The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick

Paul said, 'I have for several days now inspected it, and for no logical reason I feel a certain emotional fondness. Why is that? I may ask. I do not even now project into this blob, as in psychological German tests, my own psyche. I still see no shapes or forms. But it somehow partakes of Tao. You see?'

He motioned Childan over. 'It is balanced. The forces within this piece are stabilised. At rest. So to speak, this object had made its peace with the universe. It has separated from it and hence has managed to come to homeostasis....

'It does not have wabi,' Paul said, 'nor could it ever. But -' He touched the pin with his nail. 'Robert, this object has wu'...


'...To have no historicity, and also no artistic, aesthetic worth, and yet to partake of some ethereal value - that is a marvel. Just precisely because this is a miserable, small, worthless-looking blob; that, Robert, contributes to its possessing wu. For it is a fact that wu is customarily found in least imposing places, as in the Christian aphorism, 'stones rejected by the builder'.