De · 德 · virtue-power

The second word in the book's title, and hard to translate: de is virtue in the old sense — the specific power a thing has by being fully what it is, the Tao made concrete and effective in a particular life. Water's de is its yielding; the sage's is a power that does not push. It is how the nameless source shows up as this pine, this ruler, this act. The Tree's nearest station is Malkhut, the Kingdom — the lowest sefirah, where all the hidden light above finally becomes present in the world, the immanent Shekhinah, the place where the infinite is finally, humbly, here.