(Daochong or Ts’ao Tao-Ch’ung)
Mysterious Taoist nun during the Tang Dynasty, Cao Daochong walked in Lao Tzu’s footsteps of inscrutability and disregard for fame and fortune. Though unassuming and humble, her deep insight, wisdom, and compassion speak through the centuries through her book, the Lao-tzu-chu. Living during the time of the great Mahasiddhas in India, Naropa and a major transmission of Buddhism into Tibet, she was a contemporary of other great women teachers like Dharima, Manibhadra, Niguma, Arwa al-Sulayhi, Heloise, and Hildegard of Bingen.
Lineages
Taoist Trickster Women of Wisdom
Lao-tzu-chu, Red Pine Translation
“Although the ancient masters lived in the world, no one thought they were special.”
Chapters:
15. Inscrutability
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“When someone uses laws to restrict the world, might to compel it, knowledge to silence it, and majesty to impress it, there are always those who don’t follow. When someone rules by means of the Tao, the world follows without thinking.”
from Lao-tzu-chu, Red Pine Translation
Chapters:
54. Planting Well
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“First improve yourself, then reach out to others and to later generations bequeath the noble, pure, and kindly Tao. Thus blessings reach your descendants, virtue grows, beauty lasts, and worship never ends.”
from Lao-tzu-chu, Red Pine Translation
Chapters:
54. Planting Well
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“If we repay wrongs with kindness, we put an end to revenge. If we repay wrongs with wrongs, revenge never ends.”
from Lao-tzu-chu, Red Pine Translation
Chapters:
63. Easy as Hard
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“Stillness corresponds to nonexistence. Movement corresponds to existence. Provisionally different, they are ultimately the same. Both meet in darkness.”
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“The wealth that comes from giving generously is inexhaustible. The power that arises from not accumulating is boundless”
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“What is not alive is the basis for life. By equating life and death, we are no longer burdened by life and death.”
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