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> 83 quotes tagged "chuang-tzu"
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The perfect person has no fixed self. The wise person claims no special achievements. The sage seeks no recognition or fame.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 1: Free and Easy Wandering
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Let go of the years. Forget artificial distinctions. Leap into the boundless realm and make it your home.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 2: The Equality of Things
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Life and death are as natural and inevitable as the succession of day and night.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 6: The Great Teacher
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The Way gathers in emptiness alone. Emptiness is the fasting of the mind.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 4: In the World of Men
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When you're content with your time and dwell in the natural order, neither sorrow nor joy can disturb you.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 6: The Great Teacher
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The supreme person uses their mind like a mirror. It neither anticipates nor pursues. It responds but doesn't store.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 7: Fit for Emperors and Kings
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Better to stop in time than to fill things to overflowing. A blade sharpened too much quickly becomes dull.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 3: The Secret of Caring for Life
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Things achieve completion and then return to their source. Returning to the source is called stillness.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 16: Mending Nature
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The fish trap exists because of the fish. Once you've gotten the fish, you can forget the trap.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 26: External Things
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Flow with whatever happens and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you're doing.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 6: The Great Teacher
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The skilled craftsman doesn't let tools limit him. The proficient chariot driver doesn't depend on special roads.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 19: Mastering Life
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When water is still, it reflects everything clearly. If water derives clarity from stillness, how much more so the human mind?Chuang Tzu, Chapter 5: The Sign of Virtue Complete
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The purpose of words is to convey ideas. When you've grasped the idea, you can forget the words.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 26: External Things
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Great understanding is broad and unhurried. Small understanding is cramped and anxious.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 2: The Equality of Things
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The hundred joints, nine openings, and six organs all exist in harmony. Which should I prefer? Do you treat them all as servants?Chuang Tzu, Chapter 2: The Equality of Things
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To wear out your brain trying to unify things without knowing they're already the same is called 'three in the morning.'Chuang Tzu, Chapter 2: The Equality of Things
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When 'this' and 'that' cease to be opposites, you've found the pivot of the Way.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 2: The Equality of Things
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Heaven and earth exist together with me. All things and I are one.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 2: The Equality of Things
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If you hide your boat in a ravine and your net in the lake, thinking them safe, someone strong might come at midnight and carry them off.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 6: The Great Teacher
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He who knows he's a fool is not the biggest fool. He who knows he's confused is not in the worst confusion.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 2: The Equality of Things
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Joy and anger, sorrow and happiness, hope and fear arise and pass like music from hollowness, like mushrooms from dampness.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 2: The Equality of Things
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Don't let your mind be a servant of things. Use things, but don't be used by them.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 4: In the World of Men
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The cook was cutting up an ox. Every touch of his hand, every heave of his shoulder, every step of his foot, every thrust of his knife followed the natural grain.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 3: The Secret of Caring for Life
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Follow the middle path. Go by what is constant, and you can preserve yourself, care for your parents, and live out your years.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 3: The Secret of Caring for Life
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Those who know don't speak. Those who speak don't know.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 22: Knowledge Wandered North
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Can you embrace the One without letting go? Can you concentrate your vital force and become supple as an infant?Chuang Tzu, Chapter 23: Gengsang Chu
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The true person of ancient times slept without dreams and woke without anxiety. They ate without savoring and breathed from deep within.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 6: The Great Teacher
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If a bird builds its nest deep in the forest, it uses only a single branch. If an animal drinks from the river, it takes only what fills its belly.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 1: Free and Easy Wandering
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The way to make the will sincere is to extend knowledge. The extension of knowledge lies in the investigation of things.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 13: The Way of Heaven
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When you wear out your mind trying to make things one, without realizing they already share a common nature, it's called using three in the morning.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 2: The Equality of Things
