Those who seek to satisfy the mind of man by hampering it with ceremonies and music and affecting charity and devotion have lost their original nature.
ZHUANGZITo regard the fundamental as the essence, to regard things as coarse, to regard accumulation as deficiency, and to dwell quietly alone with the spiritual and the intelligent – herein lie the techniques of Tao of the ancients.
More Zhuangzi Quotes
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To exercise no-thought and rest in nothing is the first step toward resting in Tao. To start from nowhere and follow no road is the first step toward attaining Tao.
ZHUANGZI -
All the fish needs is to get lost in the water. All man needs is to get lost in Tao.
ZHUANGZI -
To have a human form is a joyful thing.
ZHUANGZI -
I am going to try speaking some reckless words, and I want you to try to listen recklessly.
ZHUANGZI -
The saying goes, ‘The sage rests, truly rests and is at ease.’ This manifests itself in calmness and detachment, so that worries and distress cannot affect him, nothing unpleasant can disturb him, his Virtue is complete and his spirit is not stirred up.
ZHUANGZI -
To be constant is to be useful. To be useful is to realize one’s true nature. Realization of one’s true nature is happiness. When one reaches happiness, one is close to perfection.
ZHUANGZI -
Verily God does not reward man for what he does, but for what he is.
ZHUANGZI -
Transmit the established facts; do not transmit words of exaggeration. If you do that, you will probably come out all right.
ZHUANGZI -
Silence, and non action are the root of all things.
ZHUANGZI -
Are you and I perchance caught up in a dream from which we have not yet awakened?
ZHUANGZI -
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 -
When the heart is right, “for” and “against” are forgotten.
ZHUANGZI -
Luck implies an absolute absence of any principle.
ZHUANGZI -
The creature born is the creature dying.
ZHUANGZI -
All existing things are really one. We regard those that are beautiful and rare as valuable, and those that are ugly as foul and rotten. The foul and rotten may come to be transformed into what is rare and valuable, and the rare and valuable into what is foul and rotten.
ZHUANGZI