Aphorisms, Riddles, Miscellany

Everyone begins the Path by getting lost. Having found a road, we don't know where we go.

Masons multiply ruins; armorers multiply wounds; teachers multiply foolishness; lawyers multiply disorder; only a sage multiplies nothing, for he returns lost.

A sage is equal to an idiot: an idiot doesn't know he is an idiot; the same is true for the sage.

A dry pond is full of water.

I knew a historian who carefully wrote down all events in his notebooks. Then, a fire destroyed them all. So he began to cut all events in stone. Then, an earthquake destroyed all his steles. One day in the market, he met a blind singer who sang about events of days gone by. The singer was precise in relating all his histories' details. The historian became very shy—and then suddenly burst out laughing, for now, he had found the best way to record events.

A singer studied singing for a long time with the best masters, and achieved great skill; yet, when I hear a nightingale sing, my heart quivers with delight—and how many years did the nightingale study singing so that it could make my heart quiver? 

A toothless old woman laughs at a small child who has just gotten his first tooth, because she will never have a toothache again. What brings her joy?

If flies buzz above you, that means you are still alive. 

If you need a guide on the path, take a blind person.

The most profound storyteller is dumb.

A fly aiming for honey is easy to catch.

—©2001

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