Zhuangzi
Zhuangzi
effort taoism trying
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!
mind may flow
Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free.
dream butterfly men
Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was myself. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.
educational finding-happiness opinion
My opinion is that you never find happiness until you stop looking for it.
heart soul mind
Your mind must become one, do not try to understand with your ears but with your heart. Indeed, not with your heart but with your soul.
joy sage body
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.
cherish curse
Cherish that which is in you and shut out that which is without, for much knowledge is a curse.
wise men mountain
The wise man knows that it is better to sit on the banks of a remote mountain stream than to be emperor of the whole world.
archer skills two
When an archer shoots for enjoyment, he has all his skill; when he shoots for a brass buckle, he gets nervous; when he shoots for a prize of gold, he begins to see two targets.
exercise firsts steps
To exercise no-thought and rest in nothing is the first step toward resting in Tao. To start from nowhere and follow no road is the first step toward attaining Tao.
eye envy vision
The eyes envy the mind.
wise men roots
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.
struggle finding-yourself unity
Do not struggle. Go with the flow of things, and you will find yourself at one with the mysterious unity of the Universe.
people division want
The Tao is in all things, in their divisions and their fullness. What I dislike about divisions is that they multiply, and what i dislike about multiplication is that it makes people want to hold fast to it. So people go out and forget to return, seeing little more than ghosts.