of gentleness, adaptation, and ease." In ancient Daoist texts, wu-wei is associated with water through its yielding nature and the effortless way it flows around obstacles. Daoist philosophy, in accordance with the I Ching, proposes that the universe works harmoniously according to its own ways. When someone exerts their will against the world in a manner that is out of rhythm with the cycles of change, they may disrupt that harmony and unintended consequences may more likely result rather than the willed outcome. Thus the Daodejing says: "act of things and you will ruin them. Grasp for things and you will lose them. Therefore the sage acts with non-action and has no ruin, lets go of grasping and has no loss." Daoism does not identify one's will as the root problem. Rather, it asserts that one must place their will in harmony with the natural way of the universe. Thus, a potentially harmful interference may be avoided, and in this way, goals can be achieved effortlessly. "By wu-wei, the sage seeks to come into harmony with the great Tao, which itself accomplishes by nonaction." Aspects of the self (xing, xin, and ming) The Daoist view of the self is a holistic one which rejects the idea of a separate individualized self. As Kirkland writes, Daoists "generally assume that one’s “self” cannot be understood or fulfilled without reference to other persons, and to the broader set of realities in which all persons are naturally and properly embedded." In Daoism, one's innate or fundamental nature (xing) is ultimately the Dao expressing or manifesting itself as an embodied person. Innate nature is also connected with one's heartmind (xin), which refers to consciousness, the heart and one's spirit. The focus of Daoist psychology is the heartmind (xin), the intellectual and emotional center (zhong) of a person. It is associated with the chest cavity, the physical heart as well as with emotions, thoughts, consciousness and the storehouse of spirit (shen). When the heartmind is unstable and separated from the Dao, it called the ordinary heartmind (suxin). On the other hand, the original heartmind (benxin) pervades Dao and is constant and peaceful. The Neiye (ch.14) calls this pure original heartmind the "inner heartmind", "an awareness that precedes language" and "a lodging place of the numinous". Later Daoist sources also refer to it by other terms like "awakened nature" (wuxing), "original nature" (benxing), "original spirit" (yuanshen) and