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what the world calls good business is only a way To gather up the loot,
pac...
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In one convenient load for the more enterp...
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Who is ...
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Who does not spend his time amassing loot
For a bigger robber than himself?
The invention Of weights and measures Makes robbery easier. Signing contracts, settings seals, Makes robbery more sure. Teaching love and duty Provides a fitting language With which to prove that robbery Is really for the general good. A poor man must swing For stealing a belt buckle But if a rich man steals a whole state He is acclaimed As statesman of the year.
By ethical argument And moral principle The greatest crimes are eventually shown To have been necessary, and, in fact, A signal benefit To mankind.
You train your eye and your vision lusts after color. You train your ear, and you long for delightful sound. You delight in doing good, and your natural kindness is blown out of shape. You delight in righteousness, and you become righteous beyond all reason. You overdo liturgy, and you turn into a ham actor. Overdo your love of music, and you play corn. Love of wisdom leads to wise contriving. Love of knowledge leads to faultfinding.
If
men would stay as they really are, taking or leaving these eight delights would make no difference. But if they will not rest in their right state, the ei...
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he loves his own person enough to let it rest in its original truth,
complete silence, his voice will be like thunder.
That which acts on all and meddles in none—is heaven …
lets the gold lie hidden in the mountain, Leaves the pearl lying in the deep.
stays far from wealth and honor.
Long life is no ground for joy, nor early death for sorrow.
Success is not for him to be proud of, failu...
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Had he all the world’s power he would not hol...
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His glory is in knowing that all things come together in One And life and death are equal.
The king of life goes his way free, inactive, unknown.
Without plan he goes his way and all things follow him. This is the kingly man, who rides above life.
This one sees in the dark, hears where there is no sound. In the deep dark he alone sees light. In soundlessness he alone perceives music. He can go down into the lowest of low places and find people. He can stand in the
highest of high places and s...
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The Yellow Emperor went wandering To the north of the Red Water To the Kwan Lun mountain. He looked around Over the edge of the world. On the way home He lost his night-colored pearl. He sent out Science to seek his pearl, and got nothing. He sent Analysis to look for his pearl, and got nothing. He sent out Logic to seek his pearl, and got nothing. Then he asked Nothingness, and Nothingness had it!
he who obeys Nature returns through Form and Formless to the Living, And in the Living Joins the unbegun Beginning.
From emptiness comes the unconditioned. From this, the conditioned, the individual things.
From stillness, action. From action, attainment.
For stillness is joy. Joy is free from care
Joy does all things without concern:
There are no fixed limits
Nothing endures,
Where all standards differ How can you compare?
He does not rejoice in success Or lament in failure The game is never over Birth and death are even The terms are not final.
seen in terms of the whole, No one thing stands out as “better.”
Things hang together.
Thrones pass
The true conqueror is he Who is not conquered By the multitude of the small.
THE JOY OF FISHES
Chuang said: “See how free The fishes leap and dart: That is their happiness.” Hui replied: “Since you are not a fish How do you know What makes fishes happy?” Chuang said: “Since you are not I How can you possibly know That I do not know What makes fishes happy?”
“I know the joy of fishes In the river Through my own joy, as I go walking Along the same river.”
They are so concerned for their life that their anxiety makes life unbearable, even when they have the things they think they want. Their very concern for enjoyment makes them unhappy.
The rich make life intolerable, driving themselves in order to get more and more money which they cannot really use. In so doing they are alienated from themselves, and exhaust themselves in their own service as though they were slaves of others.
The ambitious run day and night in pursuit of honors, constantly in anguish about the success of their plans, dreading the miscalculation that may wreck everything. Thus they are alienated from themselves, exhausting their real l...
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The birth of a man is the birth o...
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The longer he lives, the more stupid he becomes, because his anxiety to avoid unavoidable death ...
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you never find happiness until you stop looking for it. My greatest happiness consists precisely in doing nothing whatever that is calculated to obtain happiness:
“Perfect joy is to be without joy. Perfect praise is to be without praise.”
If you ask “what ought to be done” and “what ought not to be done” on earth in order to produce happiness, I answer that these questions do not have an answer.
practice non-doing (wu wei),
