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Sourness and bitterness come from the interfering and unappreciative mind. Life itself, when understood and utilized for what it is, is sweet. That is the message of The Vinegar Tasters.

Benjamin Hoff

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Benjamin Hoff
Age: 78
Born: 1946
Born: January 1
Author
Composer
Journalist
Photographer
Photojournalist
Writer
Oregon
United States
Bitterness
Message
Messages
Understood
Sweet
Utilized
Come
Interfering
Mind
Vinegar
Life
Interfere

More quotes by Benjamin Hoff

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We don't need to shift our responsibilities onto the shoulders of some deified Spiritual Superman, or sit around and wait for Fate to come knocking at the door. We simply need to believe in the power that's within us, and use it. When we do that, and stop imitating others and competing against them, things begin to work for us.
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The main problem with this great obsession for saving time is very simple: you can't save time. You can only spend it. But you can spend it wisely or foolishly.
Benjamin Hoff
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Now, scholars can be very useful and necessary, in their own dull and unamusing way. They provide a lot of information. It's just that there is Something More, and that Something More is what life is really all about.
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Enjoy the simple, the natural and the plain. Along with that comes the ability to do things spontaneously and have them work.
Benjamin Hoff
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Pooh is able to accomplish what he does because he is simpleminded.
Benjamin Hoff
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It means that Tao doesn't force or interfere with things, but lets them work in their own way, to produce results naturally. Then whatever needs to be done is done.
Benjamin Hoff
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Do you really want to be happy? You can begin by being appreciative of who you are and what you've got.
Benjamin Hoff
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Under Confucianism, the use of precisely measured court music, prescribed steps, actions, and phrases all added up to an extremely complex system of rituals, each used for a particular purpose at a particular time.
Benjamin Hoff
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Those who think that the rewarding things in life are somewhere over the rainbow 'burn their toast a lot,' said Pooh
Benjamin Hoff
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Inner Nature, when relied on, cannot be fooled. But many people do not look at it or listen to it, and consequently do not understand themselves very much. Having little understanding of themselves, they have little respect for themselves, and are therefore easily influenced by others.
Benjamin Hoff
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In the Age of Perfect Virtue, men lived among the animals and birds as members of one large family. There were no distinctions between superior and inferior to separate one man or species from another. All retained their natural Virtue and lived in a state of pure simplicity.
Benjamin Hoff
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If people were superior to animals, they'd take good care of them, said Pooh.
Benjamin Hoff
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As any old Taoist walking out of the woods can tell you, simple-minded does not necessarily mean stupid.
Benjamin Hoff
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Like silence after noise, or cool, clear water on a hot, stuffy day, Emptiness cleans out the messy mind and charges up the batteries of spiritual energy. Many people are afraid of Emptiness, however, because it reminds them of Loneliness.
Benjamin Hoff
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To Buddha, the second figure in the painting, life on earth was bitter, filled with attachments and desires that led to suffering.
Benjamin Hoff
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The play-it-safe pessimists of the world never accomplish much of anything, because they don't look clearly and objectively at situations, they don't recognize or believe in their own abilities to overcome even the smallest amount of risk.
Benjamin Hoff
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Lots of people talk to animals... Not very many listen, though... That's the problem.
Benjamin Hoff
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The major lesson Tiggers need to learn is that if they don't control their impulses, their impulses will control them. No matter how much they do, Tiggers are never satisfied because they don't know the feeling of accomplishment that eventually comes when one persistently applies one's will to the attaining of non-immediately-reachable goals.
Benjamin Hoff
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Things just happen in the right way, at the right time. At least when you let them, when you work with circumstances instead of saying, 'This isn't supposed to be happening this way,' and trying harder to make it happen some other way.
Benjamin Hoff
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I think, therefore I am confused.
Benjamin Hoff