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To have a human form is a joyful thing.

Zhuangzi

When I talk about having good hearing, I don’t mean just listening, but listening to yourself. When I talk about good eyesight, I don’t mean just looking, but looking at yourself.
ZHUANGZI

Eyes Goodness Hearing Listening Myself Sight Talk
Being is thoughtless-beyond and beneath all categories of thought. Expression is the realization of creative thought. Being is still; expression, moving. But then if I do not strive, who will?
ZHUANGZI

Beyond Creativity Expression Myself Realize Thinking Willing
The ten thousand things belong to one storehouse and life and death share the same body.
ZHUANGZI

Body Death Life Share Store
The knowledge of the ancients reached the highest point-the time before anything existed. This is the highest point. It is exhaustive. There is no adding to it.
ZHUANGZI

Ancient Existence Knowledge Point Reach Time
Easy is right. Begin right and you are easy. Continue easy and you are right. The right way to go easy is to forget the right way, and forget that the going is easy.
ZHUANGZI

Beginning Easy Forget Right Yourself
Luck implies an absolute absence of any principle.
ZHUANGZI

Absence Luck Principle
Good fortune is as light as a feather, but nobody knows how to pick it up. Misfortune is as heavy as earth, but nobody knows how to stay out of it’s way.
ZHUANGZI

Earth Fortune Goodness heavy Stay Way
So if loss of what gives happiness causes you distress when it fades, you can now understand that such happiness is worthless. It is said, those who lose themselves in their desire for things also lose their innate nature by being vulgar.
ZHUANGZI

Desire Fade Happiness Loss Nature Vulgar Worth
A battering ram can knock down a city wall, but it cannot stop a hole. Different things have different uses.
ZHUANGZI

Different Power Stop Wall
There is a beginning. There is no beginning of that beginning. There is something. There is nothing.
ZHUANGZI

Beginning Philosophy
If you have grasped the purpose of life there is no point in trying to make life into something it is not or cannot be.
ZHUANGZI

Life Point Purpose
Those who realise their folly are not true fools.
ZHUANGZI

Enemy Fools Mistake Realize
The World is Large – Its beauty indescrible.
ZHUANGZI

Beautiful Description Nature World
You cannot speak of ocean to a well-frog, the creature of a narrower sphere. You cannot speak of ice to a summer insect, the creature of a season.
ZHUANGZI

Creature Ocean Season Summer Talk Yourself
I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man.
ZHUANGZI

Butterfly Dreams Man Myself
The sage has the sun and moon by his side and the universe under his arm. He blends everything into a harmonious whole. . . . He blends the disparities of ten thousand years into one complete purity. All things are blended like this and mutually involve each other.
ZHUANGZI

Complete Each Other Harmony Involve Moon Purity Sage Sun Universe
For we can only know that we know nothing, and a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
ZHUANGZI

Dangerous Knowledge Known
Standards are different for all things, so the standard set by man is by no means the only ‘certain’ standard. If you mistake what is relative for something certain, you have strayed far from the ultimate truth.
ZHUANGZI

Different Man Mistake Standard Truth Ultimate Yourself
Perfect happiness is the absence of striving for happiness.
ZHUANGZI

Absence Happiness Perfection Wisdom
Let your mind wander in simplicity, blend your spirit with the vastness, follow along with things the way they are, and make no room for personal views-then the world will be governed.
ZHUANGZI

Government Mindset Personal Room Simplicity Spirit View Wander Way World
Transmit the established facts; do not transmit words of exaggeration. If you do that, you will probably come out all right.
ZHUANGZI

Establishment Fact Right Word Yourself
You are still guided by your expectations.
ZHUANGZI

Expectation Guide Yourself
The eye is a menace to clear sight, the ear is a menace to subtle hearing, the mind is a menace to wisdom, every organ of the senses is a menace to its own capacity.
ZHUANGZI

Capacity Clear Eyes Mindset Organ Wisdom
Great knowledge sees all in one. Small knowledge breaks down into the many.
ZHUANGZI

Break Greatness Knowledge Oneself Small
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

Affair Attraction Control Drive Forget Freedom Heart Man Philosophy Shoe Spirituality Yourself
Breathing control gives man strength, vitality, inspiration, and magic powers.
ZHUANGZI

Breathe Control Inspirational Magic Meditation Power Strength
Heaven does without doing through its purity, Earth does without doing through its calmness.
ZHUANGZI

Calm Earth Heaven Purity

To have a human form is a joyful thing.

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To have a human form is a joyful thing.

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