It is not that you are capable of allowing them to do it to you but that you are incapable of preventing them. What use is it to you to have this effect on people, which is so incompatible with your own peace? If you insist of having an effect, it will unbalance your true nature and to no purpose.

Those who know that they have enough are wealthy.

Water takes whatever shape it finds itself in. It does not judge, it does not complain, it does not try to change things. It is the source of patience. Given time it can wear away stone. Be like water.

Rule a kingdom as if cooking a small fish,” he once told me. “If you interfere with it too much while cooking, it will fall apart and be inedible.

In the evening he would sit with me and help to calm my mind and train my breathing. We would sit for hours, exploring deeply the wonders of the inner world of Tao. He became my confidant, my teacher, my counsellor and the best friend I ever had.

Who can be still while the muddy water settles? Who can remain still until the time comes for action?

It is actually in not doing that we have achieved this wondrous thing, Sire. All we did was create the space for the painting to happen and let it paint itself.