From time to time, I have read the Tao te Ching. It started when the book was assigned to me in my "critical thinking in the social sciences" class. At first, I thought it was more lame poetry or more doctrine. Yet, I have found it helpful. I was looking to give a diarist a good passage to read when I stumbled on this:

"When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.

Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn't possess,
acts but doesn't expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever."

(the she and he are interchangable)

I love the various messages within it. Judging is seen as creating a false duality. How things in life are (mostly) not objective but subjective. I absolutely love the idea of non-action as a means of influence. It ends nicely as it critiques the selfish ego and calls for just letting things be; as though you simply are doing God's (or nature's) will, not trying to make it more than it is.

I like this because not only does it work on a spiritual level, but is just as well on a psychological level.