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When the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten. When the belt fits, the belly is forgotten. When the heart is right, “for” and “against” are forgotten. No drives, no compulsions, no needs, no attractions: Then your affairs are under control. You are a free man.

Zhuangzi

The effect of life in society is to complicate and confuse our existence, making us forget who we really are by causing us to become obsessed with what we are not.
ZHUANGZI

Complication Confusion Effect Existence Forget Life Obsession Ourselves Society
Heaven is in everything: follow the light, hide in the cloudiness and begin in what is. Do this and your understanding will be like not understanding and your wisdom will be like not being wise. By not being wise you will become wise later.
ZHUANGZI

Cloud Follow Heaven Light Understand Wisdom Yourself
During our dreams we do not know we are dreaming. We may even dream of interpreting a dream. Only on waking do we know it was a dream. Only after the great awakening will we realize that this is the great dream.
ZHUANGZI

Awakening Dreams Greatness Realize Wake Up
My opinion is that you never find happiness until you stop looking for it.
ZHUANGZI

Finding Happiness Opinion Stop Yourself
The living all find death unpleasant; men mourn over it. And yet, what is death, but the unbending of the bow and its return to its case?
ZHUANGZI

Case Death Finding Live Pleasant Return
Verily God does not reward man for what he does, but for what he is.
ZHUANGZI

God Himself Man Reward Work
Men honor what lies within the sphere of their knowledge, but do not realize how dependent they are on what lies beyond it.
ZHUANGZI

Beyond Dependent Honor Knowledge Lying Man
There is a beginning. There is no beginning of that beginning. There is something. There is nothing.
ZHUANGZI

Beginning Philosophy
Are you and I perchance caught up in a dream from which we have not yet awakened?
ZHUANGZI

Awake Dreams Myself Yourself
To have attained to the human form is a source of joy. What an incomparable bliss it is to undergo these countless transitions.
ZHUANGZI

Bliss Count Form Happiness Human Joy Source Transition
Either in conflict with others or in harmony with them, we go through life like a runaway horse, unable to stop.
ZHUANGZI

Conflict Harmony Life Stop
When an archer shoots for enjoyment, he has all his skill; when he shoots for a brass buckle, he gets nervous; when he shoots for a prize of gold, he begins to see two targets.
ZHUANGZI

Beginning Enjoyment Himself Nervous Skill Target
Men of this world all rejoice in others being like themselves, and object to others not being like themselves.
ZHUANGZI

Acceptance Man Object Reality Rejoice Tolerance World
The little child learns to speak, though it has no learned teachers – because it lives with those who know how to speak.
ZHUANGZI

Children Deep Learning Live Talk Teacher
The men of old breathed clear down to their heels.
ZHUANGZI

Breathe Clear Man Old
But you now, you wear your soul on your sleeve, exhausting your energy, propping yourself up on a tree, mumbling, or bent over your desk, asleep. Heaven gives you a form and you wear it out by pointless argument.
ZHUANGZI

Argument Energy Exhaust Form Heaven Point Soul Tree

When the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten. When the belt fits, the belly is forgotten. When the heart is right, “for” and “against” are forgotten. No drives, no compulsions, no needs, no attractions: Then your affairs are under control. You are a free man.

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When the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten. When the belt fits, the belly is forgotten. When the heart is right, “for” and “against” are forgotten. No drives, no compulsions, no needs, no attractions: Then your affairs are under control. You are a free man.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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