Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of completing one's work and then allowing things to unfold naturally for a sense of peace.
Laozi suggests that by dedicating ourselves to our responsibilities and doing our work diligently, we should then take a step back and refrain from forcing outcomes. This practice allows for a sense of serenity to emerge, as we trust the process and let things develop in their own time, reflecting a deeper understanding of patience and acceptance.
In practice
In a meditation class, to encourage relaxation after a busy day.
If you understand others you are smart._x000D_ If you understand yourself you are illuminated._x000D_ If you overcome others you are powerful._x000D_ If you overcome yourself you have strength._x000D_ If you know how to be satisfied you are rich._x000D_ If you can act with vigor, you have a will._x000D_ If you don't lose your objectives you can be long-lasting._x000D_ If you die without loss, you are eternal.
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.
A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment.
In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing can surpass it.
Rule your mind with serenity rather than with force and manipulation.
Yet if a woman never lets herself go, how will she ever know how far she might have got? If she never takes off her high-heeled shoes, how will she ever know how far she could walk or how fast she could run?
The book, the college, the school of art, the institution of any kind, stop with some past utterance of genius. . . . They look backward and not forward. But genius looks forward: the eyes of man are set in his forehead, not in his hindhead: man hopes: genius creates. Whatever talents may be, if the man create not, the pure efflux of the Deity is not his; - cinders and smoke there may be, but not yet flame.
When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world, we lose connection with one another - and ourselves.
Perfectionism is a twenty-ton shield that we lug around thinking it will protect us when, in fact, it's the thing that's really preventing us from taking flight.
Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others.
The regret on our side is, they used to say years ago, we are reading about you in science class. Now they say, we are reading about you in history class.
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