Yungjiang implored, “It has been difficult to meet with you. O Heaven! I ask for one more word.” “Ah, your mind needs to be fortified. Do nothing and things will be transformed by themselves. Be indifferent to your body, dismiss your hearing and sight, And forget the external world. Be one with the ultimate…
Cui Qu asked Laozi, “If you do not govern the world, how can you make men’s minds good?” “Take care lest you intervene and disturb men’s minds,” replied Laozi. “The mind, if pushed down becomes despondent; if pulled up, elated. Now elated, now despondent, here it is a captive, and there it is a…
The superior man/woman, when obliged to govern the world, will find that it is best to do nothing. In doing nothing, he can abide in his/her true given nature. Hence one who honors the world as he honors his own person can be entrusted with government. One who loves the world as he loves…
There is a saying, “The greatest art resembles ignorance.” The versatility shown in ingenuous arguments and the efforts to blow off the dust and reconcile different views is great, but the common people are perplexed by the sophistry. Hence there is a prevailing disorder in the world due to a fondness for knowledge. All…
The followers of the Robber Zhi asked him, “Do robbers have any principles?” He replied, “What profession is there which does not have its principles? That the robber decides that there are things of value in the house shows his knowledge; that he is the first to break into the house shows his courage;…
Will men with intensified visual perceptionnot be confused by the five colors and excessive ornamentation,and be dazzled buy the brightness ofgreen and yellow, white and black?Li Zhu was such a man. Will men with extraordinary power of hearingnot be confused by the five notesand the excessive use of the six tones,which are produced by…
A ligament connecting the big toe with the other toes and an extra finger may be natural growths but they are extraneous. Swelling and tumors are growths from the body but they are unnatural additions. There are many instances of benevolence and righteousness and they are connected to the five organs. But this is…
Do not yearn for fame. Do not make plans. Do not set up projects. Do not be a possessor of knowledge. Embody to the fullest what has no end and wander where there is no path. Hold what is from heaven but do not take it to be anything. Be empty. The highest man’s…
“When we say to one another,‘I am this’, how do we knowthat the ‘I’ isthe real ‘I’? You dream that you are a birdsoaring into the sky; you dream that you are a fishdiving into the deep.We do not know whether wewho are now speakingare awake or dreaming. It is not seeing what is…
Tao has reality and manifestation but does nothing and has no form. It may be imparted by cannot be grasped. It may be attained but cannot be seen. It has its root and ground of existence in itself. Before there was heaven and earth It existed from eternity. From it came the powers of…
