tao te ching

* tao te ching is an ancient wisdom used originally by people in China. Much of the ancient wisdom has since been translated into versions that apply to people's lives still today, though it was written approximately twenty-five hundred years ago. The poetic wisdom in the tao te ching is meant to promote a sense of reality, meaning, and thought in our lives.

'Stop trying to wrap up your feelings into a neat package.
Feel what you feel.
Let your feelings flourish.
What real choice have you?
Be clear on this point,
and get on with your life of doing.'

'First there is reality
Then there is me thinking about reality
Then there is me thinking about me thinking about reality.
The mind creates "things."
Yet all things spring from reality.
They fit together, thanks to reality.
We loathe despair, loneliness, insignificance.
Yet we all experience these feelings.
In trying to suppress them
we exaggerate them.
In embracing them
we diminish them.
This teaching is not new.
The stronger our desires
the greater we fear failure.
We die a thousand unnatural deaths
unnecessarily.'