Tao Te Ching

The Power of Goodness, the Wisdom Beyond Words
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Tao Te Ching
Chapter 64
Ordinary Mind

It’s easy to guide a peaceful situation,
Easy to stop trouble before it starts,
Easy to break something when still fragile,
Easy to get rid of something when still small,
Easy to get clear before things get complicated and confused.

As a giant tree grows from a small seed,
And a tall building rises from a shovelful of earth,
Our 10,000 mile journeys begin with one step.
But rushing into action fails,
And grasping makes things slip away.

The wise therefore let things take their course and nothing goes wrong,
Don’t hold on and nothing is lost.
Instead of ruining things when on the verge of success,
They mind the end as the beginning,
The journey as the goal.

The wise only want not to want
And care nothing for hard won treasures.
They study what no one else studies
And turn back to the places
Others have gone on from.
They go along with things as they are
Without presuming to act.

Commentary

“What you are is what you have been. What you'll be is what you do now.”

Buddha गौतम बुद्ध 563 – 483 BCE
(Siddhartha Shakyamuni Gautama)
Awakened Truth

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“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”

Confucius 孔丘 551 – 479 BCE
(Kongzi, Kǒng Zǐ)
History's most influential "failure"

Themes: Less is More

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“When a wise man points at the moon the imbecile examines the finger.”

Confucius 孔丘 551 – 479 BCE
(Kongzi, Kǒng Zǐ)
History's most influential "failure"

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“To generous souls every task is noble.”

Euripides 480 – 406 BCE
Ancient humanitarian influence continuing today

Themes: Appreciation

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“The wise don’t fill their lessons with words or their shelves with books. The world may pass them by, but rulers turn to them when they want to learn what no one else learns.”

Hán Fēi 韓非 280 – 233 BCE

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“Others learn how to govern the world. Sages learn how to govern themselves and how to uphold the truth of the Way.”

Heshang Gong 河上公 202 – 157 BCE
(Ho-shang Kung or "Riverside Sage”)

Themes: Government

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“Right and wrong are situational. In the appropriate situation, nothing is wrong. Without the appropriate situation, nothing is right.”

Liú Ān 劉安 1 via Thomas Cleary
(Huainanzi)
from Huainanzi

Themes: Moral Freedom

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“A picture is a poem without words.”

Horace 65 – 8 BCE

Themes: Poetry

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“He has half the deed done who has made a beginning.”

Horace 65 – 8 BCE

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“Truth has nothing to do with words. Truth can be likened to the bright moon in the sky. Words, in this case, can be likened to a finger. The finger can point to the moon’s location. However, the finger is not the moon. To look at the moon, it is necessary to gaze beyond the finger.”

Huineng 惠能 638 – 713 CE
(Huìnéng, Enō)
The Sutra of Hui Neng

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“there is no distinction between the Buddha and sentient things, but that sentient being are attached to forms and so seek externally… By their very seeking they lose it.”

Huangbo Xiyun 黄檗希运 1
(Huangbo Xiyun, Huángbò Xīyùn, Obaku)

Themes: Ordinary Mind

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“What is important is to respect the root and extend it to the branches... Those who realize transcendence pass through words and phrases and make them come to life.”

Yuanwu Keqin 圜悟克勤 1063 – 1135 CE via J.C. and Thomas Cleary
(Yuánwù Kèqín)
from Zen Letters

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“Because of the finger you can point to the moon. Because of the moon you can understand the finger. The moon and the finger are neither different nor the same… Once you’e really seen things as they are, there’s no more moon, no more finger.”

Ryokan 良寛大愚 1758 – 1758 CE
(Ryōkan Taigu,“The Great Fool”)

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“The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 – 1882 CE
Champion of individualism

Themes: Gardening

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“How lovely it is that there are words and sounds. Are not words and sounds rainbows and illusive bridges between things which are eternally apart?”

Friedrich Nietzsche 1844 – 1900 CE

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“Sagacious spirits doubt all things, and hold fast only to that which is demonstrably true.”

Arthur Desmond 1859 – 1929 CE
from Might Is Right

Themes: Doubt

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“You must learn not what people around you consider good or bad, but to act in life as your conscience bids you. An untrammelled conscience will always know more than all the books and teachers put together.”

G. I. Gurdjieff 1866 – 1949 CE

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“I rarely think in words at all.”

Albert Einstein 1879 – 1955 CE

Themes: Science

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“Every word is an adamantine shell which encloses a great explosive force. To discover its meaning you must let it burst inside you like a bomb and in this way liberate the soul which it imprisons.”

Nikos Kazantzakis 1883 – 1957 CE
from Report to Greco

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“I remember one morning when I discovered a cocoon in the back of a tree just as a butterfly was making a hole in its case and preparing to come out… I warmed it as quickly as I could and the miracle began to happen before my eyes, faster than life… and I shall never forget my horror when I saw how its wings were folded back and crumpled… It needed to be hatched out patiently and the unfolding of the wings should be a gradual process in the sun. Now it was too late… That little body is, I do believe, the greatest weight I have on my conscience. For I realize today that it is a mortal sin to violate the great laws of nature. We should not hurry, we should not be impatient, but we should confidently obey the eternal rhythm.”

Nikos Kazantzakis 1883 – 1957 CE
from Report to Greco

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“Modern man thinks he loses something - time - when he does not do things quickly. Yet he does not know what to do with the time he gains, except kill it.”

Erich Fromm 1900 – 1980 CE
One of the most powerful voices of his era promoting the true personal freedom beyond social, political, religious, and national belief systems
from Art of Loving

Themes: Time

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“Our people would be quite shocked by having to declare that one policy was completely right and another completely wrong.”

James Hilton 1900 – 1954 CE
from Lost Horizon

Themes: Middle Way

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“There is no problem. When you say ‘I am a human being,’ that is just another name for buddha – human being-buddha.”

Shunryu Suzuki Roshi 1904 – 1971 CE

Themes: Problems

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“When one of the emperors of China asked Bodhidharma what enlightenment was, his answer was, ‘Lots of space, nothing holy’… It’s all good juicy stuff … the art of living in the present moment.”

Pema Chödrön 1936 CE –
(Deirdre Blomfield-Brown)
First American Vajrayana nun

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“Suddenly you’re seeing something extraordinary arising out of a very ordinary thing.”

Chögyam Trungpa 1939 – 1987 CE
from Illusion's Game

Themes: Ordinary Mind

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“The ancient Masters… woke up, they ate, they worked, they made love, they raised their families, all the while unseduced by any thoughts.”

Stephen Mitchell 1943 CE –
from Second Book of Tao

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