Sublime

There’s no need for Laozi to convince you of anything, for he’s not trying to sell you anything. You can take his words or leave them; it’s all the same to him.

“That I’d be coming to work, of course.” She flashed him that innocent smile that dashed his heart to pieces. “Mr. Luo, what will I be working on?” “What did you study?” “Traditional painting, at the Central Academy of Fine Arts.” “Ah. Have you graduated?”

Luo Ji was rendered speechless for a long while after hearing…

Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.

Luo Ji couldn’t shake a certain discomfort, like he had swallowed a fly.

The Buddha never stops teaching. When asked, he teaches through words. Otherwise, he relies on his example. Confucius once said, “Do you disciples think I conceal something? I conceal nothing. I have no practice I do not share with you. This is my way.” (Lunyu: 7.23)

Do by not doing, and there is nothing that cannot be done.

Of course, this begs the question asked by Bodhidharma, “You talk about non-realization. But how do you realize non-realization?” Thus, Lao-tzu says, “Those who seek learning gain every day / those who seek the Way lose every day / they lose and they lose / until they find nothing to do / nothing to do means nothing not done.” (Taoteching: 48)

Laozi and Zhuangzi both emphasize sincerity of emotion, the primacy of how it feels over how it looks, but like the eternal dance of beauty and terror, two aspects of the same Providence, there is a grand mystery here in the pair of contrasting sentiments.