This week Ese’s Weekly Shoot & Quote Challenge topic is Direction.  I chose a Lao Tzu quote.  Hope you enjoy!

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading. – Lao Tzu

I decided to show people walking on the beach.  On most beaches there is no direct paths and people head in their own chosen directions.

Lao Tzu

Although ascetics and hermits such as Shen Tao first wrote of the ‘Tao’ it is with the sixth century B.C. philosopher Lao Tzu (or ‘Old Sage’ — born Li Erh) that the philosophy of Taoism really began. Some scholars believe was a slightly older contemporary of Confucius (Kung-Fu Tzu, born Chiu Chung-Ni). Other scholars feel that the Tao Te Ching, is really a compilation of paradoxical poems written by several Taoists using the pen-name, Lao Tzu. There is also a close association between Lao Tzu and the legendary Yellow Emperor, Huang-ti.

According to legend Lao Tzu was keeper of the archives at the imperial court. When he was eighty years old he set out for the western border of China, toward what is now Tibet, saddened and disillusioned that men were unwilling to follow the path to natural goodness. At the border (Hank Pass), a guard, Yin Xi (Yin Hsi), asked Lao Tsu to record his teachings before he left. He then composed in 5,000 characters the Tao Te Ching (The Way and Its Power).

Qi (energy) hugs,

Cee