“The Federal Reserve’s decision to lower rates by a quarter percentage point on Tuesday — the seventh cut this year — has touched off another round of speculation about its effect on the stock market,” writes Tom McNichol in Salon Online. McNichol is a San Francisco writer.

“But the market, and the Dow in particular, has resisted efforts to control it for a very long time. Today’s wise investor must become like the ancient Taoist masters, and learn the value of Doing Nothing,” he observes.

Below are the first three verses of McNichol’s musings on the Tao of the Dow.

I
The Dow that can be named
is not the eternal Dow
It is the Industrial Average.
All things arise from the Dow
The S&P 500, the Russell 2000, the Wiltshire 5000
It is the Great Mother of all indices

II
Rising and falling is the essence of Dow
Stand before it and there is no beginning.
Follow it and there is no end.
Try to grasp it, and it drops more than 100 points
in heavy trading.

III
Advances and declines arise together.
Highs and lows rest upon each other;
Bear follows bull
Bust follows boom
This is the Eternal Way
But few investors understand its essence.