World Philosophical Heritage

Wisdom and teachings of
Daoism

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W hen you’re betting for tiles in an archery contest, you shoot with skill. When you’re betting for fancy belt buckles, you worry about your aim. And when you’re betting for real gold, you’re a nervous wreck. Your skill is the same in all three cases - but because one prize means more to you than another, you let outside considerations weigh on your mind. He who looks too hard at the outside gets clumsy on the inside.

quote 7354 | Tchuang Tzu

M en all pay homage to what understanding understands, but no one understands enough to rely upon what understanding does not understand and thereby come to understand.

quote 7353 | Tchuang Tzu

I n the midst of darkness, he alone sees the dawn; in the midst of the soundless, he alone hears harmony.

quote 7352 | Tchuang Tzu

S uppose I try saying something. What way do I have of knowing that if I say I know something I don’t really not know it? Or what way do I have of knowing that if I say I don’t know something I don’t really in fact know it?

quote 7351 | Tchuang Tzu

Y ou should find the same joy in one condition as in the other and thereby be free of care, that is all. But now, when the things that happened along take their leave, you cease to be joyful. From this point of view, though you have joy, it will always be fated for destruction.

quote 7350 | Tchuang Tzu

A state in which “this” and “that” no longer find their opposites is called the hinge of the Tao. When the hinge is fitted into the socket, it can respond endlessly. Its right then is a single endlessness and its wrong too is a single endlessness. So, I say, the best thing to use is clarity.

quote 7349 | Tchuang Tzu

W here there is recognition of right there must be recognition of wrong; where there is recognition of wrong there must be recognition of right. Therefore the sage does not proceed in such a way, but illuminates all in the light of Heaven.

quote 7348 | Tchuang Tzu

W here there is acceptability there must be unacceptability; where there is unacceptability there must be acceptability.

quote 7347 | Tchuang Tzu

B ut where there is birth there must be death; where there is death there must be birth.

quote 7346 | Tchuang Tzu

W e can’t expect a blind man to appreciate beautiful patterns or a deaf man to listen to bells and drums. And blindness and deafness are not confined to the body alone - the understanding has them, too.

quote 7345 | Tchuang Tzu

I n the world everyone knows enough to pursue what he does not know, but no one knows enough to pursue what he already knows. Everyone knows enough to condemn what he takes to be no good, but no one knows enough to condemn what he has already taken to be good.

quote 7344 | Tchuang Tzu

A man like this will not go where he has no will to go, will not do what he has no mind to do. Though the world might praise him and say he had really found something, he would look unconcerned and never turn his head; though the world might condemn him and say he had lost something, he would look serene and pay no heed. The praise and blame of the world are no loss or gain to him.

quote 7343 | Tchuang Tzu

W hen I speak of good hearing, I do not mean listening to others; I mean simply listening to yourself. When I speak of good eyesight, I do not mean looking at others; I mean simply looking at yourself. He who does not look at himself but looks at others, who does not get hold of himself but gets hold of others, is getting what other men have got and failing to get what he himself has got. He finds joy in what brings joy to other men, but finds no joy in what would bring joy to him.

quote 7342 | Tchuang Tzu

C an you be a little baby? The baby howls all day, yet its throat never gets hoarse - harmony at its height! The baby makes fists all day, yet its fingers never get cramped - virtue is all it holds to. The baby stares all day without blinking its eyes - it has no preferences in the world of externals.

quote 7341 | Tchuang Tzu

T hings joined by profit, when pressed by misfortune and danger, will cast each other aside.

quote 7340 | Tchuang Tzu

E yes that are blind have no way to tell the loveliness of faces and features; eyes with no pupils have no way to tell the beauty of coloured and embroidered silks.

quote 7339 | Tchuang Tzu

I have heard that those who are fond of praising men to their faces are also fond of damning them behind their backs.

quote 7338 | Tchuang Tzu

W hen men do not forget what can be forgotten but forget what cannot be forgotten - that may be called true forgetting.

quote 7337 | Tchuang Tzu

P eople who excuse their faults and claim they didn’t deserved to be punished - there are lots of them. But those who don’t excuse their faults and admit they didn’t deserve to be spared - they are few.

quote 7336 | Tchuang Tzu

Y ou forget your feet when the shoes are comfortable. You forget your waist when the belt is comfortable. Understanding forgets right and wrong when the mind is comfortable. There is no change in what is inside, no following what is outside, when the adjustment to events is comfortable. You begin with what is comfortable and never experience what is uncomfortable when you know the comfort of forgetting what is comfortable.

quote 7335 | Tchuang Tzu

D on’t go in and hide; don’t come out and shine; stand stock-still in the middle.

quote 7334 | Tchuang Tzu

W hen a man does not dwell in self, then things will of themselves reveal their forms to him. His movement is like that of water, his stillness like that of a mirror, his responses like those of an echo.

quote 7333 | Tchuang Tzu

H e who has mastered the true nature of life does not labour over what life cannot do. He who has mastered the true nature of fate does not labour over what knowledge cannot change.

quote 7332 | Tchuang Tzu

B ut a gentleman may embrace a doctrine without necessarily wearing the garb that goes with it, and he may wear the garb without necessarily comprehending the doctrine.

quote 7331 | Tchuang Tzu

W hen Zhuangzi was about to die, his disciples expressed a desire to give him a sumptuous burial. said, I will have heaven and earth for my coffin and coffin shell, the sun and moon for my pair of jade discs, the stars and constellations for my pearls and beads, and the ten thousand things for my parting gifts. The furnishings for my funeral are already prepared - what is there to add?

quote 7330 | Tchuang Tzu

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Wisdom and teachings ofDaoism

Wisdom and teachings of
Daoism