And the mind will recover itself.
If the disturbances are both internal and external, then you will not even be able to hold fast to Tao, still less practise it."
"If a rustic is sick," said Nan Yung, "and another rustic goes to see him; and if the sick man can say what is the matter with him,—then he is not seriously ill. Yet my search after Tao is like swallowing drugs which only increase the malady.
Although really not so very far from Tao (sc. health) as evidenced by my being able to describe my complaint, which a man sick of some serious disease is scarcely able to do.
I beg therefore merely to ask the art of preserving life."
"The art of preserving life," replied Lao Tzŭ, "consists in being able to keep all in One,
Sc. Body and soul. See the Tao-Tê-Ching, ch. x, where this idea has been reproduced.
to lose nothing, to estimate good and evil without divination,
To know that each is bound up in the other.
to know when to stop, and how much is enough, to leave others alone and attend to oneself, to be without cares and without knowledge,—to be in fact as a child. A child will cry all day and not become hoarse, because of the perfection of its constitutional harmony.