Resolve your mental energy into abstraction, your physical energy into action. Allow yourself to fall in with the natural order of phenomena, without admitting the element of self, and the empire will be governed.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Direct your mental energy to abstract planning and physical energy to action. Align with nature without selfishness, and governance follows naturally.
- In plain terms
- Plan in mind, act in body, follow nature.
- What can you take from it?
- Align self with natural order.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Do you act without ego?
- How do you balance thought and action?
Another view
Self interest can sometimes drive necessary action.
More from Zhuangzi
Perfect people have no self, spiritual people have no accomplishment, and sagely people have no name.
Permalink to quote #20 Rewards and punishments are the lowest form of education.
Permalink to quote #22 Our lives are limited, while knowledge is not. Pursuing the unlimited with the limited would be tiring. If you already knew that, it would be even more tiring.
Permalink to quote #19
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