The perfect men of old took their road through charity, stopping a night with duty to their neighbour, on their way to ramble in transcendental space.

Excerpt

The perfect men of old took their road through charity, stopping a night with duty to their neighbour, on their way to ramble in transcendental space. Feeding on the produce of non-cultivation, and establishing themselves in the domain of no obligations, they enjoyed their transcendental inaction. Their food was ready to hand; and being under no obligations to others, they did not put any one under obligation to themselves. The ancients called this the outward visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.

Source Chuang Tzu, chapter 14, §8 · 📖 Read the full passage

✨ To meditate on today

According to Chuang Tzu, the sages of old seized nothing and held to only one thing: inner freedom, without attachments or needless business; it was this detachment that opened them to knowledge of the Principle. Today, notice something you keep or accumulate without real need (an object, a worry, a grudge) and let it go.

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