If you overesteem great men, people become powerless. If you overvalue possessions, people begin to steal. The Master leads by emptying people's minds and filling their cores, by weakening their ambition and toughening their resolve. He helps people lose everything they know, everything they desire, and creates confusion in those who think that they know. Practice not-doing, and everything will fall into place.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the dangers of excessive admiration for power and material wealth, suggesting that true leadership involves liberating people from misguided desires.
Laozi's quote highlights the consequences of idolizing great figures and valuing material possessions excessively. Such attitudes can render individuals powerless or lead them to unethical behavior, like theft. Instead, the 'Master' leader guides others by encouraging them to empty their minds of superficial desires and ambitions, fostering a deeper resilience within. By advocating for a practice of 'not-doing,' Laozi suggests that by letting go of rigid control and expectation, natural order and harmony can emerge in life.
In practice
During a seminar on leadership, this quote can be used to illustrate the importance of humility and selflessness in guiding others.
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.
If you believe in truth and cared enough to obtain it, you had to be prepared actively to suffer for it.
Talent finds its models, methods, and ends in society, exists for exhibition, and goes to the soul only for power to work. Genius is its own end, and draws its means and the style of its architecture from within.
Just be true to yourself, and listen as much as one is able to to other people whose opinions you respect and look up to but in the end it has to come from you. You can’t really worry too much by looking to the left and the right about what the competition is doing or what other people in your field are doing. It has to be a true vision.
You will come to know things that can only be known with the wisdom of age and the grace of years. Most of those things will have to do with forgiveness.
An insatiable appetite for glory leads to sacrifice and death, but innate instinct leads to self-preservation and life.
I am the excuse to explore your identity. To be exactly who you are and to feel unafraid. To not judge yourself, to not hate yourself.
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