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| "There is a being, wonderful, perfect; It existed before heaven and earth. How quiet it is! How spiritual it is! It stands alone and it does not change. It moves around and around, but does not on this account suffer. All life comes from it. It wraps everything with its love as in a garment, and yet it claims no honor, for it does not demand to be Lord. I do not know its name, and so I call it Tao, the Way, and I rejoice in its power." |
| Without going outside his door he knows everything under Heaven Without looking out of his window he sees all the ways of Heaven For the further the one travels the less one knows Therefore, the Sage arrives without going sees all without looking does nothing, yet achieves everything TaoTe King |
| If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come. -- Chinese proverb |
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| Once upon a time, I, Chuang Tzu, dreamed I was a butterfly flying happily here and there, enjoying life without knowing who I was. Suddenly I woke up and I was indeed Chuang Tzu. Did Chuang Tzu dream he was a butterfly, or did the butterfly dream he was Chuang Tzu? |
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| The Celestial Chinese Dragon is the symbol of the Chinese race itself. Chinese around the world, proudly proclaim themselves "Lung Tik Chuan Ren" (Descendents of the Dragon). Dragons are referred to as the divine mythical creature that brings with it ultimate abundance, prosperity and good fortune. The Chinese Dragon, or Lung , symbolizes power and excellence, heroism and nobility |
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| The Tao that can be expressed in words is not the absolute Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. From the nameless is the beginning of Heaven and Earth. The named is but the mother of the ten thousand creatures. Ever desireless, one can see the secret essnce. Ever desiring, one sees the manifestations. These two spring from the same source but differ in name; this appears as mystery. Where the mystery is the deepest is. The gate to all spirituality. |
| Among the ancients, knowledge was very deep. Then came men who labelled things .. when right and wrong where distinguished , Tao declined. With the fall of Tao, desire arose |
| All men look contented, as if enjoying the sacrificial feast or the spring festival. I alone am still, Like an infant before he gives sign of desire, before he learns to smile, I look forlorn and dejected, as though I belong nowhere. Others have enough and to spare, but I alone seem to have lost everything. Mine indeed is the mind of a fool. So dull am I. The world is full of people that shine, I alone am dark. They look lively and self-assured, I alone am depressed. I seem unsettled as the ocean Blown adrift, like the restless wind. Everyone else is busy, But I alone am aimless and rude. I alone am different from men. Yet, I prize the nourishing mother Tao. Lao Tzu |
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| Perhaps the most famous of all the dragon killers in these parts is St.George. In the Sufi tradition he is recognised as 'KHIDHR' ( The 'Green Man' - the Saint who has been given eternal life. The story of George and the dragon is clearly allegorical to slaying the lower self - the goal of the sufi. |
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| In astronomy, the dragon relates to the nodes, two diametrically opposed points of intersection between the paths of the moon and the sun. Its head is the ascending node, its tail the descending node. An eclipse can occur only when both sun and moon stand at the nodes. To the mystic, the dragon symbolizes the place of encounter b ' etween the moon and sun within. The dragon can either devour the moon, seen symbolically as the mystic's spiritual Heart, or it can serve as the place or container of conception. By entering the dragon when the sun is in the nodes, the moon or Heart conceives. Thus, in full consciousness of the perils, one must enter the dragon in order to await the eclipse in its cosmic womb. |
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