1
“Mysteriously existing before Heaven and Earth.
Silent and empty.
An unchanging Oneness.
An ever-changing presence.
The Mother of all Life.
Without wishing to define it, I say it is ‘The Whole.’
It is really it is impossible to really give it a name,
But I call it ‘Tao.’ ”
(Lao Tzu)
2
“Tao is the all-embracing Oneness…
Tao is indefinable original totality.”
(Lao Tzu)
3
“Tao acts like a still axis
around which the universe evolves.”
(Tai Gong Diao)
4
“To find the most precious of pearls
doesn’t compare
to discovering
the source of all things.”
(Lao Tzu)
5
“Why not live your own life,
not the life that others say you should?”
(Lieh Tzu)
6
“The Wise smile at both premature death and excessive old age.
They smile, and wish you to smile also, at the changing fortunes of life.
For they know that all individual beings are just parts of one evolving Whole.”
(Chuang Tzu)
7
“Tao brings each individual nature
back into harmony with the universal Nature,
each particular being into alignment
with the primordial Being,
the great Void,
the supreme Whole.”
(Chuang Tzu)
8
“Existence and nonexistence
are the undulating pulse of Tao.”
(Lao Tzu)
9
“The essence of Tao is mystery.”
(Guang Cheng)
10
“Life is the cause of death.”
(Yen Cheng Tzu)
11
“All distinct beings are temporarily differentiated from the Whole,
and their destiny is to return again to the Whole,
which has always been their essential Nature.”
(Chuang Tzu)
12
“The wise are merely borne along
By the current of universal evolution.”
(Chuang Tzu)
13
“O Tao!
It makes me supremely happy
to know that I was born from you
and on death will return to you.”
(Chuang Tzu)
14
“Drown yourself in the great Whole.”
(Hong Meng)
____________
Source: Taoist Wisdom: Daily Teachings from the Taoist Master, Ed. Timothy Freke (New York, Sterling Publishing Company Inc., 1999)
