“Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, a great Zen master, said: ‘Even though you try to put people under control, it is impossible. You cannot do it. The best way to control people is to encourage them to be mischievous. Then they will be in control in a wider sense. To give your sheep or cow a large spacious meadow is the way to control him. So it is with people: first let them do what they want, and watch them. This is the best policy. To ignore them is not good. That is the worst policy. The second worst is trying to control them. The best one is to watch them, just to watch them, without trying to control them.”

In my understanding, this means that the less one impedes the natural freedom of those whom one leads, the more they lead themselves (which is ultimately the key to obedience). The key is, as Suzuki Roshi says, to ‘watch them’. This is the most effective way, as it neither controls nor ignores, but instead treads the middle path of trust and presence.”