Tao

This material dimension is just samsara. See it and you see samsara for what it’s worth. But what does it mean?… Nothing but shifting names and changing forms. But when the ego drops away you experience this Flux… And it is beautiful not just because it is dazzling, but because the act of seeing it as it is necessitates the ego’s oblivion… The Veil is lifted and you see clearly.
~ Chuang Tzu

You get something when it’s time. You lose it when it’s passed. If you are content with the time and abide by the passing, there’s no room for sorrow or joy. This is what the ancients called ‘loosing the bonds.’ If you don’t loose yourself, things will bind you.
~ Chuang Tzu

Do not go about worshipping deities and religious institutions as the source of the subtle truth. To do so is to place intermediaries between yourself and the divine, and to make of yourself a beggar who looks outside for a treasure that is hidden inside his own breast. If you want to worship the Tao, first discover it in your own heart. Then your worship will be meaningful.
~ Hua Hu Ching

All streams flow to the sea because it is lower than they are. Humility gives it its power. If you want to govern the people, you must place yourself below them. If you want to lead the people, you must learn how to follow them.
~ Lao Tzu

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are, When you realize there is nothing lacking the whole world belongs to you.
~ Lao Tzu

He who does not trust enough, Will not be trusted.
~ Lao Tzu

If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.
~ Lao Tzu

If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself. If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation. ~ Lao Tzu

If you want to be given everything, give everything up.
~ Lao Tzu

In the pursuit of learning, every day something is acquired. In the pursuit of Tao, every day something is dropped. Less and less is done until non-action is achieved. When nothing is done, nothing is left undone. The world is ruled by letting things take their course. It cannot be ruled by interfering.
~ Lao Tsu

Not all spiritual paths lead to the Harmonious Oneness. Indeed, most are detours and distractions, nothing more.
~ Lao Tzu, from the Hua Hu Ching

Some say that my teaching is nonsense. Others call it lofty but impractical. But to those who have looked inside themselves, this nonsense makes perfect sense. And to those who put it into practice, this loftiness has roots that go deep. I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion.
~ Lao Tzu

Stand before it And there is no beginning. Follow it and there is no end. Stay with the ancient Tao, Move with the present.
~ Lao Tzu

Stay at the center of the circle and let all things take their course.
~ Lao Tzu

The ego is a monkey catapulting through the jungle: totally fascinated by the realm of the senses, it swings from one desire to the next, one conflict to the next, one self-centered idea to the next. If you threaten it, it actually fears for its life. Let this monkey go. Let the senses go. Let desires go. Let conflicts go. Let ideas go. Let the fiction of life and death go. Just remain in the center, watching. And then forget that you are there.
~ Lao Tzu

When people see some things as beautiful, other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good, other things become bad.
Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.
Therefore the Master acts without doing anything and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come; Things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn’t possess, acts but doesn’t expect.
When her work is done, She forgets it. That is why it lasts forever.
~ Lao Tzu

The Mind of Absolute Trust

The great way isn’t difficult for those who are unattached to their preferences.

Let go of longing and aversion, and everything will be perfectly clear. When you cling to a hairbreadth of distinction, heaven and earth are set apart If you want to realize the truth, don’t be for or against.

The struggle between good and evil is the primal disease of the mind. Not grasping the deeper meaning, you just trouble your minds serenity.

As vast as infinite space, it is perfect and lacks nothing.

But because you select and reject, you can’t perceive its true nature. Don’t get entangled in the world; don’t lose yourself in emptiness. Be at peace in the oneness of things, and all errors will disappear by themselves.

If you don’t live the Tao, you fall into assertion or denial. Asserting that the world is real, you are blind to its deeper reality; denying that the world is real, you are blind to the selflessness of all things.

The more you think about these matters, the farther you are from the truth. Step aside from all thinking, and there is nowhere you can’t go.

Returning to the root, you find the meaning; chasing appearances, you lose their source.

At the moment of profound insight, you transcend both appearance and emptiness.

Don’t keep searching for the truth; just let go of your opinions.

For the mind in harmony with the Tao, all selfishness disappears.

With not even a trace of self-doubt, you can trust the universe completely.

All at once you are free, with nothing left to hold on to. All is empty, brilliant, perfect in its own being.

In the world of things as they are, there is no self, no non self.

If you want to describe its essence, the best you can say is “Not-two.” In this “Not-two” nothing is separate, and nothing in the world is excluded. The enlightened of all times and places have entered into this truth. In it there is no gain or loss; one instant is ten thousand years. There is no here, no there; infinity is right before your eyes. The tiny is as large as the vast when objective boundaries have vanished; the vast is as small as the tiny when you don’t have external limits.

Being is an aspect of non-being; non-being is no different from being. Until you understand this truth, you won’t see anything clearly. One is all; all are one. When you realize this, what reason for holiness or wisdom? The mind of absolute trust is beyond all thought, all striving, is perfectly at peace, for in it there is no yesterday, no today, no tomorrow.
~ Seng-ts'an, tr. Stephen Mitchell

Empty yourself of everything. Let the mind become still. All things in the Universe rise and fall while the Self watches their return. They grow and flourish and then return to the Source. Returning to the Source is stillness, which is the Way of Nature.
~ Tao Te Ching

We join spokes together in a wheel, But it is the center hole That makes the wagon move. We shape clay into a pot, But it is the emptiness inside That holds whatever we want. We hammer wood for a house, But it is the inner space That makes it livable. We work with being, But non-being is what we use.
~ Tao Te Ching

Tao is Like Water. Water takes the lowest way. It flows around obstacles. It has no projections, but it penetrates that which has no crevices. It’s the softest of all things, but it grinds rock. It resists nothing but is irresistible. It asks for nothing but nourishes everything. It strives for nothing but transforms everything.
~ Tao Te Ching 1:24, Lao Tzu

If you want to become full, let yourself be empty. If you want to be reborn, let yourself die. If you want to be given everything, give everything up.
~ Tao Te Ching: Ch 22

Emptiness is silence. It is not stillness of the grave. It is midnight silence, when the wind rests, birds sleep, and the sun is hours from rising. It is the quiet that falls with snow, when the fields of labor are covered in white and trees have withdrawn into patience. That quietness is not the cessation of shouts, pounding feet, and pumping arms, but their origin. It is the source of day and the origin of spring. Silence is not the end. It is the beginning. Wuji is essential stillness, the packed potential before the beginning. It is the beginning of the beginning. Only after silence breaks into sound does emptiness become all things.
~ Deng Ming-Dao, The Living I Ching