#tao te ching

[eternal--returned]

Lao Tzu (version by Ursula K. Le Guin) ֍ Tao Te Ching: A Book About the Way and the Power of the Way (1997)

[thecalminside]

Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear?

Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself?

-Lao Tzu

[noosphe-re]

Flexible, Ravi Zupa Chapter 76 of the Tao Te Ching describes how being rigid and uncompromising makes us behave the way dead things behave. Dry leaves, dead wood, corpses. These things are stiff and brittle. When we behave in a way that is flexible and yielding we behave like things that are living. Green leaves, living branches and stems, living bodies.

[a-really-big-cat]

The Sage says: Accept a country's filth And become master of its sacred soil. Accept a country's ill fortune And become king under heaven.

-- Laozi, Daodejing chapter 78 (trans. by Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo)

[lionofchaeronea]

To give birth, to nourish, to bear and not to own, to act and not lay claim, to lead and not to rule: this is mysterious power. --Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, trans. Ursula K. Le Guin

[naturesphinx]

<3

[reverie-quotes]

Great things under heaven arise from what is minute. For this reason, The sage never strives to do what is great. Therefore, He can achieve greatness.

— Laozi, Tao Te Ching

[cosmicportal]

[joehills]

Do you have revulsive feelings about people who describe themselves too positively?

On this day, thirteen years ago in Minecraft history, I sailed toward the sunrise and contemplated chapter 24 of the Dao De Jing, which addresses that very misconduct.

[divine-nonchalance]

[ayahuascadiaries]

[pinkmoondoll9shihtzu]

When her work is done She forgets it all. That is why it lasts forever

[thecalminside]

If you want to shrink something, you must first allow it to expand.

If you want to get rid of something, you must first allow it to flourish.

If you want to take something, you must first allow it to be given.

-Lao Tzu

[howifeltabouthim]

There is no crime greater than having too many desires. There is no disaster greater than not being content.

Lao Tzu, from Tao Te Ching

[a-really-big-cat]

The Sages cling to the One And take care of this world; Do not display themselves And therefore shine; Do not assert themselves And therefore stand out; Do not praise themselves And therefore succeed; Are not complacent And therefore endure; Do not contend And therefore no one under heaven Can contend with them.

-- Laozi, Daodejing Chapter 22

Rivers and seas Can rule the hundred valleys. Because they are good at lying low They are lords of the valleys.

Therefore those would be above Must speak as if they are below. Those who would lead Must speak as if they are behind.

-- Laozi, Daodejing Chapter 66

(trans. by Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo)