Lao Tzu says: When man is born, he is tender and weak; at death,
he is hard and stiff. When things and plants are alive, they are
soft and supple; when they are dead, they are brittle and dry.
Therefore hardness and stiffness are the companions of death,
and softness and gentleness are the companions of life.
Therefore when an army is headstrong, it will lose in battle.
When a tree is hard, it will be cut down. The big and strong
belong underneath. The gentle and weak belong at the top. Life
is a river, a flow, a continuum, with no beginning and no end.
It is not going somewhere, it is always here. It is not going
from somewhere to somewhere else, it is always coming from here
to here. The only time for life is now, and the only place is
here. There is no struggle to reach, there is nothing to reach.
There is no struggle to conquer, there is nothing to conquer.
There is no effort to protect, because there is nothing to be
protected from. Only life exists, alone, absolutely alone,
beautiful in its aloneness, m