If you can let go of (the Tao) with your mind and surround it with your heart, it will live inside you forever.
Interpretation
True understanding comes from combining intellectual thought with emotional connection.
In this quote by Laozi, the essence of true wisdom is highlighted, suggesting that intellectual comprehension alone is insufficient. To truly embody an idea, particularly the concept of the Tao, one must not only think about it but also feel it deeply with the heart, which leads to a lasting internalization of its principles and truths.
In practice
In a discussion about mindfulness, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of emotional engagement in understanding life.
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.
Ridicule is generally made use of to laugh men out of virtue and good sense, by attacking everything praiseworthy in human life.
Remember: The best deceivers do everything they can to cloak their roguish qualities. They cultivate an air of honesty in one area to disguise their dishonesty in others. Honesty is merely another decoy in their arsenal of weapons.
In talking about the impact of ideas in one field on ideas in another field, one is always apt to make a fool of oneself.
A region is an area safely larger than the last one to whose problems we found no solution.
Some of the biggest advocates for feminism seem to believe that in order to feel powerful you have to make another woman subservient, and that is not what feminism is about at all.
Thief!- how did you crawl into, crawl down alone into the death I wanted so badly and for so long.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.