Tao Te Ching
Tao Te Ching
Chapter 69No Enemy
Chapter 69
The best military experts advise:
Retreat when not strong enough to advance,
Advance when your opponent not strong enough to attack.
March without moving,
Roll up your sleeves without flexing your muscles,
Be strong and powerful without weapons,
Give an attacker no opponent -
Nothing is worse than attacking what yields,
To attack and find no enemy.
Aggression destroys our greatest treasure.
When opponents are evenly matched,
The most compassionate prevails.
Commentary
“If you propose to speak always ask yourself, is it true, is it necessary, is it kind.”
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“Generals who advance with no thought of fame, who retreat with no fear of punishment, who think only of protecting their country and helping their king are the treasures of the realm.”
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“Love is all we have, the only way that each can help the other.”
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“If thou sustain injustice, console thyself; the true unhappiness is in doing it”
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“Mortals go to war so that they can inherit dust, their vision distorted by the lie that they value which is nothing.”
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“Those who are remorseful sympathize with their opponents. They try not to gain an advantage but to avoid injury. Hence, they always win.”
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“He that is kind is free, though he is a slave; he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king.”
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“Those who meet resistance with agreement, toil with relaxation pride with humility, and action with stillness have no enemy. Wherever they go, the conquer.”
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“No one is to be called an enemy, all are your benefactors, and no one does you harm. You have no enemy except yourselves.”
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“O night to me more splendid and more blessed than the most blessed and most splendid of days… you've made the bitter taste of this life sweet and dear.”
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“whichever one is remorseful and compassionate will win. For the Way of Heaven is to love life and to help those who are compassionate to overcome their enemies.”
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“Never take things against the grain… Everything has a smooth and a seamy side. The best of weapons wounds if taken by the blade, while the enemy’s spear may be our best protection if taken by the staff.”
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“If a person has compassion, they are a Buddha.”
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“There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved.”
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“There has never been a just [war], never an honorable one--on the part of the instigator of the war… Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked… and thus he will by and by convince himself the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.”
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“But the worst enemy you can meet will always be yourself.”
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“When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.”
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“Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.”
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“It’s embarrassing to tell you this, but it seems to come down mostly to just learning to be kinder.”
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“I cared more about the fundamental way of thinking that causes war. This is why I didn’t like the nationalists in Japan. Their view was very one-sided and unrealistic… They created tremendous problems.”
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“Now that man has acquired the physical means of self-obliteration, the question of peace obviously looms larger than ever before in human history. And how could peace be built without some assurance of permanence with regard to our economic life?”
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“The foundation of the Buddha's teachings lies in compassion, and the reason for practicing the teachings is to wipe out the persistence of ego, the number-one enemy of compassion.”
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“Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.”
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“It matters not who you love, where you love, why you love, when you love or how you love, it matters only that you love.”
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“Hell is merely the perception of your own aggression.”
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“One who desires victory over others perpetuates a cycle of resistance and violence that only decrease one’s likelihood of survival.”
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