Recognize the masculine
But turn back to the feminine
And become the world’s riverbed
Always true and unswerving,
Becoming a new born child again.
Recognize the light
But turn back to the dark
And become a pattern to the world,
True and unerring power
Going back again to boundlessness.
Recognize the glory
But turn back to the modest
And become the world’s guide
To boundless energy and power
Going back again to the natural,
An uncarved block of wood,
Primal simplicity.
A block of wood can be made into tools
But tools cannot be made into a block of wood
The wise can easily be made into leaders
But leaders not so easily made wise.
The greatest carver does the least cutting.
“Return to the way. How could there be blame in this?”
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“The highest and humblest, wombs of the world, continuously, endlessly, give birth.”
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“Trust in self interest, spread one’s awesomeness over the enemy... Victory can be known. It cannot be made… And so the superior military cuts down strategy. Its inferior cuts down alliances. Its inferior cuts down the military. The worst attacks walled cities.”
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“Nowadays I see with my whole being not with my eyes. I sense the natural lines, and my knife slides through by itself… I stand there and let the joy of the work fill me.”
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“Purify your own hearts, and the world will become pure.”
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“Rest in the nature of alaya (‘simplicity and in clear and nondiscriminating mind’- CTR).”
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“To recognize the Way is hard. Once you recognize it, holding on to it is even harder.”
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“Many would be wise if they did not think themselves wise.”
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“Only the free-wheeling artist-explorer, non-academic, scientist-philosopher, mechanic, economist-poet who has never waited for patron-starting and accrediting of his co-ordinate capabilities holds the prime initiative today.”
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“If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem.”
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“But the eyes are blind. One must look with the heart… The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.”
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“Artists are the Indians of the white world. They are called dreamers who live in the clouds… I tell you this is the real world, not the Green Frog Skin World. That’s only a bad dream, a streamlined, smog-filled nightmare.”
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“When you do something, just to do it should be your purpose”
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“A great government wouldn't chop and hack at human nature, trying to make leaders out of sow's ears.”
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“the valley where power is contained leads back – to the forever new endless, straightforward way.”
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“We cut our ground and have a frightening – terrifying – sudden glimpse of groundlessness… no one is standing on any ground, so communication can take place quite freely”
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Comments (1)
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Shan Dao
7 years ago
The lines, “A block of wood can be made into tools but tools cannot be made into a block of wood” isn’t a translation but a commentary by Wang Dao (1467-1532), Lao tzu-chu, Red Pine translation
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