VOLUME VI, CHAPTER 5, SECTION 15
In Closing: The Light Is Fixed but the Door Is Not Sealed, and On to the Sixth Chapter
The last section had the law, that ruler, turn back to protecting people, and land back on that root of letting the people live and work in peace. This section walks this road, steadily, to its end. Walked to its end, there are three things to do. To lay it plain, the crookedness in the law is more than this one chain, the methods more than these few, and so this chapter closes but its door is not sealed. To point out that the light, once fixed on the intent, does not move. And to pass over, on to the sixth chapter.
This road comes to its end. This road through law, told to here, is drawn to a close. Look back over it, from the turn at the head, from the warm, wide great principle onto the precise line, to the setting upright of the law's true nature, protecting people, the living ruler, read the intent not the letter, to that contrast that makes the scalp crawl, the representatives of the law turned illiterate in the law, to that chain laid open link by link, and cut from the source, to the saving of the people on it, the choosing of good people, the seeing-to of the harmed. This road, the most precise, the coldest on its face and the warmest underneath, steadily, has been walked to its end.
Look back over the road, and the fire you came in with, that would drag out those on the chain and strike them down, has been led, off that dead road of striking people, onto the living road of cutting the chain from the source and saving people. That anger you came in with should, by here, be eased. And in its place there should stand a thing steadier, a way of seeing the law with another eye, no longer taking it for a cold coercion to fear and obey, nor fixing on those who harm you, one by one, to hate and strike, but seeing that the law's true nature is a living ruler that protects people, and that the harm comes from that thought toward the dead letter, that chain forged by a source, and that to cut it is to cut the source, and save the people on it.
But in your heart there probably rises a question, the crookedness in the law, is it only this one chain, this one thing, the dead letter harming people? The methods of curing it, are they only these few, lighting the intent, oversight, reforging, barred for life, choosing by that heart, laying the law few and clear, seeing to the harmed? Do these, done, mean the law is set right once and for all, never to fault again?
Let me tell you honestly, no. The matters of the law have a thousand threads and a thousand heads. This chapter, what I led you to cut, is that largest, most fundamental, most life-costing chain, the harming of the people lawfully by the dead letter, and what was used are a few of the most important methods. But in the law there are how many finer, subtler crooknesses not touched today, how many new tricks not yet surfaced. Do not hope that one chapter of words says the matter of the law to the full, to the end. This chapter treads out that most fundamental road first, cuts that most life-costing chain first, and the finer, the newer, are left for later, to go on being cut, a little at a time.
So, the same as every chapter before, this chapter closes, but its door is not sealed. This chapter, written to here, leaves a door drawn to. In time, when a new crookedness surfaces, a new method is thought of, when the reader, walking this road, treads out a new way, all of it comes in through this door, is added on. This book is alive, set on the web, free for all to read, and it does not, written, die there, it goes on growing. Today this chapter is these sections, and tomorrow, perhaps, one more, and next year, a few more. Free to read, growing on. You read it, and you may be one who writes it, and the new ways you tread out on this road can all be added in.
And though the door is not sealed, there is one thing, once fixed, that does not move. It is the light. The light this chapter fixed on the intent of the law, protecting people, that read the intent and not the letter, that yardstick of has-it-protected-the-people, once fixed, does not move. However the crookedness changes, however new the tricks, however the methods grow, this light, this yardstick, does not change. Any new crookedness, brought under this light, shows at once whether it protects the people or harms them. Any new method, weighed by this yardstick, is measured at once as good or not. So the door is not sealed, and the methods grow on, but the light is fixed, the yardstick does not move. This is the difference between the root and the branch. The branch, the concrete methods, grows on, changes with the time. The root, the light of the intent, protecting people, is fixed, and does not move, for the age of the world. Hold this fixed light, and however the branches grow, they cannot grow crooked.
Then this road walked to its end, on to where? On to the sixth chapter. This volume led you through, chapter by chapter, culture, the economy, politics, law, the four systems, each set back in its place, each turned back to protecting people, settling people, and coming down, each, on that one root, letting the people live and work in peace. Four systems told, the four fingers each in place. On to the sixth chapter, to see how these, put together, come to rest, and where, in the end, this whole volume, this whole book, lands.
Let me set down one line, too, on this chapter. This chapter was written in the year twenty twenty-six. The law, how many crooknesses not told today, how many methods not said to the full, are all left to that door drawn to, going forward, to be added, slowly. This book is alive, free for all to read, and it goes on growing, long and long. But that light fixed on the intent, protecting people, does not move.
This road, law, draws to its close. Look back over the four systems walked, culture, the economy, politics, law, and hold two things in your heart. One, that whichever system it is, its true nature is to protect people, settle people, and to weigh it there is one yardstick, has it protected the people, let the people live and work in peace. The other, that whichever lock, whichever chain, the way to undo it is not to strike the people caught in it, but to cut the source, save the people, use the pen and not the knife. Hold these two, and you have not walked these four systems in vain. Stand steady, catch your breath, and on to the sixth chapter, up ahead, waiting for you.
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.