Sublime

The Tao does nothing, and yet nothing remains undone. If rulers desire to keep everything in order, they must first order themselves. If rulers would follow the example of Tao, all problems would resolve themselves. The way of the Tao is simple— stop striving, defeat desire. In the absence of striving, there is peace; in the absence of desire, ther

“True words are simple and not beautiful. The good cultivate the Tao, not the arts. The wise know the Tao, not information. Sages accumulate virtue, not wealth.

Taoist stories are filled with accounts of the return of the liberated sage into worldly affairs.

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WANG P’ANG says, “All creatures share the same breath. But the movement of this breath comes and goes. It ends only to begin again. Hence, happiness and misery alternate like the seasons. But only sages realize this. Hence, in everything they do, they aim for the middle and avoid the extremes, unlike the government that insists on directness and go

WANG P’ANG says, “Everything changes into its opposite. Beginning follows end without cease. But people think everything is either beautiful or ugly. How absurd! Only the sage knows that the ten thousand ages are the same, that nothing is gained or lost.

Tao is a way of life, not a god or religion. It literally means “Way,” or path—a trail on the journey through life that conforms to nature’s own topography and timetables. Any path but Tao is, by definition, artifice. Western ways, which attempt to conquer rather than commune with the forces of nature, lead inevitably to a schizophrenic split betwe

sages therefore hold the left marker and make no claim on others