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The man of true understanding wanders freely in the world and his mind cannot be led astray.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 7: Fit for Emperors and Kings
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Once Chuang Tzu dreamt he was a butterfly. When he woke, he didn't know if he was a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming of being a man.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 2: The Equality of Things
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Heaven does nothing, yet nothing is left undone. Earth does nothing, yet everything is transformed and nourished.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 13: The Way of Heaven
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Breathing from your heels, the wise person allows things to come and go without resistance.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 6: The Great Teacher
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When deformity of body doesn't cause deformity of mind, then you have virtue.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 5: The Sign of Virtue Complete
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If you're going to pile up achievements, you must have a foundation. But where can you find a foundation that has no location?Chuang Tzu, Chapter 2: The Equality of Things
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The wise person considers both loss and gain, so neither fortune nor misfortune disturbs them.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 2: The Equality of Things
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Forget about time. Forget about distinctions. Leap into the boundless and make it your home.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 2: The Equality of Things
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A duck's legs are short, but if we try to lengthen them, the duck will feel pain. A crane's legs are long, but if we try to shorten them, the crane will feel sorrow.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 8: Webbed Toes
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The perfect person has no self, the spiritual person has no achievement, the true person has no name.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 1: Free and Easy Wandering
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Do you think the Creator is concerned whether you're a shoulder or a liver? He's going to transform you into whatever fits the pattern.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 6: The Great Teacher
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Great knowing is expansive and leisurely. Small knowing is picky and fault-finding.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 2: The Equality of Things
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If you've grasped the purpose of being here, why worry about where you're going?Chuang Tzu, Chapter 6: The Great Teacher
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The world values the useful, but the wise know that the useless has its uses.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 4: In the World of Men
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Words exist to point to meaning. Once you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 26: External Things
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The mind of the perfect person is like a mirror. It doesn't lead and doesn't follow. It responds but doesn't retain.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 7: Fit for Emperors and Kings
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When you bet for tiles in an archery contest, you shoot with skill. When you bet for fancy buckles, you worry about your aim. When you bet for real gold, you're a nervous wreck.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 19: Mastering Life
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In stillness, the wise person's mind is the mirror of heaven and earth, the glass of everything.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 13: The Way of Heaven
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Happiness is a light body and a peaceful mind. Sadness is a heavy body and an agitated mind.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 18: Perfect Happiness
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The fish trap exists because of fish. Once you get the fish, forget the trap. Words exist because of meaning. Once you get the meaning, forget the words.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 26: External Things
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When you're crossing a river, the boat is useful. But when you've crossed, you don't carry the boat on your back.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 26: External Things
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The wise adapt themselves to circumstances, as water molds itself to the pitcher.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 15: Ingrained Ideas
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Don't you know that the mantis waved its arms angrily in front of an approaching carriage, unaware that it could never stop it?Chuang Tzu, Chapter 4: In the World of Men
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The ten thousand things all arise from a single source and return to different destinations. Yet beginning and end are connected.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 22: Knowledge Wandered North
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To be constant is to know what's constant. To know what's constant is to be illuminated.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 16: Mending Nature
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Do not seek fame. Do not make plans. Do not try to do things. Do not try to master knowledge. Embrace the infinite and wander where there is no path.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 7: Fit for Emperors and Kings
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If you're going to travel far, you need to take food for the journey. But for the journey to the infinite, no provisions are necessary.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 1: Free and Easy Wandering
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The wise person looks into the water and sees their own reflection, but they also see the sky, the clouds, and all things.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 13: The Way of Heaven
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Security in the midst of change is found by identifying with the process rather than the form.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 6: The Great Teacher
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The path that can be walked is not the eternal path. The name that can be named is not the eternal name.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 22: Knowledge Wandered North
