Duke Huan sat in his hall reading a book. The wheelwright Bian was making a wheel in the courtyard below the hall. Putting down his hammer and chisel, Bian went up the steps and said, “I venture to ask your Grace what words are you reading.” “The words of the sages,” replied the duke….
Serendipity is coincidence of circumstance that is unexpected. Perhaps occasionally that happens to everybody. Earlier in the day preparing for a session later in the week I composed several questions related to the relationship between life and death. Then, when turning to consider this post was this ancient account of a funeral. The funeral…
74 If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to. If you aren’t afraid of dying, there is nothing you can’t achieve. Trying to control the future is like trying to take the master carpenter’s place. When you handle the master carpenter’s tools, chances are that…
58 If a country is governed with tolerance,the people are comfortable and honest.If a country is governed with repression,the people are depressed and crafty. When the will to power is in charge,the higher the ideals, the lower the results.Try to make people happy,and you lay the groundwork for misery.Try to make people moral,and you…
53 The great Way is easy, yet people prefer the side paths. Be aware when things are out of balance. Stay centered within the Tao. When rich speculators prosper while farmers lose their land; when government officials spend money on weapons instead of cures; when the upper class is extravagant and irresponsible while the…
50 The Master gives himself up to whatever the moment brings. He knows that he is going to die, and he has nothing left to hold on to: no illusions in his mind, no resistances in his body. He doesn’t think about his actions; they flow from the core of his being. He holds…
42 The Tao gives birth to One. One gives birth to Two. Two gives birth to Three. Three gives birth to all things. All things have their backs to the female and stand facing the male. When male and female combine, all things achieve harmony. Ordinary men hate solitude. But the Master makes use…
32 The Tao can’t be perceived,Smaller than an electron,it contains uncountable galaxies. If powerful men and womencould remain centered in the Tao,all things would be in harmony.The world would become a paradise.All people would be at peace,and the law would be written in their hearts. When you have names and forms,know that they are…
According to legend, Helen of Troy was ‘the face that launched a thousand ships’… I have no idea whether Homer’s Iliad reflects actual events, or whether it is a tribute to the mind of a brilliant story-teller. The tale of a prolonged conflict between the Greeks and a city state is profoundly human, psychologically…
TIS night: now all the gushing fountains speak louder. And my soul also is a gushing fountain. ‘Tis night: now only all songs of the loving ones do awake. And my soul also is the song of a loving one. Something unappeased, unappeasable, is within me; it longs to find expression…. Light am I:…
