Hong Zicheng Quotes

20 Sourced Quotes

Regard others with cool eyes; listen to
words with cool ears; confront feelings
with cool emotions; reflect on principles
with a cool mind.

Hong Zicheng
Your mind must not be anything but
empty. When it is empty, justice comes to
dwell. Your mind must not be anything but
authentic. When it is authentic, worldly
anxieties cannot enter.

Hong Zicheng
The sun is setting and the evening clouds
are more colorful than ever. The year
is about to end and the oranges and
tangerines are all the more fragrant.
Thus noble persons in their old age
should all the more enliven their spirits
a hundredfold.

Hong Zicheng
The mouth is the portal of the mind. If not
carefully guarded, it leaks true intents and
motives. Feelings are the feet of the mind.
If not carefully watched, they will take you
onto all kinds of wayward paths.

Hong Zicheng
Whether time goes quickly or slowly is
all in the mind, just as the size of things
is in the mind's eye. A single day for
the person who knows leisure lasts ten
thousand ages, and a tiny room for the
broad-minded is really several chambers.

Hong Zicheng
In life, too much leisure produces
extraneous thoughts, and too much work
keeps you from your true nature. Thus you
cannot completely ignore worrying about
your own welfare, at the same time you
should not completely shun the pleasures
of leisure.

Hong Zicheng
Human nature is inconsistent and contrary. The path of life is rough and rugged. Where the going is difficult it is necessary to know how to withdraw a step. Where the going is easier, be inclusive in yielding portions of credit for your work.

Hong Zicheng
There is true literature in the mind of each of us, but it is entirely too scattered. Likewise there is true music, but seductive tunes and alluring dancing drown it out. Thus it is important for me to sweep away external things and search after the essential. Only in this way can I grasp my own authenticity.

Hong Zicheng
I am a miniature of heaven-and-earth.
When I am not astray in joy or anger,
and I regulate the pleasant and the harmful,
I conform to universal law. Heaven and
earth are the great father and mother.
Rather than causing dissension among
people or spreading the miasma of plagues,
I can be a model of intimate kindliness.

Hong Zicheng
Don't worry when things go against you.
Don't rejoice when your wishes are met.
Don't count on stability to last long.
Don't lose heart at early difficulties.

Hong Zicheng
Virtue is the master of talent, talent is the servant of virtue. Talent without virtue is like a house where there is no master and their servant manages its affairs. How can there be no mischief?

Hong Zicheng
You see the true realm of human life in
the peaceful breeze and in quiet waves.
You realize the original nature of the mind
in plain tastes and quiet talk.

Hong Zicheng
Fish swim in water but do not think about
water. Birds fly in the wind but do not know
about wind. Realizing this enables us to
rise above the burden of things and to take
delight in the ways of nature.

Hong Zicheng
If you think of how you looked when you
were born, or what you will be like after
you die, your myriad thoughts will turn
into cold ashes. With quiet recollection,
you can transcend the myriad things and
roam the world prior to their creation.

Hong Zicheng
When people are tethered to fame and fortune, they speak of the world as dust and the sea as bitter. They do not know of white clouds and clear wind, flowing rivers and majestic rocks, beckoning flowers and chirping birds, and the songs of woodcutters echoing in the valley. The world does not have to be one of dust and the sea one of bitterness,- it is you who mire yourself in the mud and belabor your mind.

Hong Zicheng
Human life is really a puppet show.
So long as I am in control, not a string
gets out of order, folding or unfolding.
I decide on movement or rest, not a bit
controlled by others. This is the way
to transcend this world.

Hong Zicheng
Water that is not agitated is naturally still.
A mirror that is not filmed over is naturally
clear. In the same way the mind need not
be purified. When you take away what
disturbs it, then its inherent purity is
manifest. Happiness is not something
to be sought. When you take away worries,
then naturally you know happiness

Hong Zicheng
Fishing is a pleasure of retirement, yet the angler has the power to let the fish live or die.

Hong Zicheng
Human affairs are like a chess game. Only those who do not take it seriously can be called good players.

Hong Zicheng
Desires that are just are termed Truth. Without desires, Truth cannot be understood.

Hong Zicheng