The sage has no mind of his own.
Having no mind of his or her own, the sage has room for everyone else. As Lao Tsu says, he is aware of the needs of others. When we embrace the Big Self, our needs no longer govern our actions. Following this idea, the middle two stanzas of this chapter focus on the sage’s realization that the fact of the status of some other person’s actions as good or faithful makes no difference to the actions of the sage. The sage is both good and faithful whether or not others are good or faithful. There is no condition to be met for the sage to demonstrate his or her faith in others or for the sage to be good to others. Faithfulness and goodness are Virtue. Therefore, the sage acts in accordance with Virtue.
Just as a child demonstrates this propensity for unconditional acts of goodness and faith in others, so too does the sage. Often this behavior is simply opaque to ordinary observers. They cannot imagine living life in this guileless way. They cannot make sense of behavior devoid of subterfuge and want to attribute machinations to these childlike actions. But the sage is nothing but what he or she seems, both good and faithful.
He behaves like a little child.