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The perfect man uses his mind as a mirror. It grasps nothing. It regrets nothing. It receives but does not keep.

Zhuangzi

Study is to study what cannot be studied. Undertaking means undertaking what cannot be undertaken. Philosophizing is to philosophize about what cannot be philosophized about. Knowing that knowing is unknowable is true perfection.
ZHUANGZI

Knowledge Known Perfection Philosophy Religious Spirituality Study True Unknown
The perfect man uses his mind as a mirror. It grasps nothing. It regrets nothing. It receives but does not keep.
ZHUANGZI

Himself Mindset Mirror Perfection Regret
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
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
Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly.
ZHUANGZI

Butterfly Dreams Himself Incarnation
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 petty thief is put in jail. A great brigand becomes a ruler of a Nation.
ZHUANGZI

Greatness Nation Prison Rule
Birth is not a beginning; death is not an end. There is existence without limitation; there is continuity without a starting point.
ZHUANGZI

Beginning Born Death Existence Limitation Philosophy Spiritual Start
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
The little child learns to speak, though it has no learned teachers – because it lives with those who know how to speak.
ZHUANGZI

Children Deep Learning Live Talk Teacher
Tao is the source of both fullness and emptiness. But it is itself neither fullness nor emptiness.
ZHUANGZI

Complete Empty Full Religion Source
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
The ultimate happiness is doing nothing.
ZHUANGZI

Happiness Philosophy Ultimate
Heaven does without doing through its purity, Earth does without doing through its calmness.
ZHUANGZI

Calm Earth Heaven Purity
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
If you have insight, you use your inner eye, your inner ear, to pierce to the heart of things, and have no need of intellectual knowledge.
ZHUANGZI

Heart Insight Intellectual Knowledge Pierce

The perfect man uses his mind as a mirror. It grasps nothing. It regrets nothing. It receives but does not keep.

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The perfect man uses his mind as a mirror. It grasps nothing. It regrets nothing. It receives but does not keep.

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