Prince Wen Hui's cook was cutting up an ox.... The ox fell apart with a whisper. The bright cleaver murmured like a gentle wind. Rhythm Timing Like a sacred dance.... Prince Wen Hui Good work Your method is faultless The cook Method What I follow is Tao beyond all methods When I first began to cut up oxen I would see before me the whole ox all in one mass. After three years I no longer saw this mass. I saw the distinctions. But now I see nothing with the eye. My whole being apprehends. My senses are idle. The spirit free to work without plan follows its own instinct guided by natural line, by the secret opening, the hidden space, my cleaver finds its own way... Then I withdraw the blade, I stand still and let the joy of the work sink in. I clean the blade and put it away. Prince Wan Hui This is it My cook has shown me how I ought to live my own life.
More Quotes from Chuang Tzu:
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.Chuang Tzu
The man in whom Tao acts without impediment harms no other being by his actions yet he does not know himself to be 'kind', to be 'gentle'.... (He) does not bother with his own interests and does not despise others who do. He does not struggle to make money and does not make a virtue of poverty. He goes his way without relying on others and does not pride himself on walking alone. While he does not follow the crowd he won't complain of those who do. Rank and reward make no appeal to him disgrace and shame do not deter him. He is not always looking for right and wrong, always deciding 'Yes' or 'No.' The ancients said, therefore The man of Tao remains unknown. Perfect virtue produces nothing. 'No-Self' is 'True-Self'. And the greatest man is Nobody.
Chuang Tzu
Tao is obscured when men understand only one pair of opposites, or concentrate only on a partial aspect of being. Then clear expression also becomes muddled by mere wordplay, affirming this one aspect and denying all the rest. The pivot of Tao passes through the center where all affirmations and denials converge. He who grasps the pivot is at the still-point from which all movements and oppositions can be seen in their right relationship... Abandoning all thought of imposing a limit or taking sides, he rests in direct intuition.
Chuang Tzu
Thus, those who say they would have right without its correlate, wrong or good government without its correlate, misrule, do not apprehend the great principles of the universe, nor the nature of all creation.
Chuang Tzu
All the fish needs is to get lost in the water. All man needs is to get lost in Tao.
Chuang Tzu
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Based on Topics: Dancing Quotes, Idleness Quotes, Joy & Excitement Quotes, Life Quotes, Secrets Quotes, Sense & Perception Quotes, Space Quotes, Work & Career QuotesBased on Keywords: apprehends, cleaver, faultless, hui, murmured, oxen, wan, wen
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