Derek Lin > Quotes

“Creation is a process where something seems to come out of nowhere. You are an example of this, because you exist right now, but prior to your conception, you did not exist as a physical entity.”
― Derek Lin, The Tao of Joy Every Day: 365 Days of Tao Living

“Favor and disgrace make one fearful
The greatest misfortune is the self”
― Derek Lin, Tao Te Ching: Annotated and Explained

“No one is intrinsically superior or inferior — we are all just going through phases.”
― Derek Lin, The Tao of Tranquility: The Wisdom of Lao Tzu and the Buddha - Qingjing Jing

“When taking care of a horse, what one must do is remove everything that is harmful to the horse in order to bring out the horse’s own natural vitality. The way to rule the empire is similar.”
― Derek Lin, The Tao of Happiness: Stories from Chuang Tzu for Your Spiritual Journey

“The senior disciple is your creative mind, your ability to absorb knowledge, solve problems and invent new solutions. The second disciple is your ability to organize your world and channel your energy in constructive ways. The junior disciple is your social charisma—just as every organization needs some way to interact with the outside world, this organism known as you also requires an interface with other people.”
― Derek Lin, The Tao of Success: The Five Ancient Rings of Destiny

“All living things are looking to gain an advantage for themselves, but the process also imposes a burden on them. Generally speaking, the potential gain right in front of you causes you to forget the potential disaster right behind you. The two are connected.” Chuang Tzu”
― Derek Lin, The Tao of Happiness: Stories from Chuang Tzu for Your Spiritual Journey

“Facing the Changes in Life and Mastering Them While alive, the body is soft and pliant When dead, it is hard and rigid All living things, grass and trees, While alive, are soft and supple When dead, become dry and brittle Thus that which is hard and stiff Is the follower of death That which is soft and pliant Is the follower of life The Tao”
― Derek Lin, The Tao of Daily Life: The Mysteries of the Orient Revealed The Joys of Inner Harmony Found The Path to Enlightenment Illuminated

“Every dark cloud has a silver lining—conversely, the silver lining frames a dark cloud. Or as chapter 58 of Tao Te Ching expresses it: Misfortune is what fortune depends upon Fortune is where misfortune hides beneath Yin contains yang; yang contains yin. Every failure harbors the hidden seed of future success; every triumph contains the covert cause of future defeat. Thus, Sai Ong’s father isn’t mortified by bad news—but neither is he overelated”
― Derek Lin, The Tao of Daily Life: The Mysteries of the Orient Revealed The Joys of Inner Harmony Found The Path to Enlightenment Illuminated

“Use the art of reduction in every aspect of life. The Tao is all about simplicity, so the Tao process is about subtraction rather than addition. Remove obstacles and complexity to unleash the power of your natural capabilities and to fully express your vast potential.”
― Derek Lin, The Tao of Happiness: Stories from Chuang Tzu for Your Spiritual Journey

“The self or wealth, which is greater? Gain or loss, which is more painful?”
― Derek Lin, The Tao of Success: The Five Ancient Rings of Destiny

“Human beings have a tremendous need to have quiet time alone, to reflect upon life and reconnect with the soul.”
― Derek Lin, The Tao of Success: The Five Ancient Rings of Destiny

“Similarly, forcing your beliefs onto someone else damages your relationship. The damage may not be easy to spot at first, like tiny cracks in a wooden wheel, but it’s just a matter of time before the wheel splits apart.”
― Derek Lin, The Tao of Happiness: Stories from Chuang Tzu for Your Spiritual Journey

“Chuang Tzu’s message for us is not to completely discard books but to put them in their proper place by understanding the limitation of words. Reading a description of how to make wheels can never give you the skills you will gain by actually making them. Similarly, reading a book about the Tao can never give you the wisdom you will gain by actually living life.”
― Derek Lin, The Tao of Happiness: Stories from Chuang Tzu for Your Spiritual Journey

“What are the harmful elements you should remove? Everyone is different, but some of the common ones are as follows: Habits that are unhealthy or even destructive A negative mind-set that leads to frequent complaints Tendency to sabotage your own success Physical, mental, or spiritual clutter Inertia or indecisiveness that prevents effective action”
― Derek Lin, The Tao of Happiness: Stories from Chuang Tzu for Your Spiritual Journey

“You can always use intuition and observation to bring out the truth.”
― Derek Lin, The Tao of Happiness: Stories from Chuang Tzu for Your Spiritual Journey

