The Dao is not separate from nature — it is the way nature works when it works, the grain in the wood that the master carpenter follows rather than fights. Nasreddin and Laozi would have recognized each other instantly: both teachers who taught by indirection, both men whose wisdom was in what they did not do. The path of least resistance is not the path of least effort; it is the path that has learned to read the landscape.
Each step builds on the last.