follower, or you become the enemy. You have to choose. With logic your mind has to be active. It is easy, nothing is difficult about it. Everybody argues. More or less, everybody is a logician; good or bad, everybody is a philosopher.

If you want to understand Lao Tzu that old way won’t help. You will have to put your logic aside because he is not chasing you as a logician, he is not arguing against you – if you argue against him, it will be ridiculous because he has not argued at all. He simply gives an analogy.

What is analogy? If I have a certain experience that you don’t have, then how am I to describe it to you? The only way is an analogy: some experience that you have – it is not exactly the same as one that I have, but some similarity exists. So I say that it is like the experience you have – not exactly like it, not exactly the same, but a small similarity exists. That small similarity understood will become the bridge.

That’s why those who have come to the ultimate ecstasy say it is like two lovers in deep embrace, it is like two lovers in deep orgasm, it is like when the sex act comes to a peak. This is analogy. They are not saying that it is this. No. They are not saying anything like that. They are simply saying that your experience has nothing else which can become a bridge.

Jesus says, “God is love.” This is an analogy. In your life the highest is love. In God’s being the lowest is love. The lowest of the divine and the highest of the human meet; that is the boundary. The highest that humanity can reach is love; it is lowest for the divine, just the feet of the divine. But from there, if the feet are found, you can find the whole God. That’s why Jesus says, “Love is God.” Not that love is God, but in your experience nothing else exists through which an analogy can be made.

So don’t take Lao Tzu verbally and literally; these are all analogies. If he says “The spirit of the valley,” this is an analogy. He is saying something…not exactly about the valley, because the valley you know; through the valley he is giving you a feeling of something that you don’t know. From that which you know he is bringing you to that which you don’t know. Analogy means a reference to the known to explain the unknown. When he says “The spirit of the valley,” he means many things.