Remember: if you can cease all restless activity, your integral nature will appear.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that calmness and stillness allow one's true self to emerge.
Laozi emphasizes the importance of stillness and quieting the mind in order to connect with one's true essence. In a world filled with distractions and incessant activity, taking time to stop and reflect can lead to profound self-awareness and the discovery of one's integral nature, which is often obscured by busyness and restlessness.
In practice
During a meditation retreat, I reminded everyone that 'Remember: if you can cease all restless activity, your integral nature will appear.'
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.
Don't fool yourself that you are going to have it all. You are not. Psychologically, having it all is not even a valid concept. The marvelous thing about human beings is that we are perpetually reaching for the stars. The more we have, the more we want. And for this reason, we never have it all.
So long as you have faith in your Guru, nothing will be able to obstruct your way.
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the same well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears. And how else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven? And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Whatever your mind feeds upon your mind attracts to you.
A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.
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