When the entire world recognizes beauty as beauty, this in itself is ugliness, When the entire world recognizes good as good, this in itself is evil. Indeed, the hidden and the manifest give birth to each other. Difficult and easy complement each other. Long and short exhibit each other. High and low set measure to each other. Voice and sound harmonize each other. Back and front follow each other.
Therefore, the sage manages his affairs without ado, And spreads his teaching without talking. He denies nothing to the teeming things. He rears them, but lays no claim to them. He does his work, but sets no store by it. He accomplishes his task, but does not dwell upon it. And yet it is just because he does not dwell on it Nobody can ever take it away from him
Some scholars believe that Lao-tzu, the ancient Chinese philosopher, was actually a group of people writing esoteric thought under that name. But most people still believe Lao-tzu was real. They believe one man wrote these incredible thoughts in China over 2500 years ago.
The stories we believe become truths over the years, even though they go through changes as they pass through each generation. We add certain associations and influences to them so they make more sense, or we discount them by deleting facts that don’t conform to the structure of certain core beliefs. These alterations become truths, and we defend them vehemently. Our lives are built on the changes we accept as truths.
So what is the truth, and where does it really live? Obviously we all have an answer, but that answer may not be true to someone else. Lao-tzu tells us to manage our truth without ado. He reminds us to live our lives, and not dwell on the truths of others. He believed Inner truth is the only truth that sets us free. All the other truths are stories we concoct to make us conform to one thing or another. Our stories help us remember where truth really lives, but we don't want to remember unchangeable truth until we feel the pull of our teeming things.
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