A well-frog cannot imagine the ocean, nor can a summer insect conceive of ice. How then can a scholar understand the Tao? He is restricted by his own learning.
Those who think that the rewarding things in life are somewhere over the rainbow ‘burn their toast a lot,’ said Pooh.
The Infinite Universal Power is more than just a narrow-minded gatekeeper to a spiritual County Club.
When you know and respect your Inner Nature, you know where you belong. You also know where you don’t belong.
Whether many people realize it yet or not, man, the Inferior Animal, has by now proved himself incapable of keeping his own species – and others – alive for very much longer. So the earth has begun its own plan to set things right.
No matter how useful we may be, sometimes it takes us a while to recognize our own value.
Well, it takes all kinds to make a mess.
Phonographic. It goes around and around. Sometimes it gets stuck. That’s why I remember things so well.
To Buddha, the second figure in the painting, life on earth was bitter, filled with attachments and desires that led to suffering.
We simply need to believe in the power that’s within us, and use it.
The play-it-safe pessimists of the world never accomplish much of anything, because they don’t look clearly and objectively at situations, they don’t recognize or believe in their own abilities to overcome even the smallest amount of risk.
Through working in harmony with life’s circumstances, Taoist understanding changes what others may percieve as negative into something positive.
Enjoy the simple, the natural and the plain. Along with that comes the ability to do things spontaneously and have them work.
Life itself, when understood and utilized for what it is, is sweet.
From the Taoist point of view, the natural result of this harmonious way of living is happiness.
As any old Taoist walking out of the woods can tell you, simple-minded does not necessarily mean stupid.
It means that Tao doesn’t force or interfere with things, but lets them work in their own way, to produce results naturally. Then whatever needs to be done is done.
Pooh is able to accomplish what he does because he is simpleminded.
Under Confucianism, the use of precisely measured court music, prescribed steps, actions, and phrases all added up to an extremely complex system of rituals, each used for a particular purpose at a particular time.
Practically everything from hairstyles to lifestyles is endorsed as some sort of drug to be taken Now for Instant Relief.
Cleverness, after all, has its limitations. Its mechanical judgments and clever remarks tend to prove inaccurate with passing time, because it doesn’t look very deeply into things to begin with.