The heavy is the root of the light. The unmoved is the source of all movement. Thus the Master travels all day without leaving home. However splendid the views, she stays serenely in herself. Why should the lord of the country flit about like a fool? If you let yourself be blown to and fro, you lose touch with your root. If you let restlessness move you, you lose touch with who you are.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of inner stability and self-awareness over external distractions.
Laozi's quote illustrates the concept that true mastery and understanding derive from inner peace and remaining grounded. It suggests that while the outside world may be full of splendor and movement, a wise individual knows to remain centered and not get swept away by external chaos, signifying that one's identity and purpose should remain rooted in self-awareness and serenity.
In practice
During a meditation workshop, the instructor shared this quote to emphasize the significance of staying grounded.
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.
The sinister, the terrible never deceive: the state in which they leave us is always one of enlightenment. And only this condition of vicious insight allows us a full grasp of the world, all things considered, just as a frigid melancholy grants us full possession of ourselves. We may hide from horror only in the heart of horror. (“The Medusa”)
The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other.
There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls.
No one may pride himself at being more than an individual, and no one despondently think that he is not an individual.
We ought not to endeavor to revise history according to our latter day notions of what things ought to have been, or upon the theory that the past is simply a reflection of the present
At the moment you are most in awe of all there is about life that you don't understand, you are closer to understanding it all than at any other time.
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