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Lessons from the Book of Chuang Tzu - Part 13

To live amongst the wilds and lakes; to dwell in isolated places; actionless action; he leaves this generation be, and is in no hurry.

To lose everything and yet to have all; to drift calmly and endlessly; this is the Tao of Heaven and Earth.

Calm, detachment, silence, quiet, emptiness and actionless action, these are what maintain Heaven and Earth, the Tao and Virtue.

The sage rests, truly rests, and is at ease.

He ignores knowledge and nostalgia, following only the pattern of Heaven.So he risks no disaster from Heaven, nor complications from things, no accusation from anyone.

In life he floats; at death he rests.

He does not consider and plot, nor design for the future. He shines but is not seen. His spirit is pure and without blemish.

Empty, selfless, calm and detached, he is in harmony with Heaven's Virtue.

For the heart to be without sadness and happiness, is to have perfected Virtue. To be one and changeless, this is to have perfected stillness; to encounter no opposition is to have peerfected emptiness; to have no dealings with anything is to have perfected indifference; to have no feelings of dissent is to have perfected purity.

Free from contamination, still and level, never changing, detached and acting without action, is to follow the Tao of sustaining the spirit.

It is only the Tao of true simplicity which guards the spirit. Simplicity means no mixing. 

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