Lao Tzu: The Ancient Art of Wanting Less | The Philosophy of a Simple Life
The Ink Monk
165,298 views
🏺 Look around the room you are sitting in. Between three hundred and three thousand objects — and you paid for every one of them twice. Once with money, and once with the hours of your life you traded to earn that money. And you are still paying: in the space they take, in the cleaning, in the small tax of attention every object quietly collects from you for as long as you own it. Nothing you own is free. Everything you own also owns a piece of you.
🌫 Two thousand five hundred years ago, a man walked out of a collapsing empire carrying almost nothing. At the border, a guard asked him to write down what he knew before he disappeared into the mountains. He wrote eighty-one short chapters, and the world has never quite recovered. His name was Lao Tzu — and the life he described is not the life of a poor man. It is the life of someone who is no longer being carried by his own possessions.
🕯 In this contemplative journey through Taoist wisdom you'll discover why the real price of everything is paid in hours of your life, why desire is not a hole you fill but a hole that widens as you pour, why "the usefulness of the pot is the emptiness inside" is the most practical sentence ever written about a human life, and the old story of Zhuang Zi refusing an entire kingdom from a riverbank — because he knew exactly what the golden box costs. Then three practices you can begin tonight: subtract one thing a day, do one thing slowly, and finally define the word nobody ever defines — enough.
🍃 Take a slow breath. You are not empty. You are leaking. And no amount of pouring has ever mended a hole.
🌊 In this video: Taoism, minimalism, simple living, Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Zhuang Zi, the uncarved block, wu wei, contentment, letting go of possessions, slow living, enough, and the Taoist path of subtraction — ancient Eastern wisdom for a lighter, freer life.
🕯 Subscribe to The Ink Monk for slow, contemplative Taoist wisdom — one quiet walk at a time.
#laotzu #taoism #simpleliving #wuwei #philosophy #mindfulness #slowliving #peacefullife
20 Comments
I employ 14 people.
I’m grateful everyday for my simple life. I can do my work without anxiety or attachment.
I didn’t kicked her out but she removed herself of my life.
I have enough and I am content.
The question "How much do I have?" is easy. "How much of me does it have?" is the harder one.
That's where simplicity stops being a lifestyle choice and becomes a form of freedom. A very thoughtful reflection on Taoist wisdom.
Lao Tzu: The Ancient Art of Wanting Less | The Philosophy of a Simple Life
The Ink Monk
165,298 views
🏺 Look around the room you are sitting in. Between three hundred and three thousand objects — and you paid for every one of them twice. Once with money, and once with the hours of your life you traded to earn that money. And you are still paying: in the space they take, in the cleaning, in the small tax of attention every object quietly collects from you for as long as you own it. Nothing you own is free. Everything you own also owns a piece of you.
🌫 Two thousand five hundred years ago, a man walked out of a collapsing empire carrying almost nothing. At the border, a guard asked him to write down what he knew before he disappeared into the mountains. He wrote eighty-one short chapters, and the world has never quite recovered. His name was Lao Tzu — and the life he described is not the life of a poor man. It is the life of someone who is no longer being carried by his own possessions.
🕯 In this contemplative journey through Taoist wisdom you'll discover why the real price of everything is paid in hours of your life, why desire is not a hole you fill but a hole that widens as you pour, why "the usefulness of the pot is the emptiness inside" is the most practical sentence ever written about a human life, and the old story of Zhuang Zi refusing an entire kingdom from a riverbank — because he knew exactly what the golden box costs. Then three practices you can begin tonight: subtract one thing a day, do one thing slowly, and finally define the word nobody ever defines — enough.
🍃 Take a slow breath. You are not empty. You are leaking. And no amount of pouring has ever mended a hole.
🌊 In this video: Taoism, minimalism, simple living, Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Zhuang Zi, the uncarved block, wu wei, contentment, letting go of possessions, slow living, enough, and the Taoist path of subtraction — ancient Eastern wisdom for a lighter, freer life.
🕯 Subscribe to The Ink Monk for slow, contemplative Taoist wisdom — one quiet walk at a time.
#laotzu #taoism #simpleliving #wuwei #philosophy #mindfulness #slowliving #peacefullife