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Get some distance on yourself and undertand the multilevel structure that's operating. There's a power structure within you. You're a very political creature.
Sep 10, 2025
The virtuous carry out the settlement, but those without virtue pursue their claims.
That which offers no resistance can enter where there is no space.
That which offers no resistance, overcomes the hardest substances.
Strong winds do not last all morning, hard rains do not last all day.
The sage knows without traveling, perceives without looking, completes without acting.
Those who praise victory relish manslaughter. Those who relish manslaughter cannot reach their goals in the world.
Knowledge of the eternal is all-embracing. To be all-embracing leads to righteousness, which is majestic.
Do not strive for the shine of jade, but clatter like stone.
If you have insight, you use your inner eye, your inner ear, to pierce to the heart of things, and have no need of intellectual knowledge.
We know we should be completely humble. We should stop thinking that we're very marvelous because we're not. We are interesting at best because we are a part of life.
Of all things, none does not revere the Way and honor virtue. Reverence of the Way and honoring virtue were not demanded of them, but it is in their nature.
First and last follow each other.
I used to think that you could find peace and it would always be there. And there is a sense of that. But even in the worst moments, catch yourself and remember that within the storm of misfortune there is good fortune. Just get in practice with what they call in Taoism the Wu-wei; the non-action and becoming the observer of it. Just notice and stay at peace with it. I must have admit, that I still have those really disrupting moments.
To be of few words is natural.
Seek not happiness too greedily and be not fearful of happiness.
The Tao is near and people seek it far away.
Battles are followed by years of famine.
Learn not to be attached to other people, to certain types of experiences. Allow the flow of life to guide you wherever it is supposed to and accept with equanimity, with balance, with poise, whatever happens.
Displaying riches and titles with pride brings about one's downfall.
Diligence means to be keen in matters of virtue and justice, but worldly people use diligence to solve their economic difficulties. Frugality means to have little desire for material goods, but worldly people use frugality as a cover for stinginess. Thus do watchwords of enlightened life turn into tools for the private business of small people. What a pity!
The supreme rulers are hardly known by their subjects. The lesser are loved and praised. The even lesser are feared. The least are despised.
Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires.
Where there is no conflict, there is no fault.
We can think of descriptions almost as computer languages, an operative description that only deals with very simple operations. Its code is sex - Male, female, dark, light, up down, in out - its the language of duality.
Heaven cannot but be high. Earth cannot but be broad. The sun and moon cannot but revolve. All creation cannot but flourish. To do so is their TAO. But it is not from extensive study that this may be known, nor by dialectical skill that his may be made clear. The true sage will have none of these.
Close your mouth, block off your senses, blunt your sharpness, untie your knots, soften your glare, settle your dust. This is the primal identity.
Those who know don't talk. Those who talk don't know. Close your mouth, block off your senses, blunt your sharpness, untie your knots, soften your glare, settle your dust. This is the primal identity. Be like the Tao. It can't be approached or withdrawn from, benefited or harmed, honored or brought into disgrace. It gives itself up continually. That is why it endures.
He who does not trust enough will not be trusted.
Cultivate virtue in yourself, and it will be true.
When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.
One of our predecessors said, "Throwing away the inexhaustible treasury of your own home, you go with your bowl from door to door, acting like a beggar"
When greedy people are given gold, they are bitter that they haven't gotten jewels; when they are made barons they are resentful that they haven't been made lords. Though powerful and rich, their attitude is that of beggars. For those who know how to be content, simple fare is more delicious than rich delicacies, a cloth coat is warmer than fox fur, and an ordinary citizen does not defer to a king or a lord.
To be brave without compassion, generous without moderation, and rule without refraining from being first in the world, are certain deaths.
One should not seek happiness, just nurture the spirit of joy as the basis of summoning happiness. One should not try to escape misfortune, just get rid of viciousness as a means of avoiding misfortune.
The substance of mind is the substance of heaven. A joyful thought is an auspicious star or a felicitous cloud. An angry thought is a thunderstorm or a violent rain. A kind thought is a gentle breeze or a sweet dew. A stern thought is a fierce sun or an autumn frost. Which of these can be eliminated? Just let them pass away as they arise, open and unresisting, and your mind merges with the spacious sky.
The learned should be vigorous and diligent, but they should also be free-spirited. If they are too rigorous and austere, they have the death-dealing quality of autumn but lack the life-giving quality of spring. How can they develop people then?
All of Chinese thinking - Confucianism, Taoism, as well as Buddhism - contains the idea that in the course of life, man will shape harmoniously those psychic and physical predispositions that he received as capital assets by unifying them and giving them form from within a center.
When you discard arrogance, complexity, and a few other things that get in the way, sooner or later you will discover that simple, childlike, and mysterious secret known to those of the Uncarved Block: Life is Fun.
A tree that can fill the span of a man's arms grows from a downy tip; A terrace nine stories high rises from level earth; A journey of a thousand miles starts from beneath one's feet.
Anticipate the difficult by managing the easy.
Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it.
Compromise to please others is not as good as integrity that annoys others. Rather than be praised without being good, it is better to be slandered without being bad.
Return animosity with virtue.
Those who turn things around by themselves do not rejoice at gain or grieve over loss; the whole world is the range they roam. Those who are themselves used by things hate it when events go against them and love it when they go their way; the slightest thing can create binding entanglements.
Cut brambles long enough, Sprout after sprout, And the lotus will bloom Of its own accord: Already waiting in the clearing, The single image of light. The day you see this, That day you will become it.
My body is in accord with my mind, my mind with my energies, my energies with my spirit, my spirit with Nothing.
When good thing are accomplished, it does not claim (or name) them. This is Te, which is close in meaning to power or virtue. It is something within a person, and it is enhanced by following the Tao, or 'that from which nothing can deviate'.
The Way is empty, yet inexhaustible, like an abyss!
When the student is ready the teacher will appear.