11 Quotes by Derek Lin

The blind pursuit of learning leads to excessive desires – the more you see, the more you want. Excessive desires, in turn, lead to anxiety and misery.

Channel your passion into lasting results.

Similarly, forcing your beliefs onto someone else damages your relationship. The damage may not be easy to spot at first, like tiny cracks in a wooden wheel, but it’s just a matter of time before the wheel splits apart.

Chuang Tzu’s message for us is not to completely discard books but to put them in their proper place by understanding the limitation of words. Reading a description of how to make wheels can never give you the skills you will gain by actually making them. Similarly, reading a book about the Tao can never give you the wisdom you will gain by actually living life.

Human beings have a tremendous need to have quiet time alone, to reflect upon life and reconnect with the soul.

The senior disciple is your creative mind, your ability to absorb knowledge, solve problems and invent new solutions. The second disciple is your ability to organize your world and channel your energy in constructive ways. The junior disciple is your social charisma – just as every organization needs some way to interact with the outside world, this organism known as you also requires an interface with other people.

Use the art of reduction in every aspect of life. The Tao is all about simplicity, so the Tao process is about subtraction rather than addition. Remove obstacles and complexity to unleash the power of your natural capabilities and to fully express your vast potential.

All living things are looking to gain an advantage for themselves, but the process also imposes a burden on them. Generally speaking, the potential gain right in front of you causes you to forget the potential disaster right behind you. The two are connected.” Chuang Tzu.

When taking care of a horse, what one must do is remove everything that is harmful to the horse in order to bring out the horse’s own natural vitality. The way to rule the empire is similar.