The fragrance
of blossoms soon passes;
the ripeness of fruit is gone in a
twinkling. Our time in this world is so
short, better to avoid regret: miss
no opportunity to savor
the ineffable.
Like a golden
beacon signaling on a moonless
night, tao guides our passage through this
transitory realm. In moments of darkness and pain
remember all is cyclical. Sit quietly behind
your wooden door: spring will
come again.
A truly
good person doesn’t
dwell on her goodness.
Thus she can be good.
A person of false goodness
never forgets her goodness.
Thus her goodness is
always false.
A truly
good person does nothing,
yet nothing remains undone.
A person of false goodness is forever
doing, yet everything remains
forever undone.
Those who
are interested in service
act without motive. Those who are
interested in righteousness act with
motives of all sorts. Those who are
interested in propriety act, and
receiving no response, they
roll up their sleeves
and use force.
When
Tao is lost,
goodness appears.
When goodness is lost,
philanthropy appears.
When philanthropy is lost,
justice appears.
When justice is lost,
only etiquette
is left.
Etiquette
is the faintest husk
of real loyalty and faith,
and it is the beginning of confusion.
Knowledge of the future is only
a blossom of Tao; to become
preoccupied with it
is folly.
Thus the
sage sets her sights
on the substance and not the
surface, on the fruit and not the
flower. Leaving the one,
she gains the
other.
from The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,
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Whenever we see
that goodness is lacking,
we may add to it from our own heart
and so complete the nobility of human nature.
This is done by patience, tolerance, kindness, forgiveness.
The lover of goodness loves every little sign of goodness.
He overlooks the faults and fills up the gaps by
pouring out love and supplying that
which is lacking. This is real
nobility of soul.
Forget the body.
Let go of sensations
and obsessions and objects.
Do non-doing to the point that thoughts
cease to arise. Releasing mental constructs and
emotional entanglements, you’ll begin
to flow as a sage. Then let go
of that notion on top
of everything
else.
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Things fundamentally
have no origin and presently have
no extinction; there is no more to speak.
As soon as you speak, this is origination;
and if you don’t speak, this
is extinction.
