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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

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

Awake Dreams Myself Yourself
Cherish that which is in you and shut out that which is without, for much knowledge is a curse.
ZHUANGZI

Cherish Curse Knowledge Yourself
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
The ten thousand things belong to one storehouse and life and death share the same body.
ZHUANGZI

Body Death Life Share Store
Heaven does without doing through its purity, Earth does without doing through its calmness.
ZHUANGZI

Calm Earth Heaven Purity
Never admire a man by his strength; judge him in how he uses it- A way is made by walking it.
ZHUANGZI

Admire Judgement Man Strength Walk Way
And how do I know that the hate of death is not like a man who has lost his home when young and does not know where his home is to return to?
ZHUANGZI

Death Hate Lost Man Myself Name Return Young
If water derives lucidity from stillness, how much more the faculties of the mind.
ZHUANGZI

Calm Mindset Water
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 ultimate happiness is doing nothing.
ZHUANGZI

Happiness Philosophy Ultimate
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
To 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.
ZHUANGZI

Alone Ancient Essence Fundamental Intelligence Quiet Spiritual Technique
If water derives lucidity from stillness, how much more the faculties of the mind! The mind of the sage, being in repose, becomes the mirror of the universe, the speculum of all creation.
ZHUANGZI

Calm Creation Mindset Mirror Universe Water
To go outside what your charge was, and to try to solve everything yourself, is dangerous.
ZHUANGZI

Charge Dangerous Solution Yourself
Understanding that rests in what it does not understand is the finest.
ZHUANGZI

Fine Philosophy Rest Understand
Listening stops with the ears, the mind stops with recognition, but spirit is empty and waits on all things.
ZHUANGZI

Empty Listening Mindset Recognition Spirit Wait

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.

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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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