11 Quotes Tagged: tao-te-ching

Countless words
count less
than the silent balance
between yin and yang

To bear and not to own; to act and not lay claim; to do the work and let it go: for just letting it go is what makes it stay.

The heart that gives, gathers.

When the student is ready the teacher will appear. When the student is truly ready... The teacher will Disappear.

There is
a time to live
and a time to die
but never to reject the moment.

The hard and mighty lie beneath the ground
While the tender and weak dance on the breeze above.

Those who know don’t talk. Those who talk don’t know. Close your mouth, block off your senses, blunt your sharpness, untie your knots, soften your glare, settle your dust. This is the primal identity. Be like the Tao. It can’t be approached or withdrawn from, benefited or harmed, honored or brought into disgrace. It gives itself up continually. That is why it endures.

When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

Shape clay into a vessel;
It is the space within that makes it useful.
Cut doors and windows for a room;
It is the holes which make it useful.
Therefore benefit comes from what is there;
Usefulness from what is not there.

Under heaven all can see beauty as beauty only because there is ugliness. All can know good as good only because there is evil.

He who is in harmony with the Tao
is like a newborn child.
Its bones are soft, its muscles are weak,
but its grip is powerful.
It doesn't know about the union
of male and female,
yet its penis can stand erect,
so intense is its vital power.
It can scream its head off all day,
yet it never becomes hoarse,
so complete is its harmony.

The Master's power is like this.
He lets all things come and go
effortlessly, without desire.
He never expects results;
thus he is never disappointed.
He is never disappointed;
thus his spirit never grows old.