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When the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten. When the belt fits, the belly is forgotten. When the mind is right, both approval and disapproval are forgotten.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 19: Mastering Life
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If you understand the oneness of things, then nothing seems separate. If you maintain this understanding, gain and loss become one.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 2: The Equality of Things
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The wise person is never too great to take advice and never too small to give it.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 6: The Great Teacher
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Can you hold fast to oneness and not let go? Can you know the future by understanding the past? Can you stop seeking and simply receive?Chuang Tzu, Chapter 11: Let It Be, Leave It Alone
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Great speech seems inarticulate. Great action seems ineffective. Great form seems imperfect.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 27: Imputed Words
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The wise travel through life gathering nothing. They see existence as a gift that needs no improvement.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 32: Lie Yukou
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Those who flow as life flows know they need no other force. They feel no wear, they feel no tear, they need no mending, no repair.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 19: Mastering Life
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When the heart is right, for and against are forgotten. Even in a crooked reflection, true seeing remains undistorted.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 2: The Equality of Things
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The greatest sacrifice leaves something, the greatest ritual has no rule, the greatest music has no sound, the greatest image has no form.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 2: The Equality of Things
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Before I was born, I didn't know happiness. After I die, I won't know sorrow. So why should I be concerned with either now?Chuang Tzu, Chapter 18: Perfect Happiness
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Those who understand the natural order don't struggle against circumstances. Those who understand fate don't struggle against what comes.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 5: The Sign of Virtue Complete
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Making the whole world agree that something is wrong doesn't make you right. Making the whole world agree you're right doesn't make you so.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 2: The Equality of Things
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When the student is ready, the Way appears. When the mind is still, understanding comes by itself.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 13: The Way of Heaven
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The skilled cook changes knives once a year because he cuts skillfully. The ordinary cook changes knives monthly because he hacks.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 3: The Secret of Caring for Life
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By letting things alone, allowing each to be what it is, you discover that all things flourish naturally.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 11: Let It Be, Leave It Alone
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When you're betting with tiles, your skill shows. When you're betting with gold, your hands shake. External pressure distorts natural ability.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 19: Mastering Life
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The wise person's movement leaves no trace. Their speech creates no arguments. Their calculations use no counting rods.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 27: Imputed Words
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If you listen not with the ear but with the heart; not with the heart but with the breath — then the breath itself is empty and waits on all things. The Way gathers in emptiness alone. Emptiness is the fasting of the heart.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 4 – The Human World
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Everyone knows the usefulness of what is useful, but no one knows the usefulness of what is useless.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 4 – The Human World
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If a man crosses a river and an empty boat collides with his, even if he is bad-tempered he will not be angry. But if there is a man in that boat, he will shout at him to steer clear. Anger arises when there is someone to blame. Empty your own boat as you cross the river of the world, and nothing can oppose you.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 20 – Mountain Trees
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Prince Hui's cook was cutting up an ox. Every touch of his hand, every heave of his shoulder, every move of his feet was in perfect rhythm — like the dance of the Mulberry Grove. 'I work with my mind and not with my eye,' he said. 'My mind works along without the control of the senses. Falling back upon eternal principles, I glide through the great joints as they are. A good cook changes his chopper once a year — because he cuts. An ordinary cook, once a month — because he hacks. I have used this chopper for nineteen years, yet its edge is still as keen as if fresh from the grindstone. Because I always work in accordance with the natural constitution of the animal.'Chuang Tzu, Chapter 3 – The Secret of Caring for Life
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Confucius saw an old man swimming at the Lüliang waterfall — the current violent enough to drown fish and turtles. He sent a disciple to help. But the man came out singing. 'How do you do it?' Confucius asked. 'I go under with the whirls and come up with the eddies,' said the man. 'I follow along with the way of the water and do not impose my own selfish wishes upon it. This is how I stay afloat.'Chuang Tzu, Chapter 19 – Mastering Life
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Duke Huan was reading when Wheelwright Pian put down his chisel and asked: 'What are you reading?' 'The words of the sages.' 'Are they alive?' 'Dead.' 'Then you are reading nothing but their dregs. When I chisel a wheel — too slow, the chisel slides; too fast, it jams. The right pace comes from the hand and is felt in the mind. It cannot be put into words. There is an art to it I cannot teach my own son, and which he cannot learn from me. So here I am, seventy years old, still chiseling wheels.'Chuang Tzu, Chapter 13 – The Way of Heaven