If you go searching for the Great Creator, you will come back empty-handed. The source of the universe is ultimately unknowable, a great invisible river flowing forever through a vast and fertile valley. Silent and uncreated, it creates all things.
Interpretation
The essence of the universe is beyond human understanding and perception.
In this quote, Laozi suggests that the true nature of the universe and its source is something that cannot be grasped or comprehended through conventional means. The metaphor of a great invisible river symbolizes the continuous and mysterious flow of existence, highlighting the limits of human inquiry when faced with the profound realities of life and creation.
In practice
In a discussion on spirituality, one might say, 'As Laozi said, if you go searching for the Great Creator, you will come back empty-handed.'
If you understand others you are smart._x000D_ If you understand yourself you are illuminated._x000D_ If you overcome others you are powerful._x000D_ If you overcome yourself you have strength._x000D_ If you know how to be satisfied you are rich._x000D_ If you can act with vigor, you have a will._x000D_ If you don't lose your objectives you can be long-lasting._x000D_ If you die without loss, you are eternal.
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.
A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment.
In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing can surpass it.
Rule your mind with serenity rather than with force and manipulation.
Whatever one does for a living, three questions need to be confronted before it is too late: What really matters to me? What price do my spouse and kids pay for my career success? What price does my soul pay?
My experience of the world is that things left to themselves don't get right.
Attention, if sudden and close, graduates into surprise; and this into astonishment; and this into stupefied amazement.
Every legend, moreover, contains its residuum of truth, and the root function of language is to control the universe by describing it.
For a long time the human instinct to understand was thwarted by facile religious explanations.
It’s ridiculous to talk about freedom in a society dominated by huge corporations. What kind of freedom is there inside a corporation? They’re totalitarian institutions - you take orders from above and maybe give them to people below you. There’s about as much freedom as under Stalinism.
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