Cultivate harmony within yourself, and harmony becomes real;
Cultivate harmony within your family, and harmony becomes fertile;
Cultivate harmony within your community, and harmony becomes abundant;
Cultivate harmony within your culture, and harmony becomes enduring;
Cultivate harmony within the world, and harmony becomes ubiquitous.

Live with a person to understand that person;
Live with a family to understand that family;
Live with a community to understand that community;
Live with a culture to understand that culture;
Live with the world to understand the world.

How can I live with the world?
By accepting.

Tao 54 – TaoTeChing.org

When the great man learns the Way,
he follows it with diligence;
When the common man learns the Way,
he follows it on occasion;
When the mean man learns the Way,
he laughs out loud;
Those who do not laugh, do not learn at all.

Therefore it is said:
Who understands the Way seems foolish;
Who progresses on the Way seems to fail;
Who follows the Way seems to wander.

For the finest harmony appears plain;
The brightest truth appears coloured;
The richest character appears incomplete;
The bravest heart appears meek;
The simplest nature appears inconstant.

The square, perfected, has no corner;
Music, perfected, has no melody;
Love, perfected, has no climax;
Art, perfected, has no meaning.

The Way can be neither sensed nor known:
It transmits sensation and transcends knowledge.

Many possessions entail heavy loss.

Know what is enough–

Abuse nothing.

Know when to stop–

Harm nothing.

This is how to last a long time.

TAO TE CHING by Lao-Tzu Translated by Stephen Addiss, Stanley Lombardo

Those who talk don’t know.

Block the passage

Bolt the gate

Blunt the sharp

Untie the knot

Blend with the light

Become one with the dust–

This is called original unity

It can’t be embraced

It can’t be escaped,

It can’t be helped

It can’t be harmed,

It can’t be exalted

It can’t be despised,

Therefore it is revered under Heaven.

TAO TE CHING by Lao-Tzu Translated by Stephen Addiss, Stanley Lombardo

I heard this one quoted in Forbidden Kingdom as I watched it today – I love Kung Fu movies!

 

Great TAO overflows

To the Left To the right

It may be called immense.

By not making itself great,

It can do great things.