A way of life that keeps saying ‘Around the next corner, above the next step,’ works against the natural order of things and makes it so difficult to be happy and good.
BENJAMIN HOFFTo Buddha, the second figure in the painting, life on earth was bitter, filled with attachments and desires that led to suffering.
More Benjamin Hoff Quotes
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The Universe knows what it’s doing. So don’t develop a big ego, and don’t be afraid.
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Through working in harmony with life’s circumstances, Taoist understanding changes what others may percieve as negative into something positive.
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A clever mind is not a heart. Knowledge doesn’t really care, wisdom does.
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In the Age of Perfect Virtue, men lived among the animals and birds as members of one large family. There were no distinctions between superior and inferior to separate one man or species from another. All retained their natural Virtue and lived in a state of pure simplicity.
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Without difficulties, life would be like a stream without rocks and curves – about as interesting as concrete. Without problems, there can be no personal growth, no group achievement, no progress of humanity. But what mattes about problems is what one does with them.
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Reality is what one makes it. And the more negative reality one nurtures and creates, the more of it one has.
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Those who think that the rewarding things in life are somewhere over the rainbow ‘burn their toast a lot,’ said Pooh
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No matter how useful we may be, sometimes it takes us a while to recognize our own value.
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But isn’t the knowledge that comes from experience more valuable than the knowledge that doesn’t? It seems fairly obvious to some of us that a lot of scholars need to go outside and sniff around – walk through the grass, talk to the animals. That sort of thing.
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The Infinite Universal Power is more than just a narrow-minded gatekeeper to a spiritual County Club.
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Treat gain and loss the same.’ Don’t be Intimidated. Don’t make a Big Deal of anything – just accept things as they come to you.
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One sometimes gets the impression that those intimidating words are there to keep us from understanding. That way, the scholars can appear Superior, and will not likely be suspected of Not Knowing Something.
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If people were superior to animals, they’d take good care of them,” said Pooh.
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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.
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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.
BENJAMIN HOFF