the tao
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wisdom from the TAO FROM Master Deng Ming-Dao, author, teacher/
SELF-CULTIVATION
Daily self-cultivation is essential to following Tao. The negative residue of each day falls away, and the sacred energy of heaven and earth renew inside us. Virtue is the result. That is the moral and ethical character that the word implies, but it’s also a transformative power.
If we practice every day, then virtue radiates outward from us. Other people are cultivating themselves too, and these waves will intersect and build on each other. If you want a different life and a different world, then all you have to do is to cultivate yourself.
Daodejing, chapter 54:
Cultivate yourself, and virtue will be real.
Cultivate your family, and virtue will overflow.
Cultivate your village, and virtue will last long.
Cultivate your nation, and virtue will be abundant.
Cultivate the world, and virtue will be everywhere.
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Taoist internal alchemy. Woodcut illustration of the practice called "Nourishing and growing the sacred embryo," from Xingming guizhi (Pointers on Spiritual Nature and Bodily Life) by Yi Zhenren, 1615. Wellcome Images, London