When he tries to extend his power over objects, those objects gain control of him. He who is controlled by objects loses possession of his inner self... Prisoners in the world of object, they have no choice but to submit to the demands of matter They are pressed down and crushed by external forces fashion, the market, events, public opinion. Never in a whole lifetime do they recover their right mind... What a pity.
More Quotes from Chuang Tzu:
A dog is not considered a good dog Because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man Because he is a good talker.Chuang Tzu
Love of colors bewilders the eye and it fails to see right. Love of harmonies bewitches the ear, and it loses its true hearing. Love of perfumes fills the head with dizziness. Love of flavors ruins the taste. Desires unsettle the heart until the original nature runs amok. These five are enemies of true life. Yet these are what men of discernment claim to live for. They are not what I live for. If this is life, then pigeons in a cage have found happiness.
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
All the fish needs is to get lost in the water. All man needs is to get lost in Tao.
Chuang Tzu
By ethical argument and moral principle the greatest crimes are eventually shown to have been necessary, and, in fact, a signal benefit to mankind.
Chuang Tzu
Tzu Li went to see Tzu Lai who was dying. Leaning against the door, he said, Great is the Creator What will he make of you now Will he make you into a rat's liver Will he make you into an insect's leg Tzu-Lai replied, The universe gave me my body so I may be carried, my life so I may work, my old age so I may repose, and my death so I may rest. To regard life as good is the way to regard death as good.... If I regard the universe as a great furnace and creation as a master foundryman, why should anywhere I go not be all right.
Chuang Tzu
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