So the unwanting soul
sees what's hidden,
and the ever-wanting soul
sees only what it wants.
- Ursula K. Le Guin, Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching. A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way.

. . .

This excerpt from Ursula Le Guin’s translation of the Tao Te Ching speaks to a central concept in Taoism and Zen Buddhism: the value of keeping one’s desires under control. Self-control is a central tenet of other belief systems too, for instance the ancient Greek philosophy of Stoicism.

The basic principle is that when we focus inwards on our wants and desires, we cease to see the world as it is, in its beautiful complexity. Focusing on the self is related even to thinking of oneself as a victim, and as life as unfair. The more obsessed we are with the notion that life should be perfect, that we should be able to move through life in a perpetual state of bliss, the more elusive and distant happiness becomes.

Life is suffering
The root of all suffering is desire.
- from the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism.

When the mind is stilled from its obsession with itself, and observant of the reality around us, we are see it for what it is, and are capable of only then of understanding it and the true nature of life.

To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.
- Lao Tzu

. . .

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