I was inspired by reading Austin Kleon’s post Two quotes to get this blog going once again. I love my daily Readwise quote reviews (642 day streak so far!). Sharing the quote combinations that strike me each day sounds like a great exercise. To start it off, we have an anchor to “mastery”.
Robert Greene’s The Daily Laws:
Daily Law: You must see your attempt at attaining mastery as something extremely necessary and positive.
Alan Watts, Cloud-Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown:
It is said to be “difficult” to master the art of Chinese writing, but this means only that the art must grow on you over many years. We use the word “difficult” for tasks which require extreme force or effort, and over which we must perspire, grunt, and groan. But the difficulty of writing Chinese with the brush is to make the brush write by itself, and the Taoists call this the art of wu-wei—which may be translated variously as “easy does it,” “roll with the punch,” “go with the stream,” “don’t force it,” or, more literally, “not pushing.”
I can appreciate Watts’ description of Wu Wei from my own ideal when cooking.
Daily Stoic, “If You Want to Be Powerful”:
You could be powerful right now, in your own life, in your own mind…if you decided to seize what was already yours. If you stopped giving your power away.
Relayed by Douglas Harding in The Science of the 1st Person:
ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS: That thou mayest know everything, seek to know nothing.
HUANG-PO: Only have no mind of any kind; this is known as undefiled knowledge.
