Best of Taoism – The place of inaction

You do not need to leave your house in order to know what happens in the world. You do not need to look out of the window to see the path to heaven. The further you travel, the less you understand.

Wise people do not move about, yet they know; they do not look, but they see; they do not act, but they do what needs to be done.

If you study books and memorize facts, you learn more day by day. If you follow the way, you do less day by day. Eventually by following the way you arrive at the place of inaction; in that place nothing is done, and nothing is undone.

To manage an organization well, do not fuss over it. Anyone who fusses is unfit to manage anything.

Best of Taoism – Returning to the root

Do your utmost to be empty. Hold firmly to stillness.

Thousands of events are occurring at any moment. Observe events as they occur, and observe them pass. Nothing lasts. Events are like flowers: they bloom for some time, and then sink back into their roots.

Returning to the root is piece. Yes, peace consists in accepting what is, and knowing what endures. With that acceptance and knowledge you are wise. Without that acceptance and knowledge your life descends into chaos and ruin.

If you know what endures, you are generous, magnanimous, gracious, and serene. If you know what endures, you follow the way, because the way endures forever. The body will come to an end, but that is no cause for fear.

Best of Taoism – Invisible, Inaudible and Intangible

What cannot be seen, is called invisible. What cannot be heard, is called inaudible. What cannot be touched, is called intangible.

That which is invisible, inaudible and intangible is one. You cannot differentiate one invisible, inaudible, intangible thing from another; there is perfect unity in invisibility, inaudibility and intangibility.

Nor can you say that above or below invisibility, inaudibility and intangibility is visibility, audibility and tangibility.

This oneness can never be named. It both is, and is not; it exists, and it does not exist. It is the form of the unformed; it is the image of no image.

It is the unthinkable thought. You may face it, yet it cannot be faced. You may follow it, but it has no end.

Hold fast to the Way that people of old times followed, in order to live in the present. If you remember the times of antiquity, you hold the thread of now.