From What-is all the world of things was born But What-is sprang in turn from What-is-not.
Interpretation
This quote explores the relationship between existence and non-existence, emphasizing that everything that exists arises from the absence of what does not exist.
Laozi's quote illustrates a fundamental philosophical concept where the material world is a result of both what exists and what does not exist. It suggests that the essence of reality is intertwined with the void of possibilities, highlighting how creation stems from the interplay between being and non-being. This idea resonates with the notion that understanding existence involves acknowledging what is absent and the potential for everything that has not yet come to be.
In practice
In a philosophical discussion about the nature of reality.
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.
A society that is not willing to demand a life of somebody who has taken somebody else’s life is simply immoral.
I readily admit it is easy to make of horses what we will. Silent, in some ways reserved, they allow us to train them, and to project our ideas upon them; to ride and drive them, and to make them symbolic, perhaps to a greater degree than any other species.
Now the standard cure for one who is sunk is to consider those in actual destitution or physical suffering—this is an all-weather beatitude for gloom in general and fairly salutary day-time advice for everyone. But at three o’clock in the morning, a forgotten package has the same tragic importance as a death sentence, and the cure doesn’t work—and in a real dark night of the soul it is always three o’clock in the morning, day after day.
No religion is responsible for terrorism. People are responsible for violence and terrorism.
But you can catch yourself entertaining habitually certain ideas and setting others aside; and that, I think, is where our personal destinies are largely decided.
What we want is to be real. Let us not appear to be more than we are. Don't let us put on any cant, any assumed humility, but let us be real; that is the delight of God. God wants us to be real men and women, and if we profess to be what we are not, God knows all about us. God hates sham.
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