Tao Quotes - page 2

Perhaps the most significant thing George Lucas did in creating 'Star Wars' was to fictionalize the Tao - to spark a universe where we can talk about the Force in objective terms and show it in direct action. (Matthew Stover)
We are, the great spiritual writers insist, most fully ourselves when we give ourselves away, and it is egotism that holds us back from that transcendent experience that has been called God, Nirvana, Brahman, or the Tao. View quote
Karen Armstrong
This ain't any better than the Tao? View quote
Kage Baker
A mystic sees beyond the illusion of separateness into the intricate web of life in which all things are expressions of a single Whole. You can call this web "God, the Tao, the Great Spirit, the Infinite Mystery, Mother or Father," but it can be known only as love. View quote
Joan Z. Borysenko
... the idea of Gaia is anticipated most clearly in a line from the Tao Te Ching, the oldest Taoist scripture. In ancient Chinese rituals, straw dogs were used as offerings to the gods. During the ritual they were treated with the utmost reverence. When it was over and they were no longer needed they were trampled on and tossed aside: 'Heaven and earth are ruthless, and treat the myriad creatures as straw dogs.' If humans disturb the balance of the Earth they will be trampled on and tossed aside. Critics of the Gaia theory say they reject it because it is unscientific. The truth is that they fear and hate it because it means that humans can never be other than straw dogs. View quote
John N. Gray
He doesn't care nearly as much about individuals and individual fates as we would like to suppose. But by trying to ally ourselves with the totality of things, we may get into Tao as they say in the East and be part of it, really take part in it, and not just regard ourselves as a kind of miraculous creation and the rest just sort of stage scenery against which we perform. View quote
Robertson Davies
Taoist yogis sought to harness the Tao directly, drawing it first into their own heart-minds and then beaming it to others. Yogis who managed this feat would for the most part be unnoticed, but their life-giving enterprise did more for the community than the works of other benefactors. View quote
Huston Smith
It means that Tao doesn't force or interfere with things, but lets them work in their own way, to produce results naturally. Then whatever needs to be done is done. View quote
Benjamin Hoff
Wise men don't need to prove their point; men who need to prove their point aren't wise. The Master has no possessions. The more he does for others, the happier he is. The more he gives to others, the wealthier he is. The Tao nourishes by not forcing. By not dominating, the Master leads. View quote
Laozi
The Tao is like a well: used but never used up. It is like the eternal void: filled with infinite possibilities. It is hidden but always present. I don't know who gave birth to it. It is older than God. View quote
Laozi
Scholars of the highest class, when they hear about the Tao, take it and practice it earnestly. (Laozi)
The tao that can be described is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be spoken is not the eternal Name. The nameless is the boundary of Heaven and Earth. The named is the mother of creation. Freed from desire, you can see the hidden mystery. By having desire, you can only see what is visibly real. View quote
Laozi
Without the laughter, there would be no Tao. View quote
Laozi
The Tao is called the Great Mother: empty yet inexhaustible, it gives birth to infinite worlds. View quote
Laozi
The best [man] is like water.Water is good; it benefits all things and does not compete with them.It dwells in [lowly] places that all disdain.This is why it is so near to Tao. View quote
Laozi
Do you think that you can clear your mind by sitting constantly in silent meditation This makes your mind narrow, not clear. Integral awareness is fluid and adaptable, present in all places and at all times. That is true meditation.... The Tao is clear and simple, and it doesn't avoid the world. View quote
Laozi
Acting without design, occupying oneself without making a business of it, finding the great in what is small and the many in the few, repaying injury with kindness, effecting difficult things while they are easy, and managing great things in their beginnings this is the method of Tao. View quote
Laozi
Understand this if nothing else spiritual freedom and oneness with the Tao are not randomly bestowed gifts, but the rewards of conscious self-transformation and self-evolution. View quote
Laozi
I confess that there is nothing to teach no religion, no science, no body of information which will lead your mind back to the Tao. Today I speak in this fashion, tomorrow in another, but always the Integral Way is beyond words and beyond mind. View quote
Laozi
Does one scent appeal more than another Do you prefer this flavor, or that feeling Is your practice sacred and your work profane Then your mind is separated from itself, from oneness, from the Tao. View quote
Laozi
Can you let go of words and ideas, attitudes and expectations If so, then the Tao will loom into view. (Laozi)
(The Tao) is always present and always available.... If you are willing to be lived by it, you will see it everywhere, even in the most ordinary things. View quote
Laozi
When the highest type of people hear Tao (Truth), they diligently practice it. When the average type of people hear Tao, they half believe in it. When the lowest type of people hear Tao, they laugh at it. If they did not laugh, it would not be Tao. View quote
Laozi
When you accurately perceive the fluidity of things, you can also begin to perceive the constancy behind them the creative, transformative, boundless, immutable Tao. View quote
Laozi
Yielding is the way of the Tao. View quote
Laozi