If you persist in trying to attain what is never attained (It is Tao's gift), if you persist in making effort to obtain what effort cannot get, if you persist in reasoning about what cannot be understood, you will be destroyed by the very thing you seek. To know when to stop, to know when you can get no further by your own action, this is the right beginning.
More Quotes from Chuang Tzu:
We possess our body by chance and we are already pleased with it. If our physical bodies went through ten thousand transformations without end, how incomparable would this joy be Therefore the sage roams freely in the realm in which nothing can escape, but all endures.Chuang Tzu
Heaven is like an egg, and the earth is like the yolk of the egg.
Chuang Tzu
When we look at things in the light of Tao, nothing is best, nothing is worst. Each thing, seen in its own light stands out in its own way. It can seem to be 'better' than what is compared with it on its own terms. But seen in terms of the whole, no one thing stands out as 'better' ... All creatures have gifts of their own... All things have varying capacities. Consequently he who wants to have right without wrong, order without disorder, does not understand the principles of heaven and earth. He does not know how things hang together. Can a man cling only to heaven and know nothing of earth They are correlative to know one is to know the other. To refuse one is to refuse both.
Chuang Tzu
The non-action of the wise man is not inaction. It is not studied. It is not shaken by anything. The sage is quiet because he is not moved, not because he wills to be quiet.... Joy does all things without concern. For emptiness, stillness, tranquillity, tastelessness, silence, and non-action are the root of all things.
Chuang Tzu
The true men of old were not afraid when they stood alone in their views. No great exploits. No plans. If they failed, no sorrow. No self-congratulation in success.... The true men of old knew no lust for life, no dread of death. Their entrance was without gladness, their exit, yonder, without resistance. Easy come, easy go. They did not forget where from, nor ask where to, nor drive grimly forward fighting their way through life. They took life as it came, gladly took death as it came, without care and went away, yonder. Yonder They had no mind to fight Tao. They did not try by their own contriving, to help Tao along. These are the ones we call true men. Minds free, thoughts gone. Brows clear, faces serene.
Chuang Tzu
Uncreated To name Tao is to name no-thing. Tao is not the name of (something created). 'Cause' and 'chance' have no bearing on the Tao. Tao is a name that indicates without defining. Tao is beyond words and beyond things. It is not expressed either in word or in silence. Where there is no longer word or silence Tao is apprehended.
Chuang Tzu
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Based on Topics: Actions Quotes, Reasoning QuotesBased on Keywords: taos
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