Tao te Ching: 16

Attain complete vacuity,
Maintain steadfast quietude.
All things come into being,
And I see thereby their return.
All things flourish,
But each one returns to its root.
This return to its root means tranquility.
It is called returning to its destiny.
To return to destiny is called the eternal (Tao).
To know the eternal is called enlightenment.
Not to know the eternal is to act blindly to result in disaster.
He who knows the eternal is all-embracing.
Being all-embracing, he is impartial.
Being impartial, he is kingly (universal).
Being kingly, he is one with Nature.
Being one with Nature, he is in accord with Tao.
Being in accord with Tao, he is everlasting,
And is free from danger throughout his lifetime.

The beginning of this chapter is the beginning of meditation for me. To begin, I seek to be empty and the best way to be empty is to be tranquil. Still and quiet all the thoughts rise up in my mind and eventually they fall away again. It is like this with all things in life. If you stay somewhere long enough you see new people come and go, events happen and stop happening.

Returning to your beginning, not geographically, but the empty peaceful mind of young children, is to return to what we are meant to be. To return to that is to return to the Tao.

If we don't, we cast about madly and make mistakes. We have troubles. This is the essence of Zen.

If we know the Tao then we know everything, and if we know all things, we are impartial. We become like the sage, who is like Heaven and Earth in Chapter 5. If we are like Heaven and Earth, then we are in agreement with Tao.

How does this mean that we are free from danger? Perhaps it means that we aren't likely to fall into the traps of greed or a selfish mind. How clever we are, to create things to alleviate our suffering and then create new things to alleviate the suffering that is caused by those inventions. When this happens we are not in accord with Nature.