When you understand that the external world has nothing
to do with your real self, and you act accordingly, you then return to your original
state.The Tao is perfect, like vast space, where nothing is lacking and nothing is in
excess. Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept and reject that we fail to see the
true nature of things. Live neither in the confusing entanglements of outer things nor in
inner feelings of emptiness. Be serene in the oneness of things and such erroneous beliefs
will disappear of themselves. When you use activity to try to achieve passivity, your very
effort fills you with activity. As long as you live in one extreme or another, you will
not know oneness.
The movement of the Tao consists in returning. The method of the Tao consists in
softness. All things under heaven arise from the corporeal. The corporeal arises from the
incorporeal. From what does the incorporeal arise?
Learn to see with the eyes of the formerly blind, to hear with the ears of the formerly
deaf, to walk with the ears of the formerly lame, to speak with the tongue of the formerly
mute.
As the irrigator directs water to the field, as the archer aims the arrow, as the
carpenter carves wood, so the wise shape their lives.
Living in the dark, why do you not seek the light more often?
I will lift mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help.
There is no season when you are grown. You're always risen from the seeds you've sown.
There is no reason to rise alone. Other stories given have sages of their own.
Live where your heart can be given, and your life starts to unfold in the forms you
envision in this dream that's ages old. On the river layer is the only sayer. You receive
all you can hold, like you've been told.
Every day's another dawning. Give the morning winds a chance. Always catch your thunder
yawning. Lift your mind into the dance. Sweep the shadows from your awning. Shrink the
fourfold circumstance that lies outside this house.
Draw from the Well of Unchanging. Its union nourishes on in the right re-arranging till
the last confusion is gone. Water-brothers trust in the ultimate of the always singing
song they pass along.
One-eyed men aren't really reigning. They just march in place until two-eyed men with
mystery training finally feel the power fill. Three-eyed men are not complaining. They can
yo-yo where they will. They slip inside this house as they pass by. Don't pass it by.
The bo-tree is everywhere.
The falling leaf feeds next springs hidden seeds. Time and nature heal the
hearts hidden needs.
Bow to the ocean, as the ocean bows to you. It was waiting for you tomorrow. It will be
waiting for you yesterday.
All the world is but a play. Be thou the joyful player.
One light, the light that is one though the lamps be many.
You never enjoy the world aright till the sea itself floweth In your veins and you are
clothed With the heavens and crowned with the stars.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and
where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. For
where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin.
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened
unto you.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the
things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
The spirit of the valley never dies. It is called the subtle and profound female. The
gate of the subtle and profound female Is the root of Heaven and Earth. It is continuous,
and seems to be always existing. Use it and you will never wear it out.
One may know the world without going out of doors. One may see the Way of Heaven
without looking through the windows. The further one goes, the less one knows. Therefore
the sage knows without going about, Understands without seeing, And accomplishes without
any action.
In the blink of an eye ten thousand changes take place. When the wind ceases, the waves
become calm.
Withdraw inwardly and search for the ground upon which you stand; thereby you will find
out what Truth is.
When you exhale there is no guarantee that you will inhale again. How can you waste
your self on useless things?
If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you. If you do not bring
forth what is within you, what you have will destroy you.
See a world in a grain of sand And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm
of your hand And eternity in an hour.
But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they
shall tell thee: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee; and the fishes of the sea
shall declare unto thee.
The bluebird carries the sky on its back.
We need the tonic of wildness
We can never have enough of nature.
Adversity can never rival the steadying power given us when we praise being.
The bee gathers nectar from the flower without marring its beauty or perfume.
A million suns. One light. A million creatures. One mind. A million lives. One path. A
million deaths. One light.
Wisteria smiles, oak laughs, bluebonnet titters. Spring, they know, is always coming.