Tao Te Ching

The Power of Goodness, the Wisdom Beyond Words
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Liu Yiming 刘一明

(Liu I-ming)

1734 – 1821 CE

11th-generation Shanxi Dragon GateTaoist master, doctor, merchant, coolie, builder and main representative of the Neidan school of Internal Alchemy; Liu Yiming alternated travel, seclusion, and intense practice during his early life and then settled into teaching and writing, restoring temples, and helping poor families. He taught the unity of the ”Three Teachings" (Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism) and how they complement, enrich, and support each other. He described Lao Tzu’s “non-doing” (wuwei 無為) as the highest form, methods of Confucius as more practical for most people and then the Buddha’s “doing first and then non-doing” as more practical for most people.

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Taoist I Ching, , Zhouyi chanzhen 周易闡真

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Quotes by Liu Yiming (20 quotes)

“Those whose main concern is food and clothing are untrustworthy in an impasse… complaining against heaven and blaming people.”

from Taoist I Ching, , Zhouyi chanzhen 周易闡真

Chapters: 8. Like Water

Themes: Complaint

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“competitiveness and desire for power are the beginnings of beckoning disaster in business and social relations.”

from Taoist I Ching, , Zhouyi chanzhen 周易闡真

Chapters: 9. Know When to Stop

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“The wise support others with warmth, a warmth that requires genuine practice, true application barring insult and attack, bearing all difficulty, hardship, sickness, and calamity, just as the earth supports the mountains.”

from Taoist I Ching, , Zhouyi chanzhen 周易闡真

Chapters: 25. The Mother of All Things

Themes: Kindness

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“the sprouts of living potential grow when the energies of yin and yang commune.”

from Taoist I Ching, , Zhouyi chanzhen 周易闡真

Chapters: 42. Children of the Way

Themes: Middle Way

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“Knowledge of the ingredients without knowledge of the process cannot accomplish the Tao.”

from Taoist I Ching, , Zhouyi chanzhen 周易闡真

Chapters: 56. One with the Dust

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“Getting out of danger requires that one believe it is dangerous – belief rules the mind… If there is truthfulness, then the mind develops.”

from Taoist I Ching, , Zhouyi chanzhen 周易闡真

Chapters: 80. A Golden Age

Themes: Truth Belief

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“Great people, while being very wise, appear to be ignorant; while being very skillful, they appear inept… they cannot be influenced by circumstances… they are not concerned with externals… they find good fortune wherever they are.”

from Taoist I Ching, , Zhouyi chanzhen 周易闡真

Chapters: 41. Distilled Life

Themes: Skillful Means

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“looking upon others and oneself as the same there will be no discordant action.”

from Taoist I Ching, , Zhouyi chanzhen 周易闡真

Chapters: 14. Finding and Following the Formless Form

Themes: Egolessness

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“the science of fulfilling nature and comprehending life is the great work of appropriating yin and yang, taking over evolution, reversing the process of life and death”

from Taoist I Ching, , Zhouyi chanzhen 周易闡真

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“Though near to reality by nature, people become estranged from it by habit—descending lower and lower by daily repetition, they fall into a state of ignorant obstinacy and do not know how to stop.”

from Taoist I Ching, , Zhouyi chanzhen 周易闡真

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“Nurturing firmness with flexibility, solidity with openness, from striving enter into nonstriving, from effort into spontaneity and practice introspection in action letting true yin and true yang naturally unite.”

from Taoist I Ching, , Zhouyi chanzhen 周易闡真

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“Use unfortunate events to polish oneself, to find increase within reduction, to change a faulty beginning into a blameless end.”

from Taoist I Ching, , Zhouyi chanzhen 周易闡真

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“Wine and sex distract from reality, the lure of wealth deranges our nature, emotions and desires arise in a tangle and we become lost in confusion.”

from Taoist I Ching, , Zhouyi chanzhen 周易闡真

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“When the mind clearly understand true and false, it awaits the right time to act with strength and harmony, serene and without pressure.”

from Taoist I Ching, , Zhouyi chanzhen 周易闡真

Themes: Patience

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“True yin and true yang naturally form a couple and from striving enter into nonstriving, from effort arrive at spontaneity completely realizing essence and arriving at the true meaning of life.”

from Taoist I Ching, , Zhouyi chanzhen 周易闡真

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“If they hastily seek consummation and merely attain a moment's pleasure; not only will the woman not be happy, neither will the man and the relationship will surely fail in the long run.”

from Taoist I Ching, , Zhouyi chanzhen 周易闡真

Themes: Sex Marriage

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“Practice contemplation in action by combining flexibility with firmness, solidity with openness, and returning the nonexistent to existence.”

from Taoist I Ching, , Zhouyi chanzhen 周易闡真

Chapters: 12. This Over That

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“When feeling returns to essence, punishment turns into merit. Reverting to the original, going back to the fundamental, there is a return to correctness.”

from Taoist I Ching, , Zhouyi chanzhen 周易闡真

Themes: Punishment

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“When the dirt is gone the mirror is clear, when the clouds disperse the moon appears; revealing the indestructible body of reality, they transcend yin and yang and Creation, and merge with the eternity of space.”

Themes: No Trace Moon

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“True emptiness is like the inner openness of a bell or a drum; when a bell is struck it rings, when a drum is beaten it resounds. It is because they have nothing inside that they are able to ring and resound. ineffable existence is like the sounding of a bell or a drum when struck... empty yet not empty, not empty yet empty, aware and efficient, lively and active, refining everything in the great furnace of Creation”

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Quotes about Liu Yiming (1 quotes)

“According to the Taoist master, Liu Yiming, the Way comes to the best people before virtue, whereas virtue is needed by middling and lesser people before they can understand the Way.”

Thomas Cleary 1949 CE –
from Essential Tao

Themes: Virtue

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