Profundity

Occasionally I come across something I find interestingly profound or semi-profound. Lately I've been reading a fair amount of philosophy and/or theology, starting with the Bhagavad Gita and currently the Tao Te Ching, soon adding some of Morihei Ueshiba and Mitsugi Saotome's thought on aikido and Musashi Miyamoto's thought on kenjutsu.

So, reading Lao Tzu, this set recently stood out:

Sometimes you lead
Sometimes you follow
Sometimes you are stifled
Sometimes you breathe easy
Soemtimes you are strong
Sometimes you are weak
Sometimes you destroy
And sometimes you are destroyed.

Hence, the sage shuns excess
Shuns grandiosity
Shuns arrogance. (Tao te Ching, 29)