“Ultimately, this story teaches us that things simply happen in life. They are not good or bad—they just are. They all serve the greater purpose of providing life lessons, but if we are too quick to judge them as good or bad based on initial impressions, we run the risk of losing sight of the real lessons. So next time something “bad” happens to you and makes you feel upset, remember: Sai Ong loses horse. Who knows if it isn’t a blessing? Chapter 9 The Wolves What Is the Best Way to Handle Negative People?”
― Derek Lin, The Tao of Daily Life: The Mysteries of the Orient Revealed The Joys of Inner Harmony Found The Path to Enlightenment Illuminated

“trust is also the most important ingredient in personal communication. If trust is not present, you can choose every word carefully and still fail to convey your meaning—everything you say is suspect and open to the most negative interpretation, and any attempts to explain or clarify yourself may make the situation even worse. When trust is present, it trumps everything else. Even when you can’t think of the right words or you stutter badly, it doesn’t matter. They’ll tell you it’s okay, because they know what you mean. They know what you are trying to say. Trust makes all the difference in the world.”
― Derek Lin, The Tao of Happiness: Stories from Chuang Tzu for Your Spiritual Journey

“The more attachments we accumulate, the more we need this inner cleansing. If we have mental baggage, we need to unlearn; if we have emotional dependencies, we need to let them go; if we have possessions that clutter up our lives, we need to give them away.”
― Derek Lin, The Tao of Success: The Five Ancient Rings of Destiny

“The sun rises today just as it did thousands of years ago. Similarly, the Tao holds true for us just as it held true for the ancients. We can even say that the Tao works better now than it did long ago, because we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We can take advantage of the work that ancient sages have done to advance our understanding. We can see farther because we have the good fortune of standing on the shoulders of giants.”
― Derek Lin, Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained

“The Tao does not accumulate or increase complexity—it reduces, simplifies, and streamlines. It’s not about learning more techniques—it’s about discarding the harmful elements.”
― Derek Lin, The Tao of Happiness: Stories from Chuang Tzu for Your Spiritual Journey

“changes must be made from the inside out.”
― Derek Lin, The Tao of Success: The Five Ancient Rings of Destiny

“To live with meaning is to have the right focus in life. That focus cannot be obsessions, attachments, or hobbies. It must be people, because the love you put into your personal relationships comes back to you many times over. This is the real message of the story. Never allow yourself to become the horse lover. Follow the Tao to become who you really want to be—the people lover.”
― Derek Lin, The Tao of Happiness: Stories from Chuang Tzu for Your Spiritual Journey

“Although the Tao is immaterial, it gives all material things solid reality. Thus, the world we observe is the visible image of the imageless Tao. Similarly, all the things we can touch and hold are the tangible manifestations of the formless Tao.”
― Derek Lin, Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained

“many of the problems we encounter in life come from the mind within, rather than the external world. To solve such problems, we need to stop blaming outside forces that we have no control over, and instead take a long hard look at ourselves. When we realize that we are the cause of our own misfortunes, we can begin to adjust our thinking at a fundamental level, and start to create real changes.”
― Derek Lin, The Tao of Daily Life: The Mysteries of the Orient Revealed The Joys of Inner Harmony Found The Path to Enlightenment Illuminated

“Those who flaunt themselves are not clear Those who presume themselves are not distinguished Those who praise themselves have no merit Those who boast about themselves do not last”
― Derek Lin, The Tao of Daily Life: The Mysteries of the Orient Revealed The Joys of Inner Harmony Found The Path to Enlightenment Illuminated

“Use hands-on experience to find the optimal balance in everything. Whatever you need to do, there will be the right speed and the right amount of force to give you the best possible results. Keep in mind that this is something you can only learn from life itself—not from books.”
― Derek Lin, The Tao of Happiness: Stories from Chuang Tzu for Your Spiritual Journey

“In life, we see evidence of leaky containers all the time. They are the hard-charging, aggressive personalities who keep pushing themselves for the bigger paycheck at the expense of health, family, relationships and peace of mind. By the time they realize the frantic rush does not work, their container of life is already broken into pieces. By then, it is too late.”
― Derek Lin, The Tao of Joy Every Day: 365 Days of Tao Living

“The assignment of more importance to wealth can actually lead to gain being more painful.”
― Derek Lin, The Tao of Success: The Five Ancient Rings of Destiny

“Do not be misled into thinking the Tao is concerned with physical immortality. That is the shallow opinion of dabblers. The truth ... is deeper and far more interesting.”
― Derek Lin, The Tao of Happiness

“Nine persons out of ten fit into one of the three previous categories: fearful living, dangerous living, or excessive living. The rare exception, the one-in-ten minority, is the type who can transcend the predictable patterns that most people fall into. [...] They are the skillful players—not spectators—in the game of life.”
― Derek Lin, Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained