Taoism · ≈5th–4th century BCE
Lieh Tzu
Classical Taoism · the line of Lie Yukou · Lieh Tzu · the Book of Perfect Emptiness
The one whom the wind carried. A teacher of naturalness for those still trying to fly by force of will.
The essence of the teaching: To live in accord with the Tao is to let things take their own course, without clinging to the outcome. When the reckoning of gain and loss falls away, so does fear, and then a person moves as freely as the wind carries a leaf.
Transmission
It was said of Lieh Tzu that he could ride upon the wind. Yet he confessed it himself: only once the line within him had worn away – between mine and another's, between gain and loss, between right and wrong – only then did the wind carry him like a dry leaf, and he no longer knew whether the wind bore him or he bore the wind. Do not wrench yourself from the current by force. Stop asking of each thing what it will give you – and things will cease to wound you. The one who holds nothing loses nothing. Naturalness is not something you attain; it is what remains when you let go of the striving to attain it.
The full transmission — for members of the School. Here is its essence and its taste.
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