When the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten. When the belt fits, the belly is forgotten. When the heart is right, 'for' and 'against' are forgotten. No drives, no compulsions, no needs, no attractions Then your affairs are under control. You are a free man.
More Quotes from 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
When an archer is shooting for nothing, he has all his skill. If he shoots for a brass buckle, he is already nervous. If he shoots for a prize of gold, he goes blind or sees two targets He is out of his mind His skill has not changed. But the prize divides him. He cares. He thinks more of winning than of shooting And the need to win drains him of power.
Chuang Tzu
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.
Chuang Tzu
... You never find happiness until you stop looking for it. My greatest happiness consists precisely in doing nothing whatever that is calculated to obtain happiness and this, in the minds of most people, is the worst possible course... If you ask 'what ought to be done' and 'what ought not to be done' on earth in order to produce happiness, I answer that these questions do not have an answer. There is no way of determining such things. Yet at the same time, if I cease striving for happiness, the 'right' and the 'wrong' at once become apparent all by themselves. Contentment and well-being at once become possible the moment you cease to act with them in view, and if you practice non-doing (wu wei), you will have both happiness and well-being.
Chuang Tzu
The perfect man uses his mind as a mirror. It grasps nothing. It regrets nothing. It receives but does not keep.
Chuang Tzu
When there is no more separation between 'this' and 'that,' it is called the still-point of the Tao. At the still point in the center of the circle one can see the infinite in all things.
Chuang Tzu
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