Contentment Homepage

Amy | Anne | Billy | Bjork | Edie | Huckabees | India | Jack | Lao

Chapter 8

In dwelling, live close to the ground.
In thinking, keep it simple.
In conflict, be fair and generous.
In governing, don't try to control.
In work, do what you enjoy.
In family life, be completely present.

When you are content to be simply youself
and don't compare or compete,
everybody will respect you.

image of small stone statue of a Tao warrior on a Taoist temple in china

Flickr.com

Chapter 11

We join spokes together in a wheel,
but it is the center hole
that makes the wagon move.

We shape clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that holds whatever we want.

We hammer wood for a house, but it is the inner space that makes it livable.

We work with being, but non-being is what we use.

Chapter 15

Do you have the patience to wait
til your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving til the right action arises by itself?

The Master doesn't seek fulfillment.
Not seeking, not expecting,
she is present, and can welcome all things.

Top

Here you will learn about being content but learning is not being.

The Tao, or the way, describes a manner of being in life that does not push but rather takes a stance of non-being, non-doing, to get things done. Sound paradoxical? Of course! It wouldn't be classic Eastern philosophy then!

Non-being, non-doing sounds easy and passive but this is not true. It is the hardest thing for human being to accomplish. To keep the mind still, to truly engage in the moment is nearly impossible.

"A good athlete can enter a state of body-awareness in which the right stroke or the right movement happens by itself, effortlessly, without any interference of the conscious will. This is a paradigm for non-action: the purest and most effective form of action. The game plays the game; the poem writes the poem; we can't tell the dancer from the dance.

Less and less do you need to force things, until finally you arrive at non-action. When nothing is done,
nothing is left undone."

-from Tao Te Ching: Stephen Mitchell translation