This collection of Taoist texts has been compiled and edited by Julian F. Pas. In the preface, he states:

"Reading the Taoist wisdom texts is like wandering through our mystery rock garden. The variety of ideas one encounters resembles the infinite variety of flowers and plants spread around rocks and ponds: both inspire in us a sense of mystery and of oneness with a transcendent reality."

There are chapters on:

• The Mystery of the Tao and Its Power
• Cosmic Reality, Life and Death
• The Sage-Ruler
• Mystical Sparkles
• Taoist Moral Principles
• Language, Dreams and Utopia

Here are a few examples of the Taoist wisdom found on these pages:

• "What is difficult to obtain in the world is neither wealth nor honor. It is knowing contentment. What worries the people is the endless flow of desire."
— Ji Kang

• "Heaven is said to be empty,
Earth is said to be tranquil.
And so they do not waiver.
Clean out its dwelling.
Open its doors,
Relinquish selfishness,
Avoid speaking.
Then the numinous light will be as if present.
When one is confused it (the mind) seems chaotic.
Still it and it will naturally become ordered."
— Guanzi, 'Xinshu'

• "There was a man who lost his axe, and suspected the boy next door. He watched the boy walking: he had stolen the axe! His expression, his talk, his behavior, his manner, everything about him betrayed that he had stolen the axe.

"Soon afterwards the man was digging in his garden and found the axe. On another day he saw the boy next door again: nothing in his behavior and manner suggested that he would steal the axe."
— Liezii 8: 'Explaining Conjunctions' in The Book of Lich-Tzu, translation by A. C. Graham