Taoism Quotes

Water is the symbol of pure consciousness.

Water always seeks the easiest path, the common level of life.

When it reaches a blockage, water find the easiest path around the blockage, or it continues to assemble, and flows over the blockage.

Lao Tsu says the way of life is water, to be fluid.

Wisdom is knowing that if you bend, you don't have to break. Sometimes it is necessary to go with the flow of life.

Lao Tsu always points a finger directly to us. He says we must begin with ourselves. It's impossible to bring order into the world unless we bring order into ourselves.

Lao Tsu doesn't seem to hold to much stock for words or phrases or teachings.

Lao Tsu found Taoism easy to reconcile withthe world of human beings, which is interesting because with all the nature imagery, one might think it was in some way antithetical to contempory life.

Taoism is not a religion, although perhaps it has been made into one by some people. Lao Tsu's way of life occurs in any spiritual philosophy.

There is another kind of wisdom, the wisdom of following - the wisdom of not taking the lead with your ego.

In the West the wise are usually thought of as leaders. In the East, the wise are very often though of as followers.

Taoism shows us how to deal with life and death by realizing everything here is transitory but its substance is eternal.

We should not weep or cry or be upset when we see the generations pass, because all are forms of the infinite creation. They are not real, they are not eternal.

Some people think Taoism means not doing anything, just going on with your life. That has little or nothing to do with Taoism.

Enlightenment comes through the feminine side of the being.

Examine everything that you've been taught, not simply what you've been taught in school, but the images that have been held up to you since the time of your birth.

Get some distance on yourself and undertand the multilevel structure that's operating. There's a power structure within you. You're a very political creature.

For a person who lives in time, differences are the most important thing because they represent your existence.

When there's no difference, there's no time, no world, no separativity - and there's no you ... nor is there an I.

Initially there's absolutely nothing.

When we have complements or oppositions, change occurs.

Change can only exist in time. Without time there is no change. Change can only exist with a background of that which is changeless, otherwise it has no definition.

We can say the stars are moving because we have a relative context.

The Chinese used the symbol of tai chi, the undifferentiated reality - no separation, no left and right.

Before perception, before a preceiver, existence was - is. This is the consciousness that we refer to as nirvana, God, eternity.

There is no way to measure it ... because there's no one to measure it.

Everything is part of one web, one matrix of existence, beyond discussion. This is our true self in its undifferentiated form.

Most beings enjoy existence so time comes into being.

When there is time, there has to be suffering. Because in time there's desire and attachment and transition. This is the world of experience.

There are two choices available in duality - one side or the other side. Everyting is formed from that.

The mind of the child is not formed. We are shown that this is life, this is the world.

Our seeing is sexual initially.

Gradually, you were given a description of the world, a way of seeing, which is largely sexual.

Male and female are the first things we learn because they represent the polarity of existence.

We really have no choice in the matter. We are given a description of the world that is much more potent and much deeper than you might realize.

The limitations that we can see of the sexual description of reality are very apparent. Very few men attain enlightenment, even fewer women.

There's a sense of productivity which cripples us terribly. We either have to be doing something worthwile or not. We are back to our little binary male-female code.

It's either good, bad or somewhere in between. It's either ying, yang or it's a combination. You're either male, female or somewhere in between. You've got to be somewhere on the map.

The I Cing is a study in duality and what lies beyond duality.

The dreams of existence of that we call time, space, matter, subject, object, yin, yang - everything flows forth from this tai chi.

Without innocence, nothing can further, as they say in the I Ching.

You are not anyone or anything in particular. You are awareness itself. You don't have a particular form. You contain everything or you are contained by all things.

What we're seeking to do is become transparent. A transparent window on reality. But that takes time to do. We're starting with a very solid, objectified view of ourselves and existence

What we are seeking is the nexus of all possible worlds and states of mind, which is within us. The source of yin and yang is within you.

Alow immortality to work through you. Be but a mere instrument. And that instrument should be so absorbed in the perfect perfection of existence, that it knows not even that it is absorbed.

Be in harmony with the Tao, with the basic principles of creation. To not be in harmony with that flow, no matter how hard you meditate, you will not be happy and you won't be liberated.

Greed is costly. Assembled fortunes are lost.

The highest tone is hard to hear.

The weak overcomes the strong. The soft overcomes the hard. Everybody in the world knows this, still nobody makes use of it.

The truest sayings are paradoxical.