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Lessons from The Book of Chuang Tzu - Part 2

We are all part of something much bigger: life, and the universe. Live as part of it. Try to see the whole, not just the tiny part that is you and your immediate surrounds. Live for the whole, not the shallow, small you.

Light shines through the chaos. This is the true path. Be guided by it.

It's hard to know what is true and right and what is not. Learn to be comfortable with uncertainty and not knowing.

People simplistically say that the best succeed, and that they do so through sheer talent and hard work. But this is junk. Luck and timing play a huge part in all life. Some people have immense talent and work very hard but do not succeed. Other people have little talent and don't work particularly hard and still succeed. There is no hard and fast path to success, however one defines success.

Wise people don't judge or express partisan views about the past. They see the bigger pciture of flow and change, and human nature, chance and fate. Less wise people argue incessantly over minutiae.

Ultimately reality, everything, anything is beyonds words.

The wise are beyond concern with good or bad, life or death, as they see it all in the context of the incessant flow of eternity.

The wise reject difference and opinions, laughs off status and power for the trivia that they are.

All life is simply what it is, so everyone, good or bad, is simply doing what they've been programmed to do.

The love of life is a delusion like all other views. The question is not what is true and what is not, but what nurtures a mind and what diminishes it.

We live then we die. That's all there is to it. Living, we can experience for a while. Dead, we can't. So if you want to experience, live aware.

Only fools think that they are in control of their lives and that they really know what is going on. The flow of existence is way beyond any of us. Everything our five senses and our mind tells us is a deception, so don't trust them. Enjoy them when they are good but don't attach to them. Ignore them when they are unpleasant; and never get involved in the petty delusional arguments that people constantly start.

No one knows the truth. Allow the process of change to happen and learn to let time run its course. orget about reasons and what ifs, and rights and wrongs. Plunge into the unknown and the endless and find your place there.

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