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A petty thief is put in jail. A great brigand becomes a ruler of a Nation.

Zhuangzi

Understanding that rests in what it does not understand is the finest.
ZHUANGZI

Fine Philosophy Rest Understand
The World is Large – Its beauty indescrible.
ZHUANGZI

Beautiful Description Nature World
People value that part of knowledge which is known. They do not know how to avail themselves of the Unknown in order to reach knowledge. Is this not misguided?
ZHUANGZI

Guide Knowledge Order People Reach Value
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
He who does his work like a machine grows a heart like a machine and he who carries the heart of a machine in his breast loses his simplicity. He who has lost his simplicity becomes unsure in the strivings of his soul.
ZHUANGZI

Carry Growth Himself Lose Machine Work
Words exist because of meaning; once you’ve gotten the meaning, you can forget the words.
ZHUANGZI

Deep Existence Forget Literature Meaning Poet Word Yourself
The one-legged creature is envious of the millipede; the millipede is envious of the snake; the snake is envious of the wind; the wind is envious of the eye; the eye is envious of the heart.
ZHUANGZI

Animal Creature Eyes Heart Jealous Wind
All men know the use of the useful, but nobody knows the use of the useless. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so that I can have a word with him?
ZHUANGZI

Forget Himself Man Word
The Tao is in all things, in their divisions and their fullness. What I dislike about divisions is that they multiply, and what i dislike about multiplication is that it makes people want to hold fast to it. So people go out and forget to return, seeing little more than ghosts.
ZHUANGZI

Division Fast Forget Hold People Return See
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
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
He who knows he is a fool is not the biggest fool; He who knows he is confused is not in the worst confusion.
ZHUANGZI

Aware Confusion Fools Worst
The men of old breathed clear down to their heels.
ZHUANGZI

Breathe Clear Man Old
Birth is not the beginning, Death is not the end.
ZHUANGZI

Beginning Born Death End
If water derives lucidity from stillness, how much more the faculties of the mind.
ZHUANGZI

Calm Mindset Water
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

Beginning End Exercise Flow Religious Road Spirituality Thinking
The sound of water says what I think.
ZHUANGZI

Myself Sound Thinking Water
Men do not mirror themselves in running water – they mirror themselves in still water. Only what is still can still the stillness of other things.
ZHUANGZI

Deep Man Mirror Run Water
Right is not right; so is not so. If right were really right it would differ so clearly from not right that there would be no need for argument. If so were really so, it would differ so clearly from not so that there would be no need for argument.
ZHUANGZI

Argument Clear Difference Need Right
Take care of your body, then the rest will automatically become stronger.
ZHUANGZI

Automatic Body Care Strong Willing
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
Those who realise their folly are not true fools.
ZHUANGZI

Enemy Fools Mistake Realize
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
When there is no more separation between ‘this’ and ‘that,’ it is called the still-point of the Tao. At the still point in the center of the circle one can see the infinite in all things.
ZHUANGZI

Infinite Point Religious Separate Sight View Yourself
Let everything be allowed to do what it naturally does, so that its nature will be satisfied.
ZHUANGZI

Allow Natural Satisfaction Yourself
Only fools imagine they are already awake. How clearly they understand everything! How easily they distinguish this deception from that reality!
ZHUANGZI

Awake Easy Fools Imagination Reality Understand
Those who follow the Tao are of clear mind. They do not load their mind with anxieties and are flexible in their adjustment to external conditions.
ZHUANGZI

Anxiety Condition Follow Mindset Religious

A petty thief is put in jail. A great brigand becomes a ruler of a Nation.

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A petty thief is put in jail. A great brigand becomes a ruler of a Nation.

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