Thanks to his ability to accept contradiction and paradox in life, so that he can see black in white.

Existence itself is a paradox anyway.

If there is no day, there is no night.  If no one is tall, no one is short.  If there is no honor, there is no evil.

Rather than expecting things to be in his favor always, he sees life as in a stage of flux, and strike a balance in it.

He seeks a balance in yin and yang.

Know the white,
yet keep to the black:
Be the pattern of the world.
Be the pattern of the world,
the virtue in you will endure
and return again to the infinity.

Lao Tze Tao Te Ching quotes - 28

He calls it wuwei (无为), or non-doing.  In the original phrase of Chinese, it literally means ‘doing nothing’.

‘Doing nothing’ is a key concept of Tao, and permeate the book Lao Tzu Tao De Jing.

You may wonder how doing nothing can help you to achieve more.

Well, the thing is there is an order in everything we do.

You can find an order in planting a tree, in controlling a bicycle, in persuasion.

To get things done, you must follow the orders of things.  Doing the superfluous will be a waste of efforts.

More often than not, however, we tend to go on the wild goose chase.

If we go along with the order, things get done. If we go against it, nothing will get done, no matter how hard we try.

Find out the order in any things we do.  Go along with the order.

Cut down on the superfluous. Doing more than necessary can be harmful.

The Tao does nothing,

but leaves nothing undone.

If the powerful men

could observe it,

all creations would be transformed

by themselves.

Lao Tzu Tao Te Cheng quotes (37)

Learn the theory of yingyang.

Yin-yang balance helps you to stay healthy, happy and fulfilled.

Yin and yang are two sides of things.

They form a dualism.

It is the tail and the head of a coin. If the tail is yin, then the head is yang.

The head and the tail of a coin exist alongside one another.  The head is not a head without the tail, and the tail is not a tail without the head.

Yin and yang exist in everything in this world.  In your body, in what you do, in what you see, in what you feel, you can always find yin and yang.

The earth we live on is yin, the sun shining on us is yang. A woman is yin, a man is yang.  Sadness is yin, joyfulness is yang.

Yin is passive, oppressed and feminine. Yang, in contrast, is active, bright and masculine.

Knowing yin and yang helps us to understand and manage reality.

You must learn to live with things that can totally oppose you.

If you are yin, somewhere out there there must be a corresponding yang.  If you are yang, somewhere out there must be a corresponding yin.

It is in the Nature.

So it is quite all right to be opposed.

Knowing this is the first step to yin-yang balance.

All things carry Yin
yet embrace Yang.
They blend their life breaths
in order to produce harmony.

People despise being orphaned, widowed and poor.
But the noble take these as their titles.
In losing, much is gained,
and in gaining, much is lost.

Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching (42)

It is written as 道, and the proper pronunciation as notated by pinyin is ‘dao’.

The word Dao has several meanings.  The most widely used is ‘the path’ or ‘the way’.

In the context of Taoism, and in particularly the book Tao Te Ching, its actual meaning is elusive and difficult to grasp or express in words.

It may be defined as the ultimate principle of the universe embodied in all reality.

There are many ways to apply Tao in life.  Basically, it teaches us to flow with life and be ourselves.

Dreams motivate success.

You are what you are, perhaps somehow a result of your dreams.

A dream is only a dream, however, if it is truly yours.

If you set your sight on the wrong things, or simply on something others think to be worthwhile, you could have mistaken a nightmare as a dream

A dream can be dream.  It can also be a nightmare.

This is the yin-yang of dreams.

“When people see things as beautiful, ugliness is created. When people see things as good, evil is created,”

Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu (2)

But do you think you’re the true boss?

Many bosses are bosses by designation.  They enjoy respect from their people not through leadership, but the titles they carry.

A good way to tell whether you are a true boss is to ask yourself, “Do I have to tell my people that I’m the boss?”

If you have to, chances are that you are not.

“The best leaders are those their people hardly know exist.
The next best is a leader who is loved and praised.
Next comes the one who is feared.
The worst one is the leader that is despised …

The best leaders value their words, and use them sparingly.
When they have accomplished their task,
the people say, “Amazing!
We did it, all by ourselves!”

Lao Tzu Tao Te Ching (17)

He can also bring a lot of harm to them —  sometimes unknowingly.

One of the reasons that a leader can fail his people, ironically, is not knowing when to stay in the background.

“There are three ways a leader can bring disasters to his own army:

• Ordering an advance — when he does not realize the army is in no position to advance; or ordering a retreat — not realizing the army is in no position to retreat.  This is called entangling the army.
• Interfering with the army’s administration, when he is unaware of how an army is managed.  This leads confusion to the officers and troops.
• Commanding the army, when he is unaware of how to change with changes of situation.  This will lead to hesitation of the officers and troops.

When the army is confused and hesitant, the enemies will take advantage.  A confused arm surrenders its victory to others.”

– Sun Tzu Chapter 3 (translated by Soon Teo)

The five colors blind the eye.
The five tones deafen the ear.
The five flavors stale the palate.
The chase for preys deranges the mind, too much treasure impedes one’s growth.

The Master acts on what he feels not what he sees, so allows things to come and go.

Lao Tzu Te Tao Ching, 12

An airplane carrying excessive load is in danger of plunging from the air — even if it can take off the ground initially.

On your journey of life, check whether you are carrying excess baggage.

If you have, even it looks OK now, the danger of falling remains.

Do something about it.

Excess baggage adds burden to the plane you take.  Obviously you don’t want the risk.

Excess baggage adds danger to your journey of life as well.

Do not underestimate their impact.

Address the sources of excess baggage in life.  They are endless.

When you have a job, you want more money. When you have more money, and then even more money.

You forget the principles of gives and takes in life.  You want to spend more time with your loved ones, but you want to grab that contract in order to earn the big commission as well — even when you know that you cannot have both at the same time.

The result:  excess ‘baggage’ in your life.

In this way, you are adding more and more baggages to your life.

Eventually, the excess ‘baggages’ slow down your journey!  Worse still, they bring you down.

Do what the airlines do to you for your life journey: limit weight of the baggage.

This will help you to arrive at the destinations of your life journey in time.

Do not forget the simple logic of nature: The more you want, the less you get.

“Embrace simplicity.
Put others first.
Desire little.”

Lao Tzu Tao Te Ching 19

Niagara Falls are world wonders for their roaring water power.

A power that can only be possible when every drip of water moves together, towards the center of gravity.

To harness your potential, or that of the people around you, you need the same type of focus.

To achieve that focus?

Simplicity.

The line of reasoning can be confusing.  If you are in China, however, this is something that you’ll often hear.

You may, therefore, conclude that it not easy to negotiate with the Chinese.

It is part of the Chinese tradition, but the wisdom of leaving room for doubt is not necessarily bad.

Since we are limited by our knowledge and senses, whatever we think is right can be right — and for the same token, can be wrong.  Similarly, what we see it to be right cannot be completely right.

Only when we are broad minded enough to tolerate chaos and ambiguity, that we are ready to be dazzled and awed — by what we know and we do not know.

“ Tao is intangible and evasive,
Although intangible and evasive, in it there is form;
Although evasive and intangible, in it there is shape.
Although obscure and dark, in it there is vitality;
Its vitality is very genuine.
Within it we can find order.”              -  Tao Te Ching 21