The world is sacred. It can’t be improved. If you tamper with it, you’ll ruin it. If you treat it like an object, you’ll lose it.
When man interferes with the Tao, the sky becomes filthy, the earth becomes depleted, the equilibrium crumbles, creatures become extinct.
Lao Tzu, in Tao Te Ching, Stephen Mitchell translation [Tao means roughly Creation, the universe, the Way.]
There is a time for being ahead, a time for being behind; a time for being in motion, a time for being at rest; a time for being vigorous, a time for being exhausted; a time for being safe, a time for being in danger.
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Stephen Mitchell translation
There’s a season for everything, a time for every matter under the heavens: a time for giving birth and a time for dying, a time for planting and a time for uprooting what was planted, a time for killing and a time for healing, a time for tearing down and a time for building up, a time for crying and a time for laughing, a time for mourning and a time for dancing, a time for throwing stones and a time for gathering stones, a time for embracing and a time for avoiding embraces, a time for searching and a time for losing, a time for keeping and a time for throwing away, a time for tearing and a time for repairing, a time for keeping silent and a time for speaking, a time for loving and a time for hating, a time for war and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, Common English Bible translation
What is a good man but a bad man’s teacher? What is a bad man but a good man’s job? If you don’t understand this, you will get lost, however intelligent you are. It is the great secret.”
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Stephen Mitchell translation
“I give you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you also must love each other.”
Jesus in John 13:34, Common English Bible translation
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
— Mahatma Gandhi
