Kindle Notes & Highlights
The Keeper of the Pass said, “Don’t dwell on yourself, and things will be clear. Like water in movement, like a mirror in stillness, like an echo in response, the Way is thus in harmony with people.
To live when you can live is a blessing from Nature. To die when you should die is a blessing from Nature. Not living when you can live is a penalty from Nature. Not dying when you should die is a penalty from Nature.
“No principle in the world is always right, and no thing is always wrong. What was used yesterday may be rejected today, what is rejected now may be used later on. This use or disuse has no fixed right or wrong. To avail yourself of opportunities at just the right time, responding to events without being set in your ways, is in the domain of wisdom. If your wisdom is insufficient, even if you are as learned as Confucius and as skilled as Lu Shang, you’ll come to an impasse wherever you go.”
There was a pauper of Qi who used to beg in the city market. At the city market they were bothered by his frequency, and no one would give him anything. Finally he went to the stables of the Tian clan and did chores for the horse doctor to get something to eat. Townspeople teased him, saying, “Isn’t it embarrassing to live off a horse doctor?” The beggar said, “There’s nothing in the world more embarrassing than begging. If I’m not embarrassed to beg, why should I be embarrassed about a horse doctor?”
A man who lost his axe suspected his neighbor’s son—“Look at the way he walks—he’s stolen the axe! The expression on his face—he’s stolen the axe! The way he talks—he’s stolen the axe!” Every act, every attitude, indicated that he’d stolen the axe. One day the man found the axe as he was digging in the valley. The next time he saw his neighbor’s son, he wasn’t acting like he’d stolen the axe.
