TAO TE CHING - Chapter 31. Armies

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When Yang-shan Hui-chi (807-883), as a young monk, paid a visit to the Ch'an master
Hsing-k'ung, there was a monk who asked Hsing-k'ung:
-What is the meaning of the Patriarch's coming from the West?
Hsing-k'ung replied:
-Suppose... continue...

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TAO TE CHING - Chapter 31. Armies

Armies are tools of violence;
They cause men to hate and fear.
The sage will not join them.
His purpose is creation;
Their purpose is destruction.

Weapons are tools of violence,
Not of the sage;
He uses them only when there is no choice,
And then calmly, and with tact,
For he finds no beauty in them.

Whoever finds beauty in weapons
Delights in the slaughter of men;
And who delights in slaughter
Cannot content himself with peace.

So slaughters must be mourned
And conquest celebrated with a funeral.
End of TAO TE CHING - Chapter 31. Armies horizotal line

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