So to continue the study we move a little a head of 2800 BC from the first great emperor of China, Fu-Hsi, to 600 BC to Lao-Tzu, first great philosopher in China. Lao-Tzu did much to define spiritual E/c2... Here are some excerpts from Lao-Tzu According To Wen-Tzu...
1. There was something created before heaven and earth which we call the way (Tao). The way is infinitely high, unfathomably deep. Enclosing heaven and earth, receiving from the formless, it produces a stream running deep and wide without overflowing. It absorbs the negative and emits the positive. In antiquity, the three majestic ones (The Trinity) attained the order of the way and stood in the center.
2. Great people are peaceful and have no longings; they are calm and have no worries. 4. Happiness has nothing to do with wealth and status, but is a matter of harmony. 5. When Confucius asked him about the way Lao-Tzu said: Strengthen your body, unify your vision, and the harmony of heaven will arrive. Concentrate your knowledge, rectify your assessment, and the spirit will come to abide. Virtue will be receptive to you, the way will be there for you. Keep yourself open, unminding that you may attain clarity and all around mastery.
6. Those who serve life adapt to changes as they act. Changes arise from the times, those who know the times do not behave in fixed ways.
7. When people lose their nature by following desires, their actions are never correct. Anxiety and lament burn the heart, so sickness builds up. Get rid of these, then they merge with spiritual light. Spiritual light is attainment of the inward. When people attain the inward, their organs are calm, their thoughts are even, their eyes and ears are clear, and their bones are strong. They are masterful but not contentious, strong yet never exhausted. They are not excessive or inadequate in anything.
9. Changes in the times do not allow rest in the intervals. Time does not dally with people. That is why the sages do not value a huge gem as much as they value a little time. Time is hard to find and easily lost.
10. Those who embody the way are free and never come to a dead end. Those who let their eyes and ears look at and listen to whatever they may tire their minds thereby and so lack clarity.
11. As heaven reaches its heights and earth reaches its depths, as sun and moon shine, as the stars twinkle, as yin and yang harmonize, there is no variations in any of this. Make thy way right, and things will spontaneously be natural.
18. People caught up in social customs are bound physically and drained mentally therefore they cannot avoid being burdened.
37. Quiet abstraction and lightness of heart are ways of nurturing life. Harmonious happiness is a way of securing virtue. When externals do not disturb you within, then your nature finds what suits it. Nurturing life and embracing virtue can be called the ability to understand the way. When that is the case, there is no blockage of the blood vessels, no accumulating energies in the organs.
39.Self-depreciation leads to failure in achievement and reputation. 39. The way to heaven is to lower the elevated and raise the depressed. 40. The way of heaven is to revert after reaching a climax, and to diminish upon reaching fullness. Therefore the sages diminish themselves daily and empty their moods, not daring to be self-satisfied. 41. When the spirit is in the lead, the body follows with beneficial results; when the body is in the lead, the spirit follows with harmful results.
42. When your rank is high your vitality and spirit are depleted daily, eventually to become dissipated and not return to the body. When the vitality, spirit, will, and energy are calm they fill you day by day and make you strong. Therefore the sages keep nurturing their spirit, make their energy gentle, and flow with the way.
55. If you mention peoples flaws they resent it; if they see their own ugliness in a mirror they think it's all right. 60. Sages have no strange clothes or weird behavioral patterns. 62. Those who do not worry about the chaos of the world but enjoy order in their own bodies can be engaged in conversation about the way.
65. Doing good is not for reputation but reputation follows.
67. Human feelings are such that people submit to virtue rather than force. 75. For wise people good humor and serenity are life, perfect virtue and travelling the way are destiny. 81. Those who let go of the way and trust in intelligence are in peril. 86. When the way and virtue are present there is diligence, a constant alert for danger and destruction. When the way and virtue are absent, there is indulgence and sloth, so destruction can come at any time.
87. When much is sought, little is gained. When prohibitions are many, little gets done. 91. Heaven gives to those who accumulate the virtue of the way. 95. When positivity erases negativity, all beings are robust. When negativity erases positivity, all beings decline.
97. When ideal people reach the way, the richness of virtue flows in them. Those who have hidden virtues will surely have manifest rewards; those who do good deeds in secret will surely have illustrious reputations. 102. Cruel strictness harms virtue.
109. People of old were sensitive but not possessive; people today are possessive but not sensitive. 121. When you are deeply in the way, your virtue is deep; and when your virtue is deep, then success and honor are achieved. 122. The heavenly energy makes the higher soul, the earthly makes the lower 136. A clear and calm social order is characterized by tranquility, simplicity, serenity and freedom. In an orderly society, jobs are easy to keep, work is easy to do, manners are easy to observe, and debts are easy to repay. The more knowledge and ability there are, the more virtue declines; so perfect people are pure and simple, without useless complexity.
