In the West the wise are usually thought of as leaders. In the East, the wise are very often though of as followers.
We know we should be completely humble. We should stop thinking that we’re very marvelous because we’re not. We are interesting at best because we are a part of life.
Taoism shows us how to deal with life and death by realizing everything here is transitory but its substance is eternal:.
We should not weep or cry or be upset when we see the generations pass, because all are forms of the infinite creation. They are not real, they are not eternal.
Just as when water is frozen in to a form as ice and then melts – so at the time of death, there is no death. The spirit simply changes form.
Some people think Taoism means not doing anything, just going on with your life. That has little or nothing to do with Taoism.
Taoism means streching your being, becoming both a man and a woman and joining within yourself, to be the heavens themselves, to stretch your awareness beyond the breaking point until all opposites are reconciled within yourself.
Enlightenment comes through the feminine side of the being.
Examine everything that you’ve been taught, not simply what you’ve been taught in school, but the images that have been held up to you since the time of your birth.
Get some distance on yourself and undertand the multilevel structure that’s operating. There’s a power structure within you. You’re a very political creature.
For a person who lives in time, differences are the most important thing because they represent your existence.
Initially there’s absolutely nothing.
When we have complements or oppositions, change occurs.
Change can only exist in time. Without time there is no change. Change can only exist with a background of that which is changeless, otherwise it has no definition.
We can say the stars are moving because we have a relative context.
If there’s no background, no foreground, no opposition, no complements, then there’s no change becasue there’s no subject and object.
The Chinese used the symbol of tai chi, the undifferentiated reality – no separation, no left and right.
Before perception, before a preceiver, existence was – is. This is the consciousness that we refer to as nirvana, God, eternity.
Everything is part of one web, one matrix of existence, beyond discussion. This is our true self in its undifferentiated form.
We create ying and yang, yes and no, plus and minus.