Fasting of the Heart: Mother-Tradition and Sacred Systems in Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club "Concentrate your will. Hear not with your ears but with your mind; not with your mind, but with your spirit . . . blank, passively responsive to externals. In such open receptivity only can Tao abide. And in that open receptivity is fasting of the heart." (Chuangtze, in Yutang, 228) "The Master said, 'Look at the means a man em- ploys, observe the path he takes and examine where he feels at home. In what way is a man's true character hidden from view?' " (Confucius, in Lau, 64) Amy Tan weaves many elements of Taoism