Life Wisdom - By Words of Taoism
Oct 14, 2026 · 21 min · 8 segments
Inner peace is not an external calm that must be achieved by eliminating storms. It is like water that settles on its own when we stop stirring it. The wise show us what stirs it, and how that…
Chen LiHost
Every morning, the monks rake the gravel into fine parallel lines, which curve into circles around each group of stones as water ripples around a rock in a stream.
There are no flowers and no trees inside the enclosure, nor any path to walk along, so visitors take off their shoes and sit on the wooden veranda that runs along one side.
People come from all over the world to sit there, and most of them stay much longer than they intended, watching the light move across the gravel without knowing what they are waiting for.
From wherever you sit on the veranda, one of the fifteen stones is always hidden behind another.
You can move along the boards as often as you like, and a different stone disappears each time so that nobody from any seat has ever held the whole garden in a single glance.
What moves me about this place is that thousands of people cross the world to sit in front of some stones and raked gravel.
Most of us place that peace somewhere in the future, on the far side of whatever is troubling us now.
We will be at peace when the work project is finished, when the money worries ease, when the children are settled, when the difficult conversation has taken place, and when the medical results come back clear.
Then the project ends and another begins, and the worry that was occupying us gives way to a new one.
And the old sages understood this very well, which is why they looked for it elsewhere.
Every morning, the monks rake the gravel into fine parallel lines, which curve into circles around each group of stones as water ripples around a rock in a stream.
There are no flowers and no trees inside the enclosure, nor any path to walk along, so visitors take off their shoes and sit on the wooden veranda that runs along one side.
People come from all over the world to sit there, and most of them stay much longer than they intended, watching the light move across the gravel without knowing what they are waiting for.
From wherever you sit on the veranda, one of the fifteen stones is always hidden behind another.
You can move along the boards as often as you like, and a different stone disappears each time so that nobody from any seat has ever held the whole garden in a single glance.
What moves me about this place is that thousands of people cross the world to sit in front of some stones and raked gravel.
Most of us place that peace somewhere in the future, on the far side of whatever is troubling us now.
We will be at peace when the work project is finished, when the money worries ease, when the children are settled, when the difficult conversation has taken place, and when the medical results come back clear.
Then the project ends and another begins, and the worry that was occupying us gives way to a new one.
And the old sages understood this very well, which is why they looked for it elsewhere.
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