To become learned, each day add something. To become enlightened, each day drop something
Interpretation
Continuous learning is essential for knowledge, while enlightenment comes from letting go of ignorance.
This quote by Laozi emphasizes the dual nature of personal growth: acquiring knowledge through learning new things every day while also achieving enlightenment by shedding unnecessary thoughts or beliefs. It suggests that wisdom involves both the accumulation of information and the discernment to know what to release, fostering a balanced approach to personal development.
In practice
During a seminar on personal development, the speaker used this quote to encourage attendees to embrace both learning and letting go of old beliefs.
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.
I'll tell 'ya how to stay young: Hang around with older people.
I think you have to listen to the people who are deeply unhappy. You have to find the source of it and not overreact to the craziness in it.
Faith is one foot on the ground, one foot in the air, and a queasy feeling in the stomach.
We can easily become as much slaves to precaution as we can to fear. Although we can never rivet our fortune so tight as to make it impregnable, we may by our excessive prudence squeeze out of the life that we are guarding so anxiously all the adventurous quality that makes it worth living.
We think, each of us, that we're much more rational than we are. And we think that we make our decisions because we have good reasons to make them. Even when it's the other way around. We believe in the reasons, because we've already made the decision.
Wholeheartedness. There are many tenets of Wholeheartedness, but at its very core is vulnerability and worthiness; facing uncertainty, exposure, and emotional risks, and knowing that I am enough